This study examines the effect of social sharing of childcare on women's status in labor market and differences among classes. Social sharing of childcare is a response to ‘deficit of care’ caused by changes of labor market and family in post-indu...
This study examines the effect of social sharing of childcare on women's status in labor market and differences among classes. Social sharing of childcare is a response to ‘deficit of care’ caused by changes of labor market and family in post-industrial society, and is being understood as a factor deciding characters and details of restructuring toward welfare state. Therefore, it is important to analyze what influences de-familization/familization programs that are being enforced for social sharing of childcare have on women’s status in labor market, and how these programs are being used according to classes of individual family.
This study looked into social meanings of care and social sharing of childcare that has been in charge of women in family through theoretical discussion on social sharing of childcare, and analyzed how de-familization/familization programs improve women’s status in labor market and how differently they are being used according to classes.
Reducing burden of care comprises de-familization that helps participation in labor market for economical support and familization that helps returning to family for care. In this thesis, the scope of de-familization/familization programs that divide care socially were chosen as child-care service, parental leave, and child home care allowance, which are programs for caring preschool children.
The analysis was made by following order. First, in order to analyze how de-familization/familization programs improve women’s status in labor market, data were composed mainly from members of OECD and TSCSREG(pooled time series cross sectional regression) was conducted. As the result of the analysis, it was confirmed that de-familization/familization programs have positive influences on women’s participation in labor market, relative wage level, and full-time employment, and through the result, it can be inferred that social sharing of childcare will have a positive result on improving women’s status in labor market.
Next, in order to analyze how differently de-familization/familization programs are being used according to different classes, with data of LIS(Luxembourg Income Study), influences of individual family’s income and educational level on parental leave and child home care allowance were analyzed by logistic regression. As the result, it was confirmed that use behavior differed according to income level or educational level. This shows that familization/familization programs bring different outcomes according to individual family’s income or educational level, and through the result, it can be inferred that the effect of childcare’s social sharing differs according to classes within women’s groups.
What these result imply are as follow: First of all, when we look into theoretical implication, first, de-familization and familization, ways of social sharing of childcare are complementary as they reduce burden of care, which is parents’ care and economical support. Second, de-familization and familization that share childcare socially should include not only a perspective of gender, but also a perspective of class as well. Third, analyzing results of de-familization and familization programs that share childcare socially requires not only analysis in national level, but also analysis in individual family level as well. It means that de-familization and familization should be understood by including not only care, but economical support, and be expanded to the concept including not only gender, but also class as well.
Next, looking into policy implication, first, de-familization and familization programs such as parent leave and public childcare that have positive influences on improving women’s status in labor market have to be expanded and carried out. Second, since use behavior of de-familization and familization programs that share childcare socially differ according to different classes, they should be planned with considerations for the low-income class. Third, since burden of care and economical support are concentrated in one person in a household with female householder, services with considerations on traits of households with female householders have to be expanded. In short, to improve women’s status in labor market, social sharing of childcare has to be extended, and its direction has to solve gender discrimination and discrepancy between classes.
This thesis has limitation due to a restriction of data. First of all, as time-series data from year 2000 on could not be secured, the recent change and its influences on women’s status in labor market could not be analyzed. Second, even for the data of LIS, as data of year 2000 were mainly used, the recent change on family was not reflected, and since class was simplified with income and educational level, this thesis did not grasp traits of each class. Third, public childcare service was not included in analyzing what influences social sharing of care has according to classes.
The significances of this thesis are as follow; First, this thesis deliberated quality aspect of employment by including not only participation in labor market and relative wage, but also full-time employment in analyzing relations between social sharing of childcare and women’s status in labor market, and reflected a trait of time use of women, who have to perform paid labor and childcare at the same time. Second, by carrying out a macroscopic analysis in national level and a microscopic analysis in individual family level simultaneously, it grasped how social sharing of childcare in welfare state is achieved in detail. Third, it could inquire into relations between de-familization/familization programs and discrepancy of classes, which haven’t been dealt with until now, and particularly, it could clarify what influences a direction called free choice, which appeared in the process of welfare state’s reorganization had on classes. Lastly, as it included not only care but also economical support in de-familization/familization’s concept, this thesis could provide a insight in establishing a new social welfare policy that responses to demands of increasing dual-earner families’ care and focuses on investment on children.