Documents Zagel, Hannah 2 results

"Family policy is not easily conceptualized or measured in comparative research. Previous approaches are highly diverse and have yielded mixed empirical results in terms of placing countries' family policy profiles in the international landscape and mapping their trajectories. This article reviews the long-standing discussion of the familization and defamilization concepts popular in comparative research, derives a conceptual framework and provides an in-depth discussion of current empirical approaches. It tackles the lacking consensus on how familization and defamilization are measured, arguing that interventions in gender-specific and intergenerational dependencies are the key dimensions and that measurement at policy level is best suited to capture within- and cross-country variation in family policy. Using data on 21 European countries, the article proposes measures that acknowledge the different dimensions of familization and defamilization. The proposed indicators prove to be useful for mapping a range of European countries' family policy constellations but are bound by data restrictions. Therefore, the article makes a strong claim for improving the availability of internationally comparable family policy data."

"This paper investigates the relationships between single mothers' demographic and socio-economic circumstances and differences in their labour market attachment in Great Britain and West Germany. Employment of single mothers is a key issue in current policy debates in both countries, as well as in welfare state research. The heterogeneity of the group of women who experience single motherhood poses a challenge to contemporary social policy. To complicate the matter, single motherhood is not static but a result of family life dynamics. This paper provides an empirical insight into differences in labour market attachment of single mothers, investigating the demographic and socio-economic factors that distinguish careers dominated by full-time, part-time or non-employment. Considering 10-18 years of women's careers, data from the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2008) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (1991-2008) (N= 678) are used for regression analysis. The findings suggest that, in both countries, young single mothers experience longer periods of non-employment. Vocational qualifications go together with part-time careers while high education attainments and school-age children allow for full-time employment. Part-time employment is a less common track for British compared to West German single mothers."