A Comparison of Policies and Practices
Edited Ute Gerhard, Trudie Knijn and Anja Weckwert
Cheltenham, UK/Northhampton MA, USA: Edward Elgar 2005
ISBN 1 84542 244 9
Working Mothers in Europe combines comparative perspectives on social policies with analyses of mother’s practices as evidenced in macro data and as explored in country bases case studies. Social policy research has emphasised the impact of particular welfare systems and their policies on women’s integration into the labour market and the organisation of care and work. However, the authors argue that the policies are not the only factor, and, hitherto, we have very little knowledge of the precise interactions between social policies and social practices of individuals and families.
In order to accurately grasp cross-country variations of mother’s work and care arrangements in Europe, this book assembles a comparative approach towards welfare systems and social policies with an analysis of mother’s social practices in several European countries.
Exploring the ways in which working mothers manage to combine care responsibilities and paid work on the basis of diverse public and private resources, this book will be invaluable to academics, researchers and students interested in the social sciences. More generally, the book will greatly appeal to those with an interest in women’s employment, gender relations and the needs of children as matters that are tackled in the interaction between social policies and individuals.
Contents
List of Tables The Authors
- Introduction: Social practices and social policies Ute Gerhard, Trudie Knijn and Anja Weckwert
- Mothers between individualisation and institution:
Cultural images of welfare policy
Ute Gerhard - Caring for children: The logics of public action
Marie-Thérès Letablier and Ingrid Jönsson - Strategies, everyday practices and social change
Constanza Tobío and Rossana Trifiletti - Kinship and informal support: Care resources for the first generation of working mothers in Norway, Italy and Spain
Arnlaug Leira, Constanze Tobío and Rossana Trifiletti - Care packages: the organisation of work and care by
working mothers
Trudie Knijn, Ingrid Jönsson and Ute Klammer - Women’s participation in European labour markets
Mary Daly and Ute Klammer
Index