ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to examine women’s labour market behaviour in the period they have a child. Human capital accumulated by the woman helps to explain this behaviour in this particular period in a woman’s life. A central assumption in Esping-andersen’s typology is that welfare states can be understood only through their historical ideology, and that the ideological legacy shapes the present day actions of policy makers. Public involvement in combining work and family is minimal in the United Kingdom compared to the family policies in West Germany, Sweden and in The Netherlands from 1990. The Dutch family policy area is characterised as a corporatist Christian democratic welfare state, until 1994. Similar to The Netherlands, Germany is characterised as a Christian Democratic Welfare State, with a strong traditional familial ideology. According to the Esping-Andersen’s welfare state typology, public involvement in subsidising family’s cost of children is strong in Germany and Sweden.
