Gender, Culture, and the State: Family Policy in Conservative Countries

家庭政策在降低有子女家庭、特别是单亲家庭的贫困率方面发挥着关键作用，并影响到妇女是否在孩子还小的时候就寻求就业。为什么有些国家比其他国家对家庭提供更慷慨的支持？这些政策与女性工作、性别平等和国家的宗教价值观有什么关系？本项目通过研究三个宣称坚定致力于支持家庭的保守政权（法国、德国和荷兰）的家庭政策发展来回答这些问题。本文采用比较历史的方法，分析了这三种家庭政策传统的异同，以便更好地理解这些传统的起源和结果。在这样做的过程中，它解决了关于社会天主教意识形态、亲生育主义、政党和妇女运动对公共政策的因果重要性的辩论。具体而言，该项目分析了1950年至2000年间法国、德国和荷兰的家庭政策立法（成功和失败）。通过收集有关家庭津贴、育儿假、儿童保育、税收优惠、子女抚养和单亲福利的数据，该分析提供了每个国家家庭政策的历史，比较了三个国家的家庭政策，并估计了政策随时间变化的定量时间序列模型。因此，这些方法测试了各国家庭政策的可能原因，该项目更广泛地有助于理解公共政策的来源。

Family policies play a critical role in lowering poverty rates for families with children, in particular for single parent families, and affect whether women pursue employment when children are young. Why do some countries provide more generous support for families than others? How do these policies relate to female work, gender equality, and religious values of nations? This project answers these questions through the study of the development of family policy in three conservative regimes (France, Germany, and the Netherlands) that profess a strong commitment to the support of families. Taking a comparative-historical approach, it analyzes similarities and differences in these three family policy traditions in order to understand better both the origins and outcomes of these traditions. In so doing, it addresses debates over the causal importance of social Catholic ideology, pro-natalism, political parties, and women's movements to public polices.Specifically, the project analyzes family policy legislation (both successful and failed) in France, Germany, and the Netherlands from 1950 through 2000. By gathering data on family allowances, parental leave, child care, tax benefits, child support, and benefits to single parents, the analysis provides a history of family policies in each nation, compares family policies across the three nations, and estimates quantitative time-series models of changes in policies over time. The methods thus test for possible causes of family policies across the nations, and the project contributes more broadly to the understanding of the sources of public policies.