Variation in Women's Employment Across European Countries The Impact of Child Care Policy Solutions

The article investigates the impact of child care-related policy solutions on the employment probability of married and cohabiting women of reproductive age in twenty-five European countries. The theoretical framework is the rational choice theory, which allows modeling of particular policy solutions such as factors influencing costs or benefits of particular individuals' actions. The theoretical predictions are tested on data from the European Social Survey (second round), with the use of hierarchical logistic regression modeling. In the analysis, the individual-level explanatory variable is age category of the youngest child living in the household, with the control of woman's education and age, and household income; the country-level variables are represented by availability of child care for particular age groups, maximum duration of both paid and total child care leaves, presence of solutions motivating fathers to take leave, entitlement to demand a part-time arrangement after a child care leave, and availability of lifelong learning, controlled for by the country's unemployment level and the prevalence of part-time employment. Results indicate that the single factor contributing most to the cross-country variation of women's employment chances are the policy solutions related to the care of children who are too young for preprimary education. These policies have a long-term effect that can also be observed in families with preschool children.