CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Lebid, Maryna |
|---|---|
| Title | Childcare Policies and Gender Equality In the Post-soviet Eastern European Countries |
| Summary | Welfare mainstream theories have been criticised greatly in recent decades for their failure to account for a gender perspective in their analysis. Care work is argued to be a crucial element that impacts the welfare system and gender regime. Devaluing the care work and shifting its provision within the family solely to women exacerbates social stratification. Childcare leave policies may serve as a tool for the state to challenge traditional gender norms engaging men in caregiving activities and promoting women’s equality in the private sphere. At the same time, leave policies can be used to familialize care provision and reinforce traditional values in society. The childcare policies in post-Soviet Eastern Europe are understudied and underrepresented in English-writing academic work. Nevertheless, decades of Soviet legacy dominated by one-sided gender equality in employment and years of neoliberal capitalist experimentations make post-Soviet Eastern Europe a suitable avenue for investigation of gender relations and the way they are impacted by leave regulations. Drawing on the theoretical work of Fraser this research investigates the extent to which childcare policies in seven post-Soviet countries conform to the models of labour division and promote gender equality. The conclusions produced in this research provide evidence that the non-EU members carry on the Soviet legacy of neglecting gender equality in the private sphere and characterized by refamilialization. At the same time, the Baltic countries are remarkably affected by the EU membership and introduce leave policies that contribute to greater gender symmetry in the countries. |
| Supervisor | Kriszan Andrea |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/lebid_maryna.pdf |
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