How Welfare States Care: Culture, Gender and Parenting in Europe (Amsterdam University Press - Changing Welfare States Series)

300 Pages·2007·0.97 MB·English

by  Monique Kremer

cover monique kremer_156x234mm:cover anke hassel 21-06-2007 14:16 Pagina 1
Monique Kremer
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A social revolution has changed drastically the last decades. But they are still e n
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different across Europe. Welfare state scholars often presume that diversity g Culture, Gender and Parenting
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and change in women’s employment across Europe is based on financial a
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(dis)incentive structures embedded in welfare states. In other words: if c
childcare is available and affordable. Most mothers will work.
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If tax and benefit schemes have no financial employment obstructions, most
mothers will work. How Welfare States Care shows, by in depth analyses of o
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women’s (and men’s) employment and care patterns as well as child care
services, taxation, leave schemes and social security in four different welfare
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states (the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium) that this logic does
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not hold. A mother is not primarily the homo economicus welfare state l
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scholars tend to presume. This book demonstrates that European women are a
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more motivated by culturally and morally shaped ideals of care embedded in
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welfare states than by economic reality.
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Monique Kremer is research fellow at the Scientific Council for t
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Government Policy, the Netherlands.
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“This book offers a theoretically innovative and empirically compelling analysis of women’s
and men’s participation in employment and care, rebutting the conventional wisdom that a
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either social policy or cultural preferences can alone explain these patterns. Kremer
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develops the concept of ‘ideals of care’ as an expression of the ‘cultural dimension of
welfare states’ to show how care and culture influence policy and everyday life.”
Ann Shola Orloff, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University, USA
isbn 978 90 5356 975 7
www.aup.nl
Amsterdam University Press
A m s t e r d a m U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s
how welfare states care
CHANGING WELFARE STATES
Processes of socio-economic change − individualising society and globalis-
ing economics and politics − cause large problems for modern welfare states.
Welfare states, organised on the level of nation-states and built on one or
the other form of national solidarity, are increasingly confronted with − for
instance − fi scal problems, costs control diffi culties, and the unintended
use of welfare programs. Such problems – generally speaking – raise the
issue of sustainability because they tend to undermine the legitimacy of the
programs of the welfare state and in the end induce the necessity of change,
be it the complete abolishment of programs, retrenchment of programs, or
attempts to preserve programs by modernising them.
Th is series of studies on welfare states focuses on the changing insti-
tutions and programs of modern welfare states. Th ese changes are the
product of external pressures on welfare states, for example because of the
economic and political consequences of globalisation or individualisation,
or result from the internal, political or institutional dynamics of welfare
arrangements.
By studying the development of welfare state arrangements in diff erent
countries, in diff erent institutional contexts, or by comparing developments
between countries or diff erent types of welfare states, this series hopes to
enlarge the body of knowledge on the functioning and development of wel-
fare states and their programs.
editors of the series
Gøsta Esping-Andersen, University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Anton Hemerijck, the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government
Policy (Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid − wrr)
Kees van Kersbergen, Free University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Jelle Visser, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Romke van der Veen, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
How Welfare States Care
Culture, Gender, and Parenting
in Europe
Monique Kremer
The publication of this book is made possible with a grant of the gak-
Foundation (Stichting Instituut gak, Hilversum).
Cover illustration: Anna Ancher, Pigen I køkkenet (Th e Maid in the kitchen),
1883 + 1886, Oil on canvas, 87,7 x 68,5 cm, Th e Hirschsprung Collection,
Copenhagen
Cover design: Jaak Crasborn bno, Valkenburg a/d Geul
Layout: V3-Services, Baarn
isbn 978 90 5356 975 7
nur 754
© Monique Kremer / Amsterdam University Press, 2007
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (elec-
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the
written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the
book.
Table of Contents
Tables 9

