Section 1. Introduction.- 1. A Multilevel Perspective on Family Policy; Rense Nieuwenhuis & Wim Van Lancker.- 2. Conceptualizing and Analyzing Family Policy and How it is Changing; Mary Daly.- Section 2. Supra-National.- 3. Beyond the National: How the EU, OECD and World Bank do FAmily Policy; Jane Jenson.- 4. Do International Organizations Influence Domestic Policy Outcomes in OECD Countries?; Linda A. White.- 5. What Does the UN Have to Say About Family Policy? Reflections on the ILO, UNICEF and UN Women; Shahra Razavi.- Section 3. National.- 6. Conceptual Approaches in Comparative Family Policy Research; Hannah Zagel & Henning Lohmann.- 7. Conceptualizing National Family Policies: A Capabilities Approach; Jana Javornik & Mara A. Yerkes.- 8. Early Childhood Care and Education Policies That Make a Difference; Michel Vandenbroeck.- 9. Family Policies and Family Outcomes in OECD countries; Willem Adema, Chris Clarke & Olivier Thévenon.- 10. Family Policies Across the Globe; Fernando Filgueira & Cecilia Rossel.- 11. Gendered Tradeoffs; Jennifer L. Hook & Meiying Li.- 12. Separated Families and Child Support Policies in Times of Social Change: A Comparative Analysis; Christine Skinner & Mia Hakovirta.- 13. Dual-earner Family Policies at Work for Single-parent Families?; Laurie C. Maldonado & Rense Nieuwenhuis.- 14. Policies for Later-life Families in a Comparative European Perspective; Pearl A. Dykstra & Maja Djundeva.- 15. How Well Do European Child-Related Leave Policies Support the Caring Role of Fathers?; Alzbeta Bartova & Renske Keizer.- 16. Parentalization of Same-Sex Couples: Family Formation and Leave Rights in Five Northern European Countries; Marie Evertsson, Eva Jaspers & Ylva Moberg.- Section 4. Sub-national.- 17. Breaking the Liberal-Market Mold? Family Policy Variation Across U.S. States and Why it Matters; Cassandra Engeman.- 18. Family Policy in the United States: State-Level Variation in Policy & Poverty Outcomes from 1980 to 2015; Zachary Parolin & Rosa Daiger Von Gleichen.- 19. Going Regional: Local Childcare Provision and Parental Work-care Choices in Germany; Pia S. Schober.- 20. Private Childcare and Employment Options: The Geography of the Return to Work for Mothers in the Netherlands; Tom Emery.- Section 5. Organizational.- 21. Company-level Family Policies: Who Has Access to it and What Are Some of its Outcomes?; Heejung Chung.- 22. The Educational Gradient in Company-level Family Policies; Katia Begall & Tanja van der Lippe.- 23. Managing Work-life Tensions: The Challenges for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs); E. Anne Bardoel.- Section 6. The Next Decade of Research.- 24. Childcare Indicators for the Next Generation of Research; Sebastian Sirén, Laure Doctrinal, Wim Van Lancker & Rense Nieuwenhuis.- 25. Family Policy: Neglected Determinant of Vertical Income Inequality; Rense Nieuwenhuis.- 26. Conclusion: The Next Decade of Family Policy Research; Wim Van Lancker & Rense Nieuwenhuis.
Rense Nieuwenhuis is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University, Sweden.
Wim Van Lancker is Assistant Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the Centre for Sociological Research (CESO) at KU Leuven, Belgium.
“This engaging collection gathers theoretical and empirical insights from leading family policy experts. The authors – representing diverse countries, disciplines, and methods – bring to life the volume’s innovative conceptual framework, which is organized around policy institutions, both public and private. The volume closes with a call for new lines of research that should inform family policy scholars for years to come.” — Janet Gornick, Professor of Political Science and Sociology, and Director of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
“Featuring exciting contributors from a range of often-siloed scholarly disciplines, countries and cultures, this Handbook offers nuanced insights into how interacting societal inequality factors influence family policy enactment to reinforce or improve inequality outcomes across gender, class, and nations. It is ambitious, broad-reaching, and succeeds in providing a strategic view within and across nations to inspire thoughtful evidence-based policy implications to improve societies in the future.” — Ellen Ernst Kossek, Basil S. Turner Professor of Management, Purdue University, USA
This open access handbook provides a multilevel view on family policies, combining insights on family policy outcomes at different levels of policymaking: supra-national organizations, national states, sub-national or regional levels, and finally smaller organizations and employers. At each of these levels, a multidisciplinary group of expert scholars assess policies and their implementation, such as child income support, childcare services, parental leave, and leave to provide care to frail and elderly family members. The chapters evaluate their impact in improving children’s development and equal opportunities, promoting gender equality, regulating fertility, productivity and economic inequality, and take an intersectional perspective related to gender, class, and family diversity. The editors conclude by presenting a new research agenda based on five major challenges pertaining to the levels of policy implementation (in particular globalization and decentralization), austerity and marketization, inequality, changing family relations, and welfare states adapting to women’s empowered roles.