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Pathways to gender equality: A configurational analysis of childcare instruments and outcomes in 21 European countries
Author(s) -
Lauri Triin,
Põder Kaire,
Ciccia Rossella
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12562
Subject(s) - qualitative comparative analysis , gender equality , legitimacy , politics , division of labour , public economics , set (abstract data type) , parental leave , quality (philosophy) , work (physics) , demographic economics , political science , economics , sociology , gender studies , market economy , mechanical engineering , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , epistemology , computer science , law , programming language , engineering
The ability to produce desired outcomes represents an important basis of the legitimacy of social policies. Nonetheless, policy outcomes have not systematically figured in the analysis of childcare regimes despite growing political interest in issues such as female employment, gender wage gap, and men's involvement in childcare. In this article, we use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate the relationship between the configuration of policy instruments, attitudes toward childcare and outcomes in 21 European countries. Our results show that there is only one mix of policy instruments consistently linked with positive gender equality outcomes and this route has the quality of the universal caregiver model. It also demonstrates that both a combination of policy instruments and favorable attitudinal factors are necessary to produce desirable outcomes in the gender division of paid work and unpaid childcare.