Acknowledgements 11
1 Introduction: Working Women and the Question of
Care and Culture in Europe 15
The Caring Dimension of Welfare States 17
The Cultural Dimension of Welfare States 19
The Empirical Study 22
Outline of the Book 24
2 Cinderella and Snow White Are Fairy Tales: Linking Care
and Citizenship 27
What is Care? 28
Rethinking Independence and Participation 32
Caring Rights and Duties: How Welfare States Care 39
Conclusion: Including Care in Citizenship 43
3 Policy or Culture? Explaining Women’s Employment
Differences in Europe 45
Welfare States Matter Most: The State as a Catalyst 45
Culture Matters More: The Modest Role of the State 61
Ideals of Care: Culture within Policy 70
Conclusion: Women’s Work, Welfare States, and Ideals of Care 82
4 Citizenship in Practice: Work, Care, and Income 85
Change and Diversity in Gendered Employment Rates 86
The Meaning of Part-time Work 92
When Women Become Mothers 97
Conclusion: Cross-national Differences in Work, Care, and Income 108
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5 The Right to Give Care: Tax, Social Security, and Leave 111
Fiscal Care 111
Rights to Care, Duties to Work: Social Security 121
Care Leave: For Women Only? 141
Conclusion: Financial Compensation for Caregiving 153
6 The Right to Receive Care: The State of Childcare Services 155
The Right to Childcare: Denmark 156
Flanders: From Necessary Evil to Approved Politics 162
The Netherlands: Taking a Jump 168
England: Lethargic but Finally on the Move 174
Conclusion: The Origins and Outcomes of Childcare
Policy 180
7 After Full-Time Mother Care: Ideals of Care in Policy 185
Denmark: The Ideal of Professional Care 185
Flanders: The ideal of Surrogate Mothers and
Intergenerational Care 192
The Netherlands: The Ideal of Parental Sharing 199
The United Kingdom: From Surrogate Mother to
Professional Care 207
Conclusion: Ideals of Care after the Full-time
Motherhood Norm 213
8 How Welfare States Work: Ideals of Care in Practice 215
Denmark: Professional Care 216
Belgium: A Mammoth Alliance of Mothers 217
The Netherlands: Surrogate Mothers 220
The uk: Intergenerational Care and Moving Away From
the Surrogate Mother 222
Policy, Practice, Preference 225
Ideals of Care and Citizenship 226
Conclusion: The Moral Impact of Welfare States 236
9 Conclusion: Care and the Cultural Dimension of Welfare States 239
Puzzles 239
The Welfare State as a Cultural Catalyst 241
Ideals of Care 243
Care Ideals and Citizenship 245
Origins of Welfare States 249
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ideals of Care and Policy Origins 250
Looking Through the Lens of Caring 252
Appendix I Governments in Belgium, Denmark,
The Netherlands and the UK 1980-2000 255
Appendix II List of Interviewees 259
Notes 263
References 265
Index of Names 293
Index of Subjects 295
TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Tables
. Models of care 
. Hakim’s () classification of women’s work-life preferences in
the twenty-first century 
. Gendered ideals of care 
. Male and female employment rates (as a percentage of working age
population), -, four countries 
. Female employment rates and the gender employment gap (between brack-
ets) by educational attainment, ages  to , year , four countries 
. Percentage of unemployed (m/f) as percentage of the labour force,
-, four countries 
. Part-time employment of women and mothers with children under age
six (as part of all women aged -), year , four countries 
. Perceived barriers to part-time work: all full-time employees, per-
centage of those who mentioned one or more of the following items
(multiple responses), four countries 
. Women’s employment rates by presence of children (aged -),
persons aged  to , percentage of persons working part time in
total employment, , four countries 
. Employment rate () for women with a child under age three, -
, four countries 
. Employment rates of lone mothers with a child under age six, -
, four countries 
. Households with at least one working partner, with one child, in
percentages, year , three countries 
. Childcare among parents living as couple with children up to age
six, hours and minutes per day, -, three countries 
. Woman’s share of income (personal net income) in couples, , in
percentages, four countries 
. Poverty rates for different household types, head of household of
active age, mid-s, four countries 
. Lone parent poverty, mid-s, four countries 
