Female Labour Market Participation, Social Policy and the Gender Care Gap. A

Fuzzy-Set Analysis

Barbara Da Roit*, Marcel Hoogenboom* and Bernhard Weicht*

* Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Correspondence address: m.j.m.hoogenboom@uu.nl.

FIRST DRAF: PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

AUTHORS

Abstract

In this paper we investigated the relationship between the relative contributions of

women – in comparison to men: the “gender care gap” – to the informal care for their

partners, government care policies and the labour market position of European women.

We analysed the interlinkages between the three factors in thirteen European countries

by applying a research model based on the Fuzzy set/Qualitative comparative analysis

method. We chose this approach in order to be able identify patterns in the relationship

between the three factors, since in the literature it is suggested that none of the factors

alone can explain the presence or absence of the gender care gap. The results of our

analysis suggests that the extent to which countries are confronted with the ageing of

their populations and the (absence of a) policy reactions to this problem are crucial to

understanding the gender care gap in the care for elderly parents in need of care, while

the presence or absence of gendered care attitudes and labour market characteristic play

a relatively minor role.

Keywords:

Elderly care; gender care gap; labour market; social policy; fuzzy-set analysis

Page 1 of 24

1. Introduction

The gender gap in family caregiving is an established research finding: men tend to

dedicate less time and energy than women to caregiving and to provide specific

gendered types of help. Yet while the genderedness of caregiving has been well

documented in the literature, its explanations are less conclusive. In the literature

roughly three alternative explanations can be distinguished. One explanation seeks the

roots of the “gender care gap” between men and women in (the interiorization of)

gender norms, while a second one explains the gap by pointing to differences between

the positions of men and women on the labour market. Finally, a third type of

explanation relates the gender care gap to (the absence of) welfare state policies.

Following recent claims in literature that the gender care gap should be explained by a

combination of the above mentioned factors, in this paper we use Fuzzy set/Qualitative

comparative analysis (Fs/QCA) (Ragin 2000, Kvist 2007) to identify patterns in the

relationship between gendered care giving for elderly people (75+), labour market

position of men and women and the availability of government care arrangements for

elderly people in thirteen European countries. After discussing the theoretical

background (Section 2) and specifying the methodology of the research (Section 3) we

present our findings (Section 4). Finally, in Section 5 we highlight the contribution of

the research to the debate, its limitations and suggestions for future investigation.

2. Theoretical background

2.1 Gendered division of care

Gendered patterns of care-giving have been of interest for a long time (Neal et al. 1997).

However, these practices have largely been described as representing gender patterns

and cultures and cross-national variations in the gender division of care are often

explained through a focus on normative dimensions of welfare policies which are

themselves mainly based on societal gender cultures (Aboim 2010). It has been

established in the literature that in the context of elder care women fulfil the larger part

of care-giving in most countries. In a cross-national study Bracke et al. (2008) show that

the spouse is the number one caregiver in all age categories and that especially women

fulfil care activities when their partner is ill. While the share of men caring for an

elderly person increases dramatically with age (Kahn et al. 2011, Del Bono et al. 2009,

Page 2 of 24

Cahill 2000) men’s caring involvement is predominantly linked to