IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i22p14637-d966299.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adult Worker Model Typologies: Examining Work–Family Policies in Fifteen European Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Iris Po Yee Lo

    (Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China)

  • Ruby Chui Man Chau

    (School of Sociology and Social Policy, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK)

  • Sam Wai Kam Yu

    (Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China)

Abstract

This article aims to advance the discussion of government policies for improving women’s work and family life. It focuses on exploring whether it is reasonable to expect that the supported adult worker model will play an important role in guiding governments to reduce the gender employment gap and, at the same time, increase women’s resources for strengthening their control over family and work life. This model posits that governments should take a proactive approach to encouraging women to take part in formal employment, such as providing care support measures. To examine the impact of the model, this article develops an ‘input adult worker model typology’ and an ‘output adult worker model typology’ using cluster analysis of comparative data covering 15 countries. The findings show that it is important not to overestimate the impact of the supported adult worker model on reducing the gender employment gap or increasing women’s control over their lives in most of the 15 countries. The evidence generated from these typologies highlights the difficulties involved in promoting women’s welfare despite the use of the adult worker model as a substitute for the male-breadwinner model.

Suggested Citation

  • Iris Po Yee Lo & Ruby Chui Man Chau & Sam Wai Kam Yu, 2022. "Adult Worker Model Typologies: Examining Work–Family Policies in Fifteen European Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-14, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:22:p:14637-:d:966299
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/14637/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/14637/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lohmann, Henning & Zagel, Hannah, 2016. "Family policy in comparative perspective: the concepts and measurement of familization and defamilization," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 48-65.
    2. Gough, Ian, 2001. "Globalization and regional welfare regimes: the East Asian case," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 43959, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huck-ju Kwon, 2007. "Transforming the developmental welfare states in East Asia," Working Papers 40, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    2. Iris Po-Yee Lo & Emma H. Liu & Sam Wai-Kam Yu, 2022. "Family and Work Lives of Lesbians in China: Implications for the Adult Worker Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-15, May.
    3. Joanna Szczepaniak-Sienniak, 2021. "Transformations of State Family Policy in Poland from 1989 to the Pandemic Period," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4B), pages 883-900.
    4. Anna Kurowska, 2021. "The Contextualized Inclusiveness of Parental Leave Benefits," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 262-274.
    5. van Damme, Maike & Spijker, Jeroen, 2023. "Country Differences in Long-Term Care Institutions: Towards a Care Regime Typology," OSF Preprints xcjaq, Center for Open Science.
    6. Filip Chybalski & Edyta Marcinkiewicz, 2023. "Grandparents ""on Board"":How They Translateinto the Number of Their Young Grandchildren," LWS Working papers 40, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Van Lancker, Wim & Zagel, Hannah, 2022. "Family policy research in Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 34-49.
    8. Sunnee Billingsley & Gerda Neyer & Katharina Wesolowski, 2022. "Social Investment Policies and Childbearing Across 20 Countries: Longitudinal and Micro-Level Analyses," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(5), pages 951-974, December.
    9. Bernhard G. GUNTER & Rolph HOEVEN, 2004. "The social dimension of globalization: A review of the literature," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 143(1-2), pages 7-43, March.
    10. Chantal Remery & Joop Schippers, 2019. "Work-Family Conflict in the European Union: The Impact of Organizational and Public Facilities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-19, November.
    11. Katharina Kunißen, 2019. "From Dependent to Independent Variable: A Critical Assessment of Operationalisations of ‘Welfare Stateness’ as Macro-Level Indicators in Multilevel Analyses," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 597-616, April.
    12. Anne Grönlund & Ida Öun, 2020. "Minding the Care Gap: Daycare Usage and the Negotiation of Work, Family and Gender Among Swedish Parents," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 259-280, August.
    13. repec:ilo:ilowps:371237 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Bruno Jetin, 2009. "Le développement économique de la Thaïlande est-il socialement soutenable ?," Post-Print halshs-00531674, HAL.
    15. Wood, Geof & Gough, Ian, 2006. "A Comparative Welfare Regime Approach to Global Social Policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1696-1712, October.
    16. I-Fang Cheng & Che-Jen Su & Hsin-Hsing Liao & Nicolas Lorgnier & Anne-Marie Lebrun & Wen-Shen Yen & Yi-Fang Lan & Yingfang Huang, 2019. "Adolescents’ perceptions of mother–father dominance in family vacation decisions: a 25-society study," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(4), pages 755-778, December.
    17. Filip Chybalski & Edyta Marcinkiewicz, 2024. "Grandparents “on board”: How they translate into the households’ fertility decisions," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 51(2), pages 233-250, June.
    18. Karshenas, Massoud & Moghadam, Valentine M. & Alami, Randa, 2014. "Social Policy after the Arab Spring: States and Social Rights in the MENA Region," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 726-739.
    19. Bingqin Li & Zhonglu Zeng, 2015. "Economic Structure, Social Risks and the Challenges to Social Policy in Macau, China," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 383-398, May.
    20. Mikael Nygård & Marja Lindberg & Fredrica Nyqvist & Camilla Härtull, 2019. "The Role of Cash Benefit and In-Kind Benefit Spending for Child Poverty in Times of Austerity: An Analysis of 22 European Countries 2006–2015," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 533-552, December.
    21. Nikolett Somogyi & Wim Van Lancker & Rossella Ciccia & Sarah Van de Velde, 2021. "The Relationship between Familizing and Individualizing Policies and Mental Health in Parents in Europe," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:22:p:14637-:d:966299. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.