Determinants of a Silent (R)Evolution: Understanding the Expansion of Family Policy in Rich OECD Countries

This paper aims to contribute to the welfare state literature in two ways: By using Multiple Correspondence Analysis we will demonstrate in the first part of our paper that we have indeed been witnesses of a significant expansion of (employment-oriented) family policies over the past three decades in 18 rich OECD countries. In the second part of the paper we identify core drivers of these developments by using a series of correlations. Whilst in the 1980s and 1990s Social Democracy and organised women have been key to family policy expansions, public opinion, which is increasingly in line with a ‘modernized’ family lifestyle, seems to have played a crucial role in the 2000s.