Beyond the ‘train-first’/‘work-first’ dichotomy
How welfare states help or hinder maternal employment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12256147 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Helen Kowalewska (0000-0002-7991-5371, University of Southampton, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-24 |
| Publication date | 2016-10-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of European Social Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0958-9287 • E-ISSN: 1461-7269 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0958928716673316 |
| OpenAlex | W2543390321 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 55 |
Since the mid-1990s, welfare states have introduced various ‘activation’ policies designed to promote employment. Most typologies distinguish between a Nordic-style ‘train-first’ approach focused on developing jobseekers’ employability and an Anglo-Saxon ‘work-first’ approach that instead emphasises quick job (re-)entry. These typologies tell us what activation means for the unemployed (male) worker. However, by ignoring the family, they overlook what activation means for the (female) parent-worker with childcare responsibilities. To contribute to filling this gap, this article uses fuzzy-set ideal-type analysis to compare 22 countries representing five ‘worlds’ of welfare by how (de-)activating their labour market policies, parental leave provisions, childcare services and the scheduling of primary education are for lone mothers. It reveals that cross-national variations in support for maternal activation are not well captured by the Nordic-style ‘train-first’/Anglo-Saxon ‘work-first’ dichotomy. Hence, despite the greater attention to gender and ‘new social risks’ within comparative social policy scholarship in recent years, the activation literature remains gender-blind
Economic growth · Economics · Employability · Labour economics · Paid work · Parental leave · Political science · Scholarship · Social policy · Sociology · Welfare · Welfare reform · Welfare state · Work (physics · Working hours · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Doświadczenie bezrobocia a relacje rodzinne we współczesnej Polsce – perspektywa płci
Bezrobocie jako współczesna kwestia społeczna – wybrane aspekty socjologiczne i ekonomiczne
Disability care services between welfare regime pre-conditioning and emancipatory change to independent living. A comparison of 10 European cases with fuzzy set ideal-type analysis
European childcare regimes beyond the ‘average family’ model
Activation
Help or harm? Examining the effects of active labour market programmes on young adults’ employment quality and the role of social origin
(De)legitimization of single mothers’ welfare rights
Activation, Work and Well‐Being
The Importance of Considering Debt and Young Children in Activation
What Gender-Neutral Activation? Understanding the Gender Sanction Gap in Germany’s Welfare System
Unequal benefits – diverging attitudes? Analysing the effects of an unequal expansion of childcare provision on attitudes towards maternal employment across 18 European countries
No Voice, No Choice
The Impact of Welfare Conditionality on Experiences of Job Quality
The New World of Welfare
Redesigning Social Inquiry
Between Complexity and Parsimony
Chapter 46 Labor market institutions and economic performance
Recent Changes in Family Policy in France
Equality in the social service state
Reshaping Welfare States and Activation Regimes in Europe
Labour market effects of parental leave in Europe
Fuzzy set ideal type analysis
The Origins of Active Social Policy
Lone parents and activation – towards a typology of approaches
Mothers or Institutions? How Women Work and Care in Slovenia and the Czech Republic
Beyond the Dependent Variable Problem
Cash for childcare schemes in the Nordic welfare states
Varieties of familialism
A Nordic Nirvana? Gender, Citizenship, and Social Justice in the Nordic Welfare States
Women's Citizenship in the Time of Activation
After the Male Breadwinner Model? Childcare Services and the Division of Labor in European Countries
The Impact of Different Social-Policy Frameworks on Social Inequalities among Women in the European Union
Child Care
The Fading Goal of Gender Equality
What Adult Worker Model? A Critical Look at Recent Social Policy Reform in Europe from a Gender and Family Perspective
The Decline of the Male Breadwinner Model
Lone parents, poverty and policy in the European Union
Towards productive welfare? A comparative analysis of 23 OECD countries
Welfare Reform in the Nordic Countries in the 1990S
The southern European social model
Who cares? Changing patterns of childcare in Central and Eastern Europe
Supporting the Employment of Mothers
Lone Motherhood, Ideal Type Care Regimes and The Case of Austria
Babies and Bosses
Explaining US welfare reform
A New Kid in Town? Active Inclusion Elements in European Minimum Income Schemes
Activation as a Common Framework for Social Policies towards Lone Parents
Does activation increase lone mothers' employment chances
The politics of the new social policies
After The Family Wage
States of welfare or states of workfare? Welfare state restructuring in 16 capitalist democracies, 1985–2002
Exporting workfare/importing welfare-to-work
Gender and the Social Rights of Citizenship
The Structure of Women's Employment in Comparative Perspective
Life-table representations of family dynamics in Sweden, Hungary, and 14 other FFS countries
No Exit, No Voice
Gendering the Comparative Analysis of Welfare States
Marriage and gender inequality
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |