Identifying Demotherisation Regimes: A Comparison across OECD Countries

In comparative welfare state literature many concepts have been introduced to gendering analysis and typologies, such as (de)familisation and work-life balance. Yet, as argued by various feminists, none of these are necessarily gendered to the extent they are silent on the gender distribution of domestic and care work within families or they see care as an obstacle to the full “activation” in the labour market, devaluating it. To avoid false gender neutrality a new conceptual tool— “demotherization” — has been introduced. Demotherisation can occur through defamilisation (transferring part of mothers’ caregiving responsibilities to the state or the market) or through gender and intergenerational redistribution within families (transferring to grand-parents or to the partner). Yet, only the latter challenges the traditional division of labour and leads to higher gender equality.

Within this debate, in this piece of work we shall conceptualise and measure demotherisation both at institutional and cultural level, and we shall see, with means of cluster analysis, how OECD advanced countries are gouped. More precisely, drawing from OECD family database 2022, we shall use three institutional variables, two measuring demotherisation through defamilisation (availability of childcare services and public expenditure on childcare), the other measuring demotherisation through fatherisation (length and payment of leaves reserved for fathers). Drawing from WVS 2017-2022, we shall also use two cultural variables, based on opinions about: (a) A preschool child is likely to suffer if the mother works; (b) When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women.

Results confirm the Nordic countries as frontrunners and Central-East Europe as laggards. Yet, interestingly, also France and the Netherlands join the frontrunners, while the Mediterranean countries split, with Spain and Portugal similar to Continental Europe, while Italy and Greece (and Austria) similar to East Europe. Asian countries (Japan and Korea) are outliners.