Publications / Papers / 2004 / 2004:018 Practices, Policies and Preferences
Practices, Policies and Preferences
The significance of public childcare for women’s employment is contested. Some scholars see the lack of high quality and affordable childcare as a main barrier to women’s employment and to gender equality. Others argue that women’s employment patterns reflect women’s real preferences. This study of the interaction of mothers’ employment, public childcare services and parents’ child care preferences over three decades in Norway contributes to this debate. The main theoretical assumption is that preferences are adaptive, and that changing opportunity structures affect preferences. The analysis demonstrates how the nature of the relationships between practices, policies and preferences change over time, through complex feedback mechanisms. The analysis is based on survey data, public childcare statistics, policy documents and public debates.