The Polish Law and Justice party has initiated domestic policies and regulations that challenge women’s rights. Poland is a member of the European Union where the gender inequality issues have never had such a high priority before and the union is currently operating under the Gender Mainstreaming strategy alongside with additional approaches. The two folded aim of this thesis is to create an understanding on how the Polish politicalauthorities can present backsliding tendencies of women’s rights by studying how thedomestic political institutions frame gender equality policies and Gender Mainstreaming followed by how the Polish political agents can legitimize the framings and implementations to the Polish society through the public discourse. A qualitative discourse analysis will be applied on materials from the EU, Polish politicalprograms and secondary sources such as news articles. The empirical findings suggest that the backsliding is part of a non-linear process where the Polish framing and implementation of policies on gender equality both converge and diverge from the EU. In the latest years, an incremental process of backsliding tendencies has appeared. As for the political discourse, the gender equality policies often end up in the background, overruled by pro-family policies. Also, the inadequate implementations and domestic framings is legitimized by the referencesto the foundational ideas of Polish society, where the EU challenges the traditional familywith “harmful gender ideologies”.

The aim of the thesis is to understand why European countries show a very different picture of female employment (in their fertile ages) which is not the case for men of the same age. We shed light on the various positions of countries in this framework of earner-carer models, in analysing policy designs, policy outcomes and policy determinants. That is, respectively, family policy indicators, employment of mothers and childless women, gender role attitudes and their interacting effect with policies and employment outcomes. We have used a wide range of primary or secondary quantitative and qualitative data to carry out our comparative analysis, mixing approaches, techniques and methods, from micro-econometric models to macro-level harmonised indicators, supplemented with a case study. The dissertation is divided in three parts, each focusing on one question: (i) Are there complementarities or distinctions between types of family policies across Europe, as regards gender equality and dual-earner friendliness, and how can we compare different policy settings as they are found to be very heterogeneous? (ii) To what extent can institutional settings explain cross-country differences in female employment outcomes, and especially those of mothers, in a context of decreasing fertility? (iii) Do individual preferences counteract (or reinforce) the policy impact on employment in connexion with the prevalence of traditional gender role attitudes? Results show that the institutional variation across countries explains a great deal of differences in female employment, especially for mothers. If policies are not supportive of the dual-earner model, even those women who have a stronger preference for labour market attachment face obstacles that reduce their employment opportunities in the presence of young children. However, even in countries where a somewhat dual-earner friendly model is favoured, our detailed analysis of policy instruments reveals that gender equality is still far from being achieved.

Die Magisterarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der politischen Förderung der geringfügigen Beschäftigung sowie der Inanspruchnahme haushaltsnaher Dienstleistungen und deren Bedeutung für eine gleichstellungsorientierte Familien- und Arbeitsmarktpolitik. Als Ausgangspunkt wird die Frage gestellt, ob geringfügige Beschäftigung und haushaltsnahe Dienstleistungen einen Arbeitsmarkt für Frauen im Niedriglohnsektor schaffen oder ob sie eine Perspektive zur besseren Vereinbarkeit von Erwerbsarbeit und Carearbeit bieten. Dazu wird die Perspektive der Beschäftigten in sogenannten Minijobs als auch der NutzerInnen haushaltsnaher Dienstleistungen analysiert. Als theoretischer Rahmen liegt der Arbeit die These der geschlechterkritischen, vergleichenden Wohlfahrtsstaatforschung zugrunde, dass Policies familialisierende und defamilialisierende Wirkungen haben können. Auf Grundlage dieses Rahmens werden zwei Gesetze und deren gleichstellungspolitische Wirkung analysiert (Familienleistungsgesetz und 2. Gesetz für moderne Dienstleistungen am Arbeitsmarkt – Hartz II). Die Arbeit gelangt zu dem Ergebnis, dass trotz der engen Verflechtung der beiden Politikfelder Arbeitsmarkt- und Familienpolitik ein Mismatch zwischen den analysierten Gesetzen besteht. Insbesondere hinsichtlich der geringfügigen Beschäftigung gelangt die Arbeit aus einer gleichstellungspolitischen Perspektive zu dem Urteil, dass sie sich am modernisierten Ernährermodell orientiert und Frauen auf die Rolle als Zuverdienerin festlegt. Auf diese Weise werden Anreize für eine geschlechterspezifische Arbeitsteilung gelegt. / The M.A. thesis deals with current political reforms in the field of family and employment policies. The main question of the analysis is if employment in household and care services is helping to better facilitate work and life balance of women or if they are merely creating feminized jobs in the low wage sector. Based on theories of feminist welfare state research, the policy analysis is looking at recent legislation in Germany promoting employment of domestic workers on the one hand and on the other hand combating irregular employment in private households („Hartz II“, a labour market reform promoting service sector jobs and „Familienleistungsgesetz“ a family policy reform). Focusing on the macro-level the author raised the key question how labour policies regulated domestic work and care work. The analysis concentrates on the objectives of the two recent laws, their implementation and concrete outcomes as well as the political debate. Therefore data from the German employment bureau and the Federal Statistical Office is analysed. Since domestic work mostly affects women - be it as domestic workers to earn a living, or be it as their employers in order to facilitate work and family life – a perspective that allowed investigating the gender equality in Germany is adopted. Therefore the thesis focused not only on domestic workers but also on their employers. In Germany employing domestic workers has become an individual female solution for a general societal problem, the still difficult reconciliation of work and family life.

Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjama šeimos politika ir jos įgyvendinimo Lietuvoje vertinimas. Baigiamąjį darbą sudaro dvi dalys. Pirmoje dalyje nagrinėjama šeimos politika teoriniu aspektu. Apžvelgiami šeimos politikos principai tarptautiniuose dokumentuose ir šeimos politikos ypatumai įvairiose šalyse. Antroje baigiamojo darbo dalyje pristatomas Šeimos politikos ir jos įgyvendinimo Lietuvoje tyrimas. Pagrindinis tyrimo tikslas - išanalizuoti šeimos politiką ir jos įgyvendinimą Lietuvoje, remiantis Plungės rajono savivaldybės atveju. Tyrimo eigoje siekta nustatyti labiausiai vertinamas paramos šeimai formas, įvertinti finansinę paramą ir Plungės miesto organizacijų veiklą, įgyvendinant šeimos politiką. Tyrimo rezultatai rodo, kad gyventojai nėra patenkinti valstybės vykdoma veikla ir šeimos politikos įgyvendinimą vertina blogai. Daugumos gyventojų netenkina Plungės organizacijų veikla, įgyvendinant šeimos politiką. / Bachelor thesis examines family policy and its implementation in Lithuania rating. Thesis consists of two parts. The first part deals with theoretical aspects of family policy. A reviewing of the principles of international family policy and family policy features in different countries. In second part is presented family policies and their implementation in Lithuania investigation. The main purpose of investigation is to examine family policy and its implementation in Lithuania, using Plunge district municipality ase. During the investigation of the study was determined the most valued forms of family support, financial support and Plunge organizations actions in the implementation of family policy. The survey shows that people aren`t meet with states activities and family policies actions assess in bad way. Most people aren`t satisfy with Plunges organizations actions in the implementation of family policy.

This thesis aims to estimate the macroeconomic impact of maternity and parental/paternal leave in the Czech Republic and Brazil. In addition, the thesis stresses out the costs of Czech model application to Brazil and vice-versa. The first chapter brings a theoretical framework. It compares the analyzed policies in both countries and introduces the relevant terms. The second chapter estimates the costs of maternity and parental/paternal leave related to public expenditure and GDP for the years 2005-2014 and brings own simulation model for Czech model application to Brazil and vice-versa. The third chapter analyses the inefficiencies and suggest possible mitigation. The results show the costs of 0.71% of GDP and 1.66% of public expenditure in the Czech Republic and 0.50% GDP and 2.27% of public expenditure in Brazil in 2014. The Czech model applied in Brazil would be very costly and the opposite scenario would lead to the decrease of macroeconomic burden in the Czech Republic. The thesis also analyzes the influence of maternal and parental leave in other areas, such as labor market, where the current structure may penalize Czech women in long term. By this analysis, the thesis contributes to the current debate about the impact, the length and costs of maternity and parental leave.

