TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bünning, Mareike
A1  - Hipp, Lena
T1  - How can we become more equal?
BT  - public policies and parents’ work–family preferences in Germany
JF  - Journal of European social policy
N2  - This study examines how public policies affect parents' preferences for a more egalitarian division of paid and unpaid work. Based on the assumption that individuals develop their preferences within a specific policy context, we examine how changes in three policies affect mothers' and fathers' work-family preferences: the availability of high-quality, affordable childcare; the right to return to a full-time job after having reduced hours to part-time and an increase in the number of 'partner months' in parental leave schemes. Analysing a unique probability sample of parents with young children in Germany from 2015 (N = 1756), we find that fathers would want to work slightly fewer hours if they had the right to return to a full-time position after working part-time, and mothers would want to work slightly more hours if childcare opportunities were improved. Full-time working parents, moreover, are found to prefer fewer hours independent of the policy setting, while non-employed parents would like to work at least some hours. Last but not least, our analyses show that increasing the number of partner months in the parental leave scheme considerably increases fathers' preferences for longer and mothers' preferences for shorter leave. Increasing the number of partner months in parental schemes hence has the greatest potential to increase gender equality.
KW  - work-family policies
KW  - parental leave
KW  - childcare
KW  - working time
KW  - regulations
KW  - parenthood
KW  - working hours
KW  - gender equality
KW  - preferences
KW  - capabilities framework
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/09589287211035701
SN  - 0958-9287
SN  - 1461-7269
VL  - 32
IS  - 2
SP  - 182
EP  - 196
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
ER  -