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The gender division of care work and housework is a product of numerous factors, both individual and national. By using the ‘Equal Gender Division of Labour’ (EGDL) indicator developed by Dearing (2016a), this thesis assesses correlations between parental leave policy and division of reproductive labour in 27 countries. OLS regression was used to test the hypothesis and determine correlations. By controlling for the correlations of individual attitudes, the thesis attempted to isolate the effects of parental leave policies. The results indicate that parental leave policies which promote gender equality are positively correlated with men’s larger shares of care work and housework. When control variables are added, the results demonstrate how parental leave policy is directly correlated with men’s larger share of care work. As for men’s share of housework, the thesis suggests that the original correlations are due to the effect of individual attitudes, which may also be impacted by parental leave policy.

Die Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie ist eine der größten Herausforderungen und gleichzeitig Gelingensbedingung für Geschlechtergerechtigkeit auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und im familiären Bereich. Die vorliegende Dissertation verdeutlicht in drei empirischen Papieren die Relevanz von Sorgearbeit für die Arbeitsmarktpartizipation von Frauen und Männern, sowie die Rolle von Unternehmen für das Unterfangen, berufliche und familiäre Aufgaben zu vereinbaren. Im ersten Papier fragt diese Dissertation nach der Rolle von Haus- und Sorgearbeit sowie ihrer Verteilung im Paar für die Arbeitsmarktpartizipation von Frauen und Männern. Für die Analyse werden Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) der Jahre 2001-2017 herangezogen. Um sich bestmöglich einer kausalen Identifikation anzunähern, werden First- Difference Instrumentalvariablen-Regressionen (FD-IV) geschätzt. Das zweite Papier betrachtet die Gründe von Vätern gegen eine (längere) Elternzeitnahme. Anhand eines Mixed-Methods Forschungsdesigns wird untersucht, welche betrieblichen Determinanten eine (längere) Elternzeitnutzung erklären. Darüber hinaus wird analysiert, ob und in welchem Unternehmenskontext Männer und Frauen Karriereeinbußen nach Elternzeitnutzung erfahren. Die Datenbasis sind qualitative und quantitative Daten einer Zusatzbefragung zum AID:A II Survey. Das dritte Papier untersucht die Frage nach dem Zusammenhang von Homeoffice-Nutzung und Work-Family Conflicts. Konkret wird analysiert, ob es Unterschiede nach Unternehmenskultur gibt. Auf Grundlage des LPP-ADIAB werden Multilevel-Regressionen mit fixen Effekten für Berufe separat für Männer und Frauen geschätzt. Zusammengefasst belegt die Dissertation geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede in der Herausforderung, Erwerbstätigkeit und private Verpflichtungen in Einklang zu bringen. Darüber hinaus wird die Notwendigkeit von politischen Reformen und der Handlungsbedarf, aber auch die Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten von Unternehmen verdeutlicht. / Reconciling work and family is one of the greatest challenges and, simultaneously, a precondition for gender equality both in the labor market and in the domestic sphere. In three empirical chapters, this dissertation illustrates the relevance of care work for the labor market participation of women and men, as well as the role of companies in the effort to reconcile work and family responsibilities. In the first paper, this dissertation asks about the role of housework and care and its distribution in the couple for the labor market participation of women and men. The analysis uses data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) from 2001-2017 on time use for various household chores as well as childcare and eldercare. First-difference instrumental variable regressions (FD-IV) are estimated to best approximate a causal identification. The second paper examines fathers’ reasons against taking (longer) parental leave. Building on this, a mixed-methods research design is used to investigate which firm-level determinants explain (longer) parental leave use by men and women. Furthermore, it analyzes whether, and in which company contexts, men and women experience perceived career setbacks after taking parental leave. The database is qualitative and quantitative data from a supplementary survey to the AID:A II. The third paper investigates the question of the relationship between working from home and work-family conflicts. Specifically, it analyzes whether there are differences according to corporate culture. Based on the LPP-ADIAB, multilevel regressions with occupation fixed effects are estimated separately for men and women. Overall, the dissertation demonstrates gender-specific differences in the challenge of reconciling gainful employment and private obligations. In addition, it points out the necessity of political reforms and the need for action, but also the potential for companies to shape these changes.

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The United States is the only developed nation that fails to provide its citizens with paid parental leave. The lack of parental benefit provision operates to the detriment of individuals and society as a whole by contributing to inequity across gender, race, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. As the demographics of the American workforce have changed, public policy has not kept pace. Paid parental leave is associated a number of health, economic, and social benefits. However, the greatest barrier to legislating paid parental leave is the philosophical underpinnings of American politics, specifically the strong current of liberal individualism and absence of maternalism. This thesis examines the policy option space for paid parental leave in the United States and recommends a paid parental leave policy that is gender-neutral and has a combination of three months individual leave and three months of shared leave at 100 percent wage replacement.

This thesis deals with the issue of barriers to participation in adult education. Survey, which investigates the strategies used for overcoming the barriers to participation in adult education by parents on parental leave, has been prepared on the basis of the contemporary theoretical knowledge on barriers to participation in adult education and inequalities in participation in adult education. Parents on parental leave are one of the groups with uneven access to adult education and they are deterred from participation in education because of situational barriers. Research participants (n = 6, M = 34.5) participated in semi-structured interview, which consists of seven topics related to the respondent's personal history, his academic and professional career and the circumstances of his life. Based on the data, the conditions and mechanisms that help to overcome group-specific barriers to participation in adult education were identified. On the basis of the common elements of respondents' answers the economically oriented strategy for overcoming barriers and the alternative strategy for overcoming barriers were defined. Key words: adult education, continuing education, lifelong learning, lifelong education, barriers to participation in adult education, deterrents to participation in adult education,...

