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Parental Leave and Gender Equality: Lessons from the European Union
Author(s) -
HAAS LINDA
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/1541-1338.d01-6
Subject(s) - parental leave , european union , gender equality , political science , child care , member states , economic growth , sociology , gender studies , economics , international trade , work (physics) , medicine , nursing , mechanical engineering , engineering
This article describes the development of European Union parental leave policy and its impact on mothers’and fathers’access to parental leave in the individual nations that make up the union. Cross‐national variations in parental leave policy are described and analyzed. Although the 15 countries belonging to the EU in 2002 are concerned about helping working parents reconcile employment and family responsibilities, so far, only one—Sweden—has begun to develop a parental leave policy likely to facilitate men's and women's sharing of responsibility for breadwinning and child care.