Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v17i3.924
Female Employment and Access to Child Care Services in Croatia: Is There a Connection?
Ivana Dobrotić
; Studijski centar socijalnog rada, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Teo Matković
; Studijski centar socijalnog rada, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Jelena Baran
Abstract
Accessible child care services are crucial for overcoming work-family conflict and enabling uninterrupted career flow for both parents. This claim is strongly supported by research findings and is being advocated by both European and Croatian strategic documents. The main goal of this article is to establish existence, strength and direction of association between female employment rate and child care coverage in Croatia at county level in the 1998-2009 period. We have established existence of substantive and stable regional differences in both child care coverage and female employment rate. A strong correlation between these two indicators exists, but the association between their yearly changes is far weaker. Various specifications of regression models upon this panel indicated strong intervening role of yearly change in county-level GDP in explaining employment rate, while lagging the trend in child care coverage for one year did not change the results. Association is more robust when changes in child care coverage are being predicted by changes in female employment level in the previous year. These findings suggest that current organization of child care system in Croatia does not entice substantial increase in female employment and fails to provide equal access to care services for all its citizens.
Keywords
Croatian child care system; female employment; child care; regional development inequalities
Hrčak ID:
59914
URI
Publication date:
2.11.2010.
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