The main purpose of this dissertation is to analyse and identify problems arising from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency’s (SSIA) perceptions of parents, as they appear in the brochures targeted at expectant or new parents between 1974 and 2007. The aim is to distinguish who are being pointed out, constructed, and normalised as parents; and to analyse the functions of the recipients and the senders respectively. The aim is to be considered in the light of the SSIA’s commitment to gender equality, a policy that promotes equal access to the insurance of parents to share the parent’s insurance more equally. The dissertation is based on a theoretical framework that may principally be described as a feminist discourse analysis, which, among other things, means that a constructivist approach is of central importance. In addition, an intersectional perspective is an important starting point, putting the focus on the interaction and interdependence between different social categorisations. In four analysing chapters, the material is being tackled from different approaches or angles. In the first chapter, a picture is drawn of the institutional and political context that sets the prerequisites of the insurance regulations as well as the way the texts have been written and may be understood. The second chapter presents an analysis, in the terms of space deixis, of whom is/are being pointed out and positioned as recipient/s by SSIA. In the third chapter, an analysis of the normalised notions of parents that are identified in the texts; and of what parents are being favoured and described as ‘normal’. In the fourth chapter, the functions of the different actors are being analysed, showing how the relationship between the SSIA and the parents is constructed from in the texts. The results show that, in all brochures, parenthood is strongly gender-marked and that gender equality, above all, is to be understood as a quantitatively even distribution between mothers and fathers. In today’s brochures, the agency identifies and normalises recipients who primarily are biological mothers with orderly conditions, living in nuclear families with biological children. The older brochures have a higher level of gender neutrality in their texts, where mothers and fathers are placed equally and at the same distance from the position of the sender. The newer brochures, however, represent a wider range of social categorisations, and thus present a more complex picture of parenthood. The results also show that the function of SSIA in the texts is primarily economic, and that there is no obligation for parents to share the parent’s insurance equally, despite the political resolutions that impose this task on the agency.

The dissertation addresses the issue of the relationship of parenthood, employment and economic inactivity of childcare holders. It focuses on the mother's motivation to work (mothers taking care of children under 3 years of age) in the context of Czech social policy measures. The aim of the thesis is establish proposals for measures that would encourage the motivation of women with children up to 3 years to return to work and simultaneously quantify the impact of these measures on the state budget. This dissertation builds up on the underlying studies (Jahoda, Šinkyříková, 2011; Kalíšková, 2012). These studies deal mainly with examining implemented reforms in the view of their support to women's employment and their effects on household incomes. The decision making of mothers about their involvement in the labour market was analyzed by indicator of Effective cost of return to work. Negative net financial effect of returning to work was found independently of the region and the extent of the examined working time of women, taking care of children up to 2 years. For mothers taking care of children from 2 to 3 years old was this negative net financial effect detected only partly. This result clearly demonstrates that mothers, taking care of children below 3 years of age, entering the labour market are confronted with very high additional costs that would not be covered by their income from employment and other received benefits. Estimated amount of potential wages, which would encourage women to return to work, reach in some cases up to four times the median wage of women in the region. Given these findings, this dissertation proposes several specific social policy measures, which would support the mother's incentives to work return. Economic effects of the proposed measures were quantified, including the cancelation of conditional entitlement to parental benefit, introduction of tax relief for working mothers and 50% relief on employer's mandatory contributions, which employ parents part-time. Implementation of these measures, which would motivate more women to return to work, would bring an estimated net income effect for the state budget amounting to 9.5 billion crowns per year.

The diploma thesis named "How is the parents' life on parental leave in the Czech republic?" identifies and analyzes the conditions of Czech parents, who are taking the leave to take care of their children, i.e. the parental leave, and the coherent allowance. Their situation is reviewed from three angles. From the economical point of view, the thesis identifies worsened financial situation of parents on parental leave, compensated only with the parental allowance. The comparison of the leave and the allowance in various European countries indicates different configurations due to their sociocultural context and historical background. In the research in childcare services is pointed out that the offer is insufficient and that the parents, who use them temporarily, are at disadvantage. In the other hand, the diploma thesis introduces new and more suitable services being provided. In the prevention of social isolation of parents with small children, numerous services provided by non-governmental organizations (in contrast with the governmental and commercial sectors) are described, considering also the disproportional geographical configuration of these subjects. The stakeholder analysis refers about interest, influence and attitude of people, communities and organizations involved. The conclusion of...

The goal of this diploma thesis is to analyse public policies of the Czech republic and Germany which are focused on work-life balance of families with children under three years of age. In its theoretical part the diploma thesis offers description of how current changes in our society affects work-life balance, gender equality, women and their aspirations, desicion- making of families concerning their preproduction plans and fertility itself. As next this thesis brings explanation of relationship between different public policy designs and their affects on harmonization of both life spheres, gender equality and free choice of life strategy. In the anylitical part the diploma theses analyses concrete public policy instruments of both chosen countries, compares them with each other using predefined categories and offers analysis performed in the framework of familialism concept formulated by Sigrid Leitner. Finally, in the chapter "Discussion and summary of recommendation" the diploma thesis offers suggestions for modification of some concrete regulations in the Czech republic inspired by chosen regulations that are currently used in Germany and that are considered as instruments with potential to positively influent harmonization of both life spheres, gender equality and free choice of life strategy.