engleski

Childbirth related leaves in the European former communist countries: Transitions in the last several decades

Leave policies involve different gender- and class-related assumptions and may differently affect men and women, as well as various social groups. Understanding gendered assumptions embedded in policy goals and instruments − including a gender-class intersection within the leave policy design − is thus crucial if one wants to understand the outcomes of a particular leave policy design. While the gender dimension of leave policies design become increasingly discussed in the comparative family policy literature, discussions have been often limited to the experience of several countries that are usually seen as leaders in the field (e.g., Nordic countries). Experiences of former socialist countries’ considerable legacies of leave policies development are less known. In the European former socialist countries, the leave schemes started to develop more extensively after World War II, following the political goal to expand women’s labor market participation. Even though a dual-earner family model was actively promoted, the leave policies were built on maternalist assumptions. The gender equality dimension of leave policy design has ascended at the political agenda in the last two decades, albeit solely in the countries that joined the EU. In many countries, the tendencies to reinforce traditional, mother-centered leave policies remain strong although women are expected to actively participate in the labor market. Many women thus break their careers to care for their children in their first years. First comparative works on former socialist countries pointed to similarities in their leave policies and reforms. Major differences in their leave policies design remain under- explored, as well as a broad complexity of undertaken reforms and their consequences. For instance, the abrupt shifts in gender assumptions behind the leave policy design in the transition period (and even later) had brought essential implications for women’s position in the labor market and as family carers. This paper thus contributes to the stream of the comparative family policy literature that deals with diverse experience of European former socialist countries (current European Union Member States, as well as ex-Yugoslav and ex-Soviet Union countries) by mapping and discussing the development of childbirth- related leaves (maternity, paternity and parental leave) in these countries in the last five decades, that is, since the 1970s. The particular focus is on competing priorities and inter-related policy concerns embedded in policy design, such as gender equality, fertility incentive, or labor market participation, each of them bringing different gender implications. The analysis covers leave characteristics, such as eligibility rules, duration, benefit levels, flexibility, etc. It puts additional light on the contexts behind significant leave policy reforms, particularly as related to two breaking points: 1) transition from the socialist to the capitalist regime, and 2) the European Union (EU) accession. The main question the paper aims to answer is: what are the effects of policy design on gender (and social) inequalities in the European former socialist countries in a historical perspective?

Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, Parental Leave, post-socialist countries

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