Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

All over Europe we have witnessed an increase in female labor market participation as well as major demographic changes, such as declining fertility rates and rising divorce rates. Both trends are related to changing gender relations in Europe. The rise of female employment has challenged the traditional male breadwinner-female homemaker model as the dominant family model, which was prevalent in Europe during the 1950s and 1960s. All European countries have been characterized by an increase of dual-earner families in particular among couples with children. Moreover, it is nowadays more reasonable to talk about “families” rather than “family” as the variation in family patterns has become so immense, with cohabiting couples, married couples, stepfamilies, single-parent families, and same-sex couples. Generally, families have become smaller as a result of fewer children per family and the tendency of women to postpone the births of their first child. Although countries differ with regard to the nature and degree of these demographic and labor market developments, modern working and family life in all welfare states has increased the need to respond to work-family issues and to reconsider the question of which family model(s) welfare states wish to facilitate. The development of welfare states has been strongly influenced by the traditional breadwinner family model. Founders of current ... log in or subscribe to read full text