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What impact do family policies have on women's ability to have a family and participate in the labor market? Drawing on two cases, Japan and Sweden, I will identify different patterns of family policies' impact on fertility rates and women's participation in the labor market. Comparing the countries of Japan and Sweden, I ask how family policies influence choices about family and work life. Within this context, I will highlight the similarities we can find in both countries. Japan and Sweden are both industrialized nations with highly- developed economic structures and people enjoy high living standards. In both countries, we can also find similar elements of family policy. The three types of policies I study, (child allowances, parental leave legislation, as well as the establishment and expansion of childcare institutions) exist in both countries. At the same time, Japan and Sweden differ in the historical patterns of family roles reflected in each country's family policy framework. Due to these particular differences, the two countries show different outcomes concerning fertility rates and women's labor market participation. In my paper, I will closely examine the relationship between the existing circumstances and women's decisions in this context. / Master of Arts

Summary: Development and the current form of family policy in the Czech Republic In my diploma thesis focused on the topic "Development and the current form of family policy in the Czech Republic," I attempted for description and characteristic of a family policy by using its specific tools. The initial chapter I dedicated to the definition of important terms, with which I further work. I'm focused on the concept of the family, family policy, system and concept of family policies in general, and with their help I define a particular system of family policy in the Czech Republic. In this chapter, I paid attention to the various forms of family life and their mutual comparison. The reason for this were differences in application of the family policy to various forms of cohabitation with regard to certain cases and social situation. The initial chapter I finish off with looking back and re-evaluating specific demographic behaviour of the Czech population. The next two chapters are devoted to the structure, description and effects of family policy tools. I characterize direct and indirect financial tools and then non-financial tools of family policy. Non-financial instruments are evaluated in connection with their application in the field of harmonization of family and professional roles, and in a separate...

Diploma thesis Local Family Policy deals with family support provided by municipalities and other institutions on the local level. The thesis is based on the assumption that in the society there should be a family-friendly environment, which supports them and appreciates their effort. The local level of local family policy is very important for creating such an environment. Next assumption of the thesis is that policy measures take effects not only instrumentally, but great parts of their effect are also symbolical messages sent towards target groups. The thesis focuses on a quick analysis of stakeholders, who intervene into local family policies, describes main activities of municipalities in the field of family policy, identifies the best practice models and analyses existing barriers. In the next part follows an assessment of local family policy from the view of characteristics of a good local family policy, on which most of the experts agree on. Documents, semi structured and informal interviews and involved observation were used as data source for this thesis. Even though the thesis is a qualitative study, and therefore it does not present general conclusions valid for all the municipalities in the Czech Republic, it brings a contribution for its new perspective on this barely explored issue....

In this study, I study the relationship between the use of the child home care allowance and second and third births among women aged 19-44 in Finland. I use register data from the Finnish Census Panel (FCP) on 254 465 women who had a second or third child during 1993 to 2007. I apply discrete-time event-history analysis to examine whether women using the child home care allowance while their previous child was under the age of three have a higher risk to proceed to subsequent childbearing – second and third births – than those not using the allowance while their previous child was under the age of three. The analysis is conducted separately for second and third births. The results show that the use of the child home care allowance has an effect on the risk of subsequent child, and that women using the child home care allowance have a higher risk of having a second and a third child than women not using the allowance. Also, the risk of having a second child is found to be higher than having a third child. According to the findings, timing matters. There are differences in how soon women get their subsequent child, and not only whether they get a second and third child or not. These differences are not explained by the control variables. However, the analysis does not demonstrate any causality between the use of the allowance and subsequent childbearing. The impact of the use of the allowance on childbearing may be due to selection effects.

In recent years, the working environment and structure have changed as a result of environmental changes and societal improvement. The job market in the past that contained mainly male no longer exists. More and more women join the working space to compete with men. Because there are more opportunities for women to participate in jobs, there are relatively more opportunities for men to participate in family chores. Therefore, both men and women must face problems in work-family conflict. The research done by Frone, Russell & Copper (1992) showed that work-family conflict not only causes negative psychological and physical effects on individuals, but also affects work negatively. Accordingly, in order for a company to retain excellent staff and keep their competitivity, it needs to consider how to help the staff decrease work-family conflict. Among the questions to consider is whether the work-family policy helps the staff decrease work-family conflict and improve their organizational commitment. This study is to investigate whether the implementation of work-family policy helps the staff decrease work-family conflict and improve their organizational commitment. It also studies whether the staff¡¦s work-family conflict and organizational commitment are negatively correlated; whether providing work-family policy affects the staff¡¦s organizational commitment due to the mediating effect of work-family conflict. This research surveyed 3 major sectors including the top 50 companies from the top one thousand manufacturers, top five-hundred service companies and top one hundred finance companies, according to the investigation of the 2005 CommonWealth Magazine. Totally 1600 copies of the questionnaire were released; 296 valid copies were returned with a valid sample return rate of 18.5%. Through statistical analyses such as t-test analysis of independence, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson¡¦s product moment correlation and multiple regression, the results of the investigation demonstrate the following important findings: 1.There exist some significantly different cognitions amongst different people and industries on work-family policy, work-family conflict and organizational commitment. 2.Work-family policy and work-family conflict are partially negatively correlated. 3.Work-family conflict and organizational commitment are partially negatively correlated. 4.Work-family policy and organizational commitment are partially positively correlated. 5.Work-family conflict was found to have partially mediating effects between work-family policy and organizational commitment.

<p>The first July 2008 did the Swedish government introduce a new family policy, the child care allowance. This essay is a case study of how the child care allowance has influenced families and which possible effects that the child care allowance can lead to. In order to respond to the issue has family models been used in order to analyze the results from a questionnaire survey distributed to households which has become granted child care allowance in Växjö municipality. Therefore is this essay’s premier contribution to the social science a description of how families have reasoned and decided about their child-care. The main result from the essay's empirical survey is that it’s mainly women that are influenced by the grant, through that they lower the scope on their hour of work. This fact can on longer view give effects on the Swedish labor market, when women's position on the labor market are to be weakened compared with the men's.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 400-433).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Köln.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 367-389). Available also in an electronic version.