Childbearing is often associated with employment interruptions in women’s careers. Since 2005, the German federal government has implemented childcare reforms aiming at expanding the suitable infrastructure for children under the age of three, which should facilitate and accelerate the return to employment. The reforms have been a paradigm shift, because they show a shift from a traditional breadwinner family model to a dual earner-carer model. Despite federal leadership in childcare reforms, the characteristics of the care infrastructure in Germany vary by state and over time, which may contribute to different employment-interruption lengths. The study at hand evaluates Germany’s recent childcare reforms regarding the impact on maternal employment by examining relationships between childcare-characteristics -namely quality and availability- and mothers’ employment interruptions. A piecewise-constant exponential model is used to capture the cross-state and over time differences in childcare and their impact on the timing of women’s return to employment within the first three years after birth of their first child. The study uses individual data from the Pairfam 10.0 study and childcare indicators, which are collected by the federal and state’s statistical bureaus. The risk population includes 927 first-time mothers who gave birth between March 2006 and March 2018. Within this period, 525 first-time mothers return to employment within the first three years after childbirth.   A significant positive effect of the childcare reform on maternal employment is revealed. Both the availability expansion and the quality improvements are associated with earlier returns to employment, establishing both institutional and cultural effects of childcare policies. An educational gradient of the effect of childcare quality on maternal employment was tested, but the results were not significant.

En France, les politiques de conciliation travail-famille reposent principalement sur le développement de modes de garde institutionnels. Les grands-parents continuent pourtant d’occuper une place importante dans les arrangements quotidiens des familles. Comment expliquer leur implication dans la garde des jeunes enfants ? En alliant sociologies de la famille et de l’articulation des temps sociaux, et en croisant méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives, cette thèse s’intéresse aux bricolages des parents au quotidien pour articuler vies familiale et professionnelle, à travers l’étude du cas limite qu’est le recours à l’aide des grands-parents. Cette thèse met l’emphase sur deux logiques. 1) S’il existe une norme de bonne grand-parentalité qui règle la façon dont les grands-parents s’impliquent dans la garde de leurs petits-enfants, celle-ci émane des catégories sociales supérieures et n’est pas intériorisée de façon homogène dans tous les milieux sociaux. Les stratégies éducatives des parents et les attentes vis-à-vis des grands-parents diffèrent selon l’origine sociale. 2) Les contextes professionnels, familiaux et institutionnels jouent comme des contraintes et des opportunités qui influent sur les arrangements quotidiens des parents et les conduisent à infléchir leurs stratégies éducatives quant à l’implication des grands-parents. L’analyse de l’articulation de ces logiques permet d’identifier quatre types de garde grand-parentale : dépannage, routine, intensif et loisirs. Cette thèse montre enfin la corrélation entre développement des enfants et garde grand-parentale, invitant à penser cet objet comme un ensemble diversifié de pratiques vectrices d’inégalités sociales. / In France, work-family policies rely mainly on the development of formal childcare. Yet grandparents still have an important role in the daily arrangements of families. How can this involvement of grandparents be explained? By allying the contributions of the sociology of the family and the studies on work-family reconciliation, and based on the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this thesis examines to what extent the efforts of parents to articulate professional time and family aspirations are often stopgap solutions made on a daily basis. The use of grandparental childcare is a case study for such analysis.This thesis focuses on two logics. First, while there is a norm of what is good grandparenting that determines the way grandparents should get involved in childcare, it originates from the upper-classes and is not homogeneously internalized in all social categories. Parents' educational strategies and expectations regarding grandparents differ according to their social background. Second, professional, family and institutional contexts act as constraints and opportunities that influence parents' daily arrangements and lead them to modify their educational strategies as to the degree and forms of grandparents' involvement. The analysis of the articulation of these logics makes it possible to identify four types of use of grandparents for the care of young children: temporary fix care, routine care, intensive care and leisure care. This thesis also shows how grandparent involvement affects child development. It invites us to consider grandparental childcare as a broad set of practices through which inequalities can be transmitted.

