cite: Bartha2020
author: Bartha, A., & Zentai, V.
year: 2020
title: "Long-term care and gender equality: Fuzzy-set ideal types of care regimes in europe"
publisher: Social inclusion (vol. 8, issue 4, pp. 92–102)
uri: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v8i4.2956
pubtype: article
discipline: sociology

country: global
period: 2016-2019
maxlength: 1
targeting: implicit
group: women
data: European Commission; Eurofound; Mutual Information System on Social Protection; European Institute for Gender Equality

design: observational
method: fuzzy-set ideal type ranking
sample: 28
unit: country
representativeness: regional
causal: 0 # 0 correlation / 1 causal

theory: familialization in LTC
limitations: scarce comparable data; ideal-types follow prior assumptions potentially restricting view
observation:
  - intervention: social security (pensions, care facilities); regulation (LTC-reforms, fiscal policies)
    institutional: 1
    structural: 1
    agency: 0
    inequality: gender; age
    type: 1 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
    indicator: 1 # 0 absolute / 1 relative
    measures: full-time equivalent employment rate gap between men and women
    findings: few countries fit an ideal-type household of male bread-winner (traditional), unsupported/supported double-earner; supported double-earner type mostly prevalent in Western Europe/Scandinavian countries, Southern/Eastern Europe predominantly unsupported double-earner; women will take on more unpaid care work in that model
    channels: in-home care facilitated by rising migrant cash-for-care work sectors may increase FLFP
    direction: -1 # -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
    significance: 0 # 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg

notes: relying on migrant work is often poorly regulated, low paid and in turn may have negative consequences on gender equality in migrant communities/home countries
annotation: |
  An observational study on the effects of the policy trajectories of European countries concerning long-term care work, with a special focus on the impacts on gender equality.
  The trajectories for the study are mostly described through measures of social protection and social security such as pensions or the provision of residential or at-home care facilities, regulation and fiscal policies.
  Regarding the effects on the labour market it uses the full-time equivalent employment rate gap between men and women.
  It finds that few countries in Europe fit one of the ideal-type household their ranking predicted, between male bread-winner, unsupported double-earner and supported double-earner households.
  Only half of the countries clearly fall into one of the three ideal-types and no countries fall into the category of male bread-winner.
  While supported double-earner type is mostly prevalent in Western Europe and the Scandinavian countries, Southern and Eastern Europe are predominantly shaped by the unsupoorted double-earner type.
  Generally, more women will take on more unpaid care work in this model especially, though the prevalence exists in all models, which also explains the employment rate gap not decreasing significantly.
  Where it decreases, the 'familialization' of care work is often undergoing a process of being taken on as cash-for-care work by migrants in a rising work sector in the former countries, which in turn may slightly increase the overall female labour force participation.
  However, relying on this type of work may not be sustainable or provide decent work, as it often remains poorly regulated and low paid, and may in turn have negative consequences on gender inequality in migrant communities or home countries.
  Some limitations of the study include its scarce underlying data for comparable care work and care migration data, as well as the weak categorization possibilities perhaps obscuring incongruent patterns of policy effects.