abstract: 'This article analyses public parental leave in eight northern European

  countries, and assesses its opportunity potential to facilitate equal

  parental involvement and employment, focusing on gender and income

  opportunity gaps. It draws on Sen''s capability and Weber''s ideal-types

  approach to analyze policies across countries. It offers the ideal

  parental leave architecture, one which minimizes the policy-generated

  gender and class inequality in parents'' opportunities to share parenting

  and keep their jobs, thus providing real opportunities for different

  groups of individuals to achieve valued functionings as parents. Five

  policy indicators are created using benchmarking and graphical analysis.

  Two sources of opportunity inequality are considered: the leave system

  as the opportunity and constraint structure, and the socio-economic

  contexts as the conversion factors. The article produces a comprehensive

  overview of national leave policies, visually presenting leave policy

  across countries. Considering policy capability ramifications beyond

  gender challenges a family policy-cluster idea and the Nordic-Baltic

  divide. It demonstrates that leave systems in northern Europe are far

  from homogenous; they diverge in the degree to which they create real

  opportunities for parents and children as well as in key policy

  dimensions through which these opportunities are created.'
affiliation: 'Javornik, J (Corresponding Author), Univ East London, Sch Social Sci,
  London, England.

  Javornik, Jana, Univ East London, Sch Social Sci, London, England.

  Kurowska, Anna, Univ Warsaw, Inst Social Policy, Warsaw, Poland.'
author: Javornik, Jana and Kurowska, Anna
author-email: j.javornik@uel.ac.uk
author_list:
- family: Javornik
  given: Jana
- family: Kurowska
  given: Anna
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1111/spol.12316
eissn: 1467-9515
files: []
issn: 0144-5596
journal: SOCIAL POLICY \& ADMINISTRATION
keywords: 'Family policy; Gender and class; Capability; Comparative analysis;

  Policy indicators; Nordic and Baltic'
keywords-plus: 'FAMILY POLICIES; CHILD-CARE; WELFARE; FAMILIALISM; EQUALITY; DIVISION;

  PATTERNS; MOTHERS; SWEDEN; WAGE'
language: English
month: JUL
number: 4, SI
number-of-cited-references: '61'
orcid-numbers: 'Kurowska, Anna/0000-0002-3578-4517

  Javornik, Jana/0000-0002-6103-1359'
pages: 617-637
papis_id: 5873efe8d54e80f4bcb4d51d51bffb05
ref: Javornik2017workcare
researcherid-numbers: 'Kurowska, Anna/R-9932-2019

  '
times-cited: '28'
title: 'Work and Care Opportunities under Different Parental Leave Systems: Gender
  and Class Inequalities in Northern Europe'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000402796400005
usage-count-last-180-days: '3'
usage-count-since-2013: '38'
volume: '51'
web-of-science-categories: Development Studies; Public Administration; Social Issues;
  Social Work
year: '2017'