台灣五大會計師事務所審計部門的從業人員長久以來一直是女性多於男性，每年新進的人員亦以女性居多，然而在高階職位上卻是男性遠多於女性。換言之，若女性審計人員在事務所裡沒有遭受任何升遷上的障礙，以每年新進人員女性多於男性的情況比例計算，在高階職位上女性的人數亦應多於男性，然而真實的情況卻正好相反。故本研究參考之前研究者的研究發現，彙總出台灣五大會計師事務所女性審計人員可能面臨到的升遷障礙，包括性別歧視、性騷擾、家庭與工作衝突和缺乏良師益友（mentor）等，以問卷調查方式蒐集實證資料，並進行統計分析。另外，本研究詢問研究對象所知的審計人員離職原因以及五大會計師事務所現行的工作場所家庭政策，以了解男性與女性審計人員在離職原因上有無差異和事務所提供的家庭福利政策，得到的結果如下： 1.性別歧視：不管從性別、職位和事務所別的角度來看，受試者均趨向於不同意女性審計人員遭受到性別歧視；而在參加選修課程與社交活動的情形上，男性與女性亦沒有顯著的差異。 2.性騷擾：曾經遭受性騷擾的受試者雖然皆為女性，然而僅有12位，比例為8.43%，比之前的研究低許多。 3.工作與家庭衝突：已婚女性比已婚男性感受到較大的衝突程度，而且家中若有生活無法自理、需要特別照顧的家人或小孩的女性，其衝突程度會比沒有需要特別照顧的家人或小孩的女性來得高。反觀已婚的男性受試者，不管家中有無需要特別照顧的家人或小孩，其工作與家庭衝突的程度並沒有顯著的差異。 4.女性缺乏mentor：女性擁有mentor的比例與男性相同；相同職位的男性與女性擁有mentor的比例亦相似。而且深入分析後發現，女性與男性的mentor，在職位上的差異不大，且擁有mentor的女性受試者，對mentor所能提供協助的同意程度，與男性受試者差異不大。 5.離職原因：女性因為「結婚生子」而離職排名第4，為其主要離職原因，男性則否。衡量性別歧視的「升遷機會受限」，則非男女審計人員的主要離職原因。 6.工作場所家庭政策：五大會計師事務所皆有提供產假與留職停薪這兩項福利政策，然而，較具彈性的「半職（part-time）」只有兩個事務所提供；「彈性上班時間」只有一個事務所提供，顯示目前五大事務所的工作場所家庭政策仍不夠多元。 綜上所述，本研究所探討的四個女性升遷障礙：性別歧視、性騷擾、工作與家庭衝突和缺乏mentor等，僅有工作與家庭衝突得到支持。因此在沒有進一步地證據支持另外三項升遷障礙前，工作與家庭衝突似乎是目前五大會計師事務所女性審計人員所共同面臨到的升遷問題，故會計師事務所管理當局應提供更多元的工作場所家庭政策，以降低女性審計人員的工作與家庭衝突。

The aim of the thesis is to understand why European countries show a very different picture of female employment (in their fertile ages) which is not the case for men of the same age. We shed light on the various positions of countries in this framework of earner-carer models, in analysing policy designs, policy outcomes and policy determinants. That is, respectively, family policy indicators, employment of mothers and childless women, gender role attitudes and their interacting effect with policies and employment outcomes. We have used a wide range of primary or secondary quantitative and qualitative data to carry out our comparative analysis, mixing approaches, techniques and methods, from micro-econometric models to macro-level harmonised indicators, supplemented with a case study.<p>The dissertation is divided in three parts, each focusing on one question:<p>(i)\ / Doctorat en sciences de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished