Parenting and Democracy in Contemporary Europe
Edited by David G. Mayes and Mark Thomson
Chapter 2: Social regimes and gender equality: childcare in the EU
Since the mid-1990s, the European Union has recognised, particularly through its European Employment Strategy, that promoting ‘equal opportunities at work’ has not in itself been sufficient to raise female employment levels or pay across the EU (Duncan, 2002). Women remain less likely to be in paid work and, when they are employed, earn significantly less than men despite the enactment of European hard law, or directives, in the 1970s on equal pay for men and women, and on equal treatment in access to employment, vocational training and promotion.1 They are also more likely to work part-time, often as a way to balance work with family life, and frequently for less pay and fewer employment benefits. Women are, as a result, more at risk of poverty and tend to receive lower pensions in retirement. This chapter looks at one of the main causes of gender inequality in the labour market, the care of infants and young children. Although families today share household duties more equitably, and in this regard the decisions taken within the family unit appear more democratic, they still tend to revert to traditional gender roles when it comes to childcare in the home.
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