Working Parents and the Welfare State: Family Change and Policy Reform in Scandinavia / Edition 2

by Arnlaug Leira

Overview

The mass entry of women into the labor market, the decline of the male breadwinner norm and the rise of the dual-earner family have all profoundly transformed the societies of the Western industrialized world. This book argues that childcare has become increasingly "defamilized" or collectivized as mothers have joined the labor market, causing significant impact on welfare policies. As a result, the complex relationship between family change and policy reform calls for a rethinking of the relationship between the welfare state, labor markets and working parents. Rather than concentrating on the changing models of motherhood, Leira advocates the need to consider the effects of the gendered division of work and welfare on fathers' opportunities to be supported as carers for children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521144971
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/24/2010
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: changes in the social order; 2. Politicising childcare; 3. Work, family and the welfare state: problems of reconciliation; 4. Parental leave: childcare refamilised; 5. From mother's wage to parental choice: cash benefits for childcare; 6. Childcare as a social right: family change and policy reform.

Editorial Reviews

"[Leira] makes an interesting distinction between the longstanding 'right' of the father t o'opt-out' of child-caring responsibilities against the equally long-standing tradition of mothers not having a right to exercise." Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

From the Publisher