How Welfare States Care

cover monique kremer_156x234mm:cover anke hassel 21-06-2007 14:16 Pagina 1 Monique Kremer Monique Kremer How Welfare States Care A social revolution has changed drastically the last decades. But they are still different across Europe. Welfare state scholars often presume that diversity Culture, Gender and Parenting and change in women’s employment across Europe is based on financial (dis)incentive structures embedded in welfare states. In other words: if changing welfare states in Europe childcare is available and affordable. Most mothers will work. How Welfare States Care How Welfare If tax and benefit schemes have no financial employment obstructions, most mothers will work. How Welfare States Care shows, by in depth analyses of 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 states (the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium) that this logic does not hold. A mother is not primarily the homo economicus welfare state scholars tend to presume. This book demonstrates that European women are more motivated by culturally and morally shaped ideals of care embedded in welfare states than by economic reality. Monique Kremer is research fellow at the Scientific Council for Government Policy, the Netherlands. “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 either social policy or cultural preferences can alone explain these patterns. Kremer 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 Amsterdam University Press 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 welfare 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 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, percentage 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 . Single breadwinner bonus in taxation for percent pw per year, , four countries . Marginal tax rates in the Netherlands, as percentage of the gross wage, including social security contributions, of the average pro- duction worker, -, the Netherlands . Proportion of female and male unemployed in receipt of unemployment benefits, , four countries . Men and women who receive unemployment benefi ts compared to the number of unemployed, November each year, Great Britain . Men and women who receive unemployment benefits compared to the number of unemployed,

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