Reconciliation of work and family life in Europe: A case study of Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom

Abstract

European Union institutions as well as member states are embracing welfare policies that support reconciliation of work and family life as a means of solving problems of low fertility and gender inequality, and they do so unanimously within a welfare mix approach. Hence, viewing the social policy rhetoric, everything points to a convergence of European welfare models towards a mixed economy of welfare. However, analysing the everyday experiences of families with young children in four European cities leaves the impression of a continuation of past differences. In 1998/1999 no deviation from the traditional welfare and family policy models could be traced in Roskilde (Denmark), Nantes (France), Mannheim (Germany) and York (the United Kingdom).

Acknowledgements

Generous help with this study was received from Denis Bouget, Université de Nantes, Thomas Bahle, Universität Mannheim and Jonathan Bradshaw, University of York. the work of our research assistants, Isabelle Kaufmann, Claus Wendt, Christine Skinner and Gritt Bykilde, was also invaluable. The whole study, which also included Umeå in Sweden, is reported in Abrahamson et al. (2005). Detailed studies of parts of the data are reported in Skinner (2003), Wendt and Maucher (2000, 2004), Almqvist (2005).

Notes

1. Research Reports are available at http://www.ruc.dk/ssc/forskning/projekter/welfare_and_solidarity/.

2. “People will always have children” (quoted in Kaufmann 1996: 15).

3. None of the names used here are the real names of the respondents.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Abrahamson

Peter Abrahamson is Professor of Sociology at University of Copenhagen. Currently he is a visiting scholar at Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales while conducting field work in Central America 2006–2008. His research revolves around comparative studies of welfare state and social citizenship development. He is co-author of Welfare and Families in Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), a comparative study of work and family life in five European countries.