Families as economic and social actors

Gøsta Esping-Andersen

Chapter 12 in Handbook of Comparative Political Economy, 2025, pp 219-232 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In contrast to the Second Demographic Transition's emphasis on postmodern values driving contemporary family decline, this chapter adopts a multiple equilibrium framework which emphasizes that family change is, instead, primarily related to the revolution of women's roles. The ongoing ‘crisis’ of the family in advanced societies is, in this perspective, the product of the decaying male breadwinner model and the difficulties of consolidating an alternative, gender-symmetric family regime. We should therefore expect that partner stability and childbearing will increase as gender equality progresses and becomes the norm. The degree to which such a new family model will consolidate is endogenously linked to welfare state policies and social services expansion.

Keywords: Multiple family equilibria; Gender; Welfare state; Service economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035327775
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