Gender and Citizenship in Care Policies: a European Comparison

Family policies and in particular care policies, historically related to measures of social protection adopted since the 19th century in the fields of the family, demography, health or education, have developed parallel to the generalization of professional activity of women. They constitute an essential dimension of the welfare state in the industrialized countries, especially since the Second World War. Their configuration varies along a number of factors – economical, cultural, religious or political – but everywhere they have a gendered dimension and women assume most of the informal work linked to the private sphere. Hence these policies do contribute to the upholding of gender inequalities, as investigations lead in Western and in Eastern Europe do show. For reasons of space, this paper will focus more specifically on childcare. In Western Europe there is an increase of public spending through various measures (parental and paternity leaves, cash money and tax deductions for childcare, funding of crèches and kindergartens) but at the same time ‘free choice ’ solutions are encouraged which mean that an important part of costs and responsibilities are de facto put on the shoulders of the parents and more specifically on those of women. Such a contradictory process does not help calling int