engleski

Maternity support policies: a cluster analysis of 22 European Union countries

Maternity support varies among the European Union countries, but with shared goals such as improving natality, gender equality, fostering employment and maintaining incomes. Objective of the research is to identify clusters of countries regarding the maternity support policies on the trail of Esping-Andersen’s categorisation of welfare states. Twelve indicators are used to capture the following three dimensions of the variety of the maternity support: design of public policies, their generosity and national context (economic performance, education and poverty levels, inequality, etc.). By using clustering methods and principal component analysis, the results suggest four regional/cultural clusters. Additionally, the proposed clusters are used to analyse the differences among countries in fertility levels, mothers’ employment rates and gender gap in human development. Results are not definite, but do indicate that fertility levels are higher in economically stronger clusters, while lower gender gaps could be attributed to longer and better paid parental leaves.

cluster analysis ; fertility ; gender equality ; maternity

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