Towards The Universal Care Course Model. Care Policies and employment patterns in Austria, The Netherlands and Sweden

The principle aim is to analyse care policies and mothers'
employment patterns in Austria in comparison with The Netherlands and
Sweden. While Sweden fosters a Universal Breadwinner model, Austrian
policies set incentives for mothers to organize private care for their children
for a relatively long period of time, similar to the Caregiver Parity model. The
Netherlands, approaching the Universal Caregiver model, support part-time
integration into the labour market, combined with private part-time caring
facilities for the children. The cross-national comparative approach has been
adopted throughout the description of care policies and the data analysis,
using the European Social Survey. Drawing on the strong cross-national
differences in policies and employment patterns, we outline the main
principles of a Universal Care Course (UCC). The model addresses questions
about how to achieve the ideal of a smooth transition between work and care
in a gender-sensitive way.
Key words: care; policies; employment; Austria; cross-national comparison