1. Preferences or care context: opinions on family and employment in seven European countries
Olli Kangas & Tine Rostgaard
The Danish National Institute for Social Research
Herlufs Trollesgade 11
DK-1052 Copenhagen K

2. Theory Catherine Hakim: “Work-Lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century”
attitudinal factors: work-lifestyle preferences, motivations, aspirations etc. are important
”Free choices”
no structural obstacles

3. three groups of woman with different preferences:
Work-centred women regard work as career, family is subordinated to this goal.
Home-centered women place family in the fore do not consistently indicate plans for work. Home-making is their career.
Adaptive women, “drifters” who adapt their behaviour according to the situation. This group of women should especially prone to react on public care policies whereas the two other are less volatile

4. The aim of the study is to see:
Are there systematic differences in attitudes to work and family life as proposed by Hakim, e.g. do we find three different groups of women
Is the within country variation bigger that variation between countries (as Hakim postulates) or vice versa (as traditional “structuralists” sociology argue)?
Are opinions on family-working life more decisive than traditional sociological variables as education, income, socio-economic status
How does spouse’s opinion affect women’s choices (attitudinal “homogamy”)
To what extent do the three groups react on care facilities and child care leave possibilities

5. Data and method
International Social Survey Program (ISSP) third module on Family and Changing Gender Roles 2002
Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK

6. The commitment to work Ideal gender roles
Do you think that that women should work outside the home full-time, part-time or not at all under the following circumstances:
After marrying and before there are children
When there is a child under school age
After the youngest child starts school
After the children leave home
Ideal gender roles
Both the man and woman should contribute to the household income and
A man’s job is to earn money; woman’s job is to look after the home and family
Totally agree, agree, do not know/no opinion, disagree, totally disgree

7. the higher the value the more home centred values
The two batteries were merged together to an index of the lifestyle preference scale.
(the values for the last questions were reversed)
the higher the value the more home centred values

8. Care index
a number of indices to measure the variation in welfare state efforts towards families with children.
Data originates from Caredata, a database on institutional design of care for children and older people in Europe from , the Danish National Institute of Social Research. Will be available on the net from 2006

9. The indices consist of:
an index for the day care services for the 0-2 year olds
an index for the day care services for the 3-school age children
an index for the leave policies

10. Universalism is measured as a combination of
Index on day care
We suppose that both the universalism (access) to day care services, as well as the cost and the quality of those services may affect mother’s and father’s choices and possibilities to choose between different combinations of work and care practices.
Universalism is measured as a combination of
1. the share of the age group in day care
2. a public guarantee of day care provision
3. social expenditure for day care in the country (in PPP per capita of children in ages 0 to the school age.
two thirds of expenditure is attributed to the children aged 0-2 years, as they attend the most costly day care with a higher staff ratio and lower group sizes.
The components of the universalism indicator are then weighted, awarding day care take-up a weight of 0.5, and social expenditure and the guarantee each 0.25

11. Quality of care includes four components of standards.
Cost
1. the parent’s share of total cost
2. the proportion of the net income for an average production worker, two-parent family with one child aged 1 or 4 years
Each bears a weigth of .5.
Quality of care includes four components of standards.
1. The staff-child ratio
2. Staff education
3. Weekly opening hours
4. Whether there is day care available throughout the year or only during school term
3.-4. measured for the day care schemes with highest take-up.
These four components of the quality index are given a weigth of .25 each.

12. Index on leave
the maximum available time available for either the mother as maternity leave, the father as paternity leave and the parents in common as parental leave
a quota, reserved for the parent who does not take the major part of the leave, i.e. father’s quota.
compensation paid during the leave is used to qualify the leave length, in giving a proxy of leave entitlements.
In praxis, we have awarded the mother all the available leave time, except for the father’s quota in those countries where this is applicable, and have multiplied time by the compensation rate for an average production female worker.
The father’s quota is multiplied by the compensation rate, that is available for him during this period.
The leave components have also subsequently been standardised so that they run from 0 to 1, by dividing by the maximum value.

13. Table 1. Care index, day care for children 0-2 years and 3-school age, and leave entitlements.
Denmark
Finland
Norway
Sweden NL UK
Germany
Day care index children 0-2 years
Universalism
0,97
0,69
0,44
0,78
0,24
0,19
0,10
Cost( low value = costly)
0,51
0,70
0,64
0,80
0,37
0,00
0,72
Quality
0,76
0,79
0,74
0,71
Total
2,24
2,15
1,80
2,37
1,36
0,90
1,19
Day care index children 3-school age
0,96
0,81
0,48
0,49
0,23
0,35
Cost
0,25
0,09
0,61
1,00
0,32
0,85
0,91
0,60
0,52
0,63
1,77
1,92
1,38
2,42
2,10
1,75
1,30
Leave index
2,51
3,58
2,03
3,22
1,22
1,09
1,15

14. Aggregate marginal effects (single)

15. Preferences and the labour-market status among women in 20-59 years of age

16. Model multinomial logistic regression (MLR)
Employment status = preference + index of care index of care index of leave + age + number of children number of children education + marital status + employer + previous work history + socio-economic position.

17. Part-time employment (reference: no employment)
(number of children controlled for)
                                                          B                          Wald                   Sig.                      Exp(B)
Intercept                               ,062                   1,982                    .159                    
Preferences                                     -,158                     21,930                  ,000                      ,854
Leave index                                     -,272                     2,325                    ,127                      ,762
Care index 0-2                                 ,043                      ,023                      ,879                      1,044
Care Index 3-6                                 1,273                    24,564                  ,000                      3,570
Basic education                              ,229                      1,019                    ,313                      1,257
Lower medium                                ,177                      ,597                      ,440                      1,194
Upper medium                                ,323                      1,155                    ,283                      1,382
University                                       0                           .                            .                            .
Public sector                                   ,695                      5,341                    ,021                      2,003
Private sector                                  -,324                     1,271                    ,260                      ,723
Self employed                                 0                           .                            .                            .
Used to work full time                   ,529                      4,043                    ,044                      1,696
Used to work part time                  ,270                      ,716                      ,397                      1,310
No work                                           0                           .                            .                            .
No partner                                      -.344                     ,813                    ,051                      ,708
Partner                                             0                           .                            .                            .

18. Full time employment (reference: no employment (number of children controlled for)
B                      Wald                 Sig.                 Exp(B)
Intercept                                          3,481                    22,660                  ,000                                                  
Preferences                                     -,423                     145,234                ,000                      ,655
Leave index                                     ,414                      6,555                    ,010                      1,514
Care index 0-2                                 ,620                      6,123                    ,013                      1,859
Care index 3-6                                 -1,063                   17,146                  ,000                      ,345
Basic education                              -,461                     4,427                    ,035                      ,631
Lower medium                                -,349                     2,512                    ,113                      ,706
Upper medium                                ,095                      ,114                      ,739                      1,100
University                                       0                           .                            .                            .
Public sector                                   ,165                      ,343                      ,558                      1,179
Private sector                                  -,720                     7,128                    ,008                      ,487
Self employed                                 0                           .                            .                            .
Used to work full time                   1,043                    12,111                  ,000                      2,837
Used to work part time                  -,175                     ,227                      ,634                      ,839
No work                                           0                           .                            .                            .
No partner                                       ,070                      ,175                      ,676                      1,072
Partner                                             ,0                          .                            .                            .

19. Husband’s work-family preferences and wife’s employment status

20. To sum up
constraints and opportunities are not similar for all women across countries, and within countries
structural factors (educational attainment, number and age of children) are important predictors
educated women and women without children (not surprisingly) were more prone to be employed, and more often full-time than other women
Generous leave programs and part-time work are mutually exclusive
Generous leave schemes and full-time employment are combinatory
High quality day care has a positive effect on full-time employment
BUT, on the other hand, women living in countries where there is good day care for the 3-school age children are more likely to work part-time

21. Next step?
we are imputating day care costs for each decile into the opinion / individual level data
to see whether it is cost or quality of care that affects parents
by the help of the ECHP to see the factual consequences of various care regimes

22. Costs from work to leave and costs for care (% of family ’purse’)
From work to leave Child care costs Deciles
Swe Den Swe Dk
-3,77 1,0 3,
-4,79 5,8 3,70 6,1 2
-4,86 9,2 3,81 9,3 3
-4,10 11,3 3,94 11,3 4
-4,02 7,2 4,05 11,9 5
-4,07 7,2 4,11 11,9 6
-4,12 -1,3 4,16 10,1 7
-4,48 -8,5 3,89 8,8 8
-5,33 -14,5 3,33 7,9 9
-9,80 -18,1 2,83 7,3 10

23. Mothers’ employment rates by the age of youngest child 2002