Towards an integrated approach for the analysis of gender equity in policies supporting paid work and care responsibilities

Abstract

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for analysing the degree to which public policies support gender equity in paid work and care. Combining the distinction between commodification and decommodification and the distinction between defamilialisation, supported familialism, and familialism by default our study identifies a number of relevant policies, ranging from services, leave entitlements, income support measures, and fiscal instruments to forms of acknowledgement of care work in pension systems. Although our main objective is conceptual, we offer a comparative overview of these policies for all of the EU countries, plus Norway. Thus, we provide a preliminary typology of policy approaches.