The Comparative Political Economy of Parental Leave and Child Care: Evidence from Twenty OECD Countries

What explains the variation in policies that support working women and mothers? This question has important implications for the social, economic, and political equality of women. In order to better understand the politics of government effort to support working mothers, I develop an index of maternal employment policy for twenty Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in the mid-1980s, mid-1990s, and 2002 and test competing hypotheses drawn from the welfare state literature. I find that political and economic institutions and the percent of women in parliament are key factors that shape the degree to which states encourage maternal employment.