Varieties of Parenthood Leave in European Welfare States

It is a common argument that generous parenthood leave schemes like maternity leave and parenthood leave are ‘familising’ and have a negative effect on women’s employment. Those who criticize generous parenthood leave schemes often assume that welfare states are using generous family leave as a substitute for policies towards a comprehensive provision of formal childcare and therefore force women with small children to stay at home. We argue, on the contrary, that it is important to distinguish between generous and non-generous parenthood leave schemes, regarding the pay for care, and non-generous leave, and the generous parenthood leave schemes have the potential to support women’s labour market integration and gender equality. We show that they are usually part of family policies in welfare states which promote gender equality. Those countries that incorporate generous parenthood leaves also tend to provide relatively generous support to public childcare facilities that make it easier for women to return to work at an early date.