Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents iii
3. List of tables and figures iv
4. Acknowledgements v
5. Notes on contributors vi
6. Introduction 1
7. Australia: the difficult birth of paid maternity leave 15
8. Canada and Québec: two policies, one country 33
9. Czech Republic: normative or choice-oriented system? 51
10. Estonia: halfway from the Soviet Union to the Nordic countries 69
11. Finland: negotiating tripartite compromises 87
12. France: gender equality a pipe dream? 103
13. Germany: taking a Nordic turn? 119
14. Hungary and Slovenia: long leave or short? 135
15. Iceland: from reluctance to fast-track engineering 159
16. The Netherlands: bridging labour and care 175
17. Norway: the making of the father’s quota 191
18. Portugal and Spain: two pathways in Southern Europe 207
19. Sweden: individualisation or free choice in parental leave? 227
20. The European directive: making supra-national parental leave policy 243
21. Conclusion 259
22. Demographic, gender and early childhood policy indicators for case study countries (2005, 2006) 273
23. Index 275