Gender-Equalizing Family Policies and Mothers' Entry into Paid Work: Recent Evidence From Norway

Marit Rønsen and Ragni Hege Kitterød

Feminist Economics, 2015, vol. 21, issue 1, 59-89

Abstract: Universal parental leaves with job protection and earnings compensation increase women's labor market attachment, but very long leaves may have negative consequences at both individual and societal levels. Using panel data from the period 1996-2010, we study whether it is possible to offset the potential negative effects on women's labor supply of long parental leaves by policies targeted especially at fathers, and policies making formal daycare cheaper and more easily available. Norway is used as example, since all recent extensions in the parental leave scheme have been reserved for fathers and at the same time the daycare sector has expanded rapidly. We find that Norwegian mothers did enter work faster after childbirth in the late 2000s than a decade earlier. The latest initiatives may thus have contributed to a shortening of women's career interruptions and a more equal division of paid and unpaid work among parents.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2014.927584

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