The institutional results, however, vary considerably across countries. The research we present here addresses the evolution of state support for care in Sweden, Germany, Spain, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland. Among our authors, seven different countries are represented. Sweden, Germany, and Spain represent three vertices of a triangle of European strategies. Swedish policy explicitly aims to help parents reconcile work and family responsibilities.
German policy encourages married women to specialize in family care.
Spanish policy largely ignores the problem, offering relatively little public support for care. Each of the articles dealing with these countries offer some surprises. It is often assumed that the Swedish child care system emerged easily from a social democratic political system with a strong trade union movement. Feminists have often been dismissive of the German system of subsidizing housewives who stay at home. In addition to explaining exactly how this system works, Eileen Trzcinski makes a provocative case for more attention to its possible benefits.