Care-work policies: conceptualising leave within a broader framework

The chapter offers a theoretical link between the arena of welfare policies and the wider configuration of socio-economic and institutional frameworks within which the different welfare regimes are placed. The central argument is that Parental Leave policy must be conceptualised within a broader framework concerning care-work policies and cultural ideas over care tasks. In line with this conceptualisation, we propose a model based on structural and cultural dimensions. Structural dimensions considered in the model include: Leaves (Maternity, Paternity, Parental), childcare services (0-3 years and 3-6 years), the relationship or gap between leave and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) entitlements, occupational welfare, and family structures (e.g. children living with two parents). Cultural dimensionsdimenions include levels of gender inequality and intergenerational solidarity orientation. Considering these six dimensions we focus on four countries, namely Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK. These countries recall well-established regimes and allow comparable data providing at the same time interesting variations in terms of both broad societal context and Leave systems. From our analysis we highlight how Germany and Sweden seem more similar than in established welfare regime models, while Italy and the UK are in contrast similar in terms of their Parental Leave models, whilst showing many differences in relation to the other social actors involved in providing welfare goods. In Italy, the family is the main care provider, while in UK we are witnessing of the emerging role of occupational welfare actors as care providers.