This refreshing volume introduces a theory for explaining cross-national differences in the social practice of women (and men) in the areas of family and employment. This provides a theoretical framework for the ensuing comprehensive cross-national analysis of the degree and forms of labour market integration of women in three European countries - Finland, West Germany and the Netherlands - from the 1950s until 2000. Cross-national differences are explained with a focus on cultural change ...

The COVID pandemic has shaken the material and social foundations of the world more than any event in recent history and has highlighted and exacerbated a longstanding crisis of care. While these challenges may be freshly visible to the public, they are not new. Over the last three decades, a growing body of care scholarship has documented the inadequacy of the social organization of care around the world, and the effect of the devaluation of care on workers, families, and communities. In ...

ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.This book brings together leading international authors from a number of fields to provide an up-to-date understanding of part-time work at national, sector, industry and workplace levels. The contributors critically examine part-time employment in different institutional settings across Europe, the USA, Australia and Korea.This analysis serves as a prism to investigate wider trends, particularly in female employ...

Providing a comprehensive analysis of comparative gender difference in the EU, this book addresses a spectrum of gender issues. From employment and households, to culture, sexuality and male violence, the book transcends any 'economy/culture' divide. This wide coverage is placed within a conceptual view of structured 'gender cultures' which vary spatially and historically. Individual chapters are written around this common theme by an expert board of international contributors, drawn from ...

The Handbook examines contemporary trends and issues in the formation of families over the different stages of the life cycle and how they interact with family-oriented social policies of modern welfare states, mainly in the OECD countries of Western Europe, East Asia and the U.S. Focusing largely on family needs in the early stages of the life course, the conventional package of policies tends to emphasize programs and benefits clustered around measures to support marriage, childbearing, ...

Informal work – family care, voluntary work, and undeclared or unregulated work – is a critical form of labor in today’s economy, yet remains underanalyzed and examined. This volume develops a comprehensive conceptual framework of informal work and analyses systematically the relationship of formal and informal work. Using a coherent theoretical and methodological approach, this volume explores informal and formal work in six countries and contributes to our empirical knowledge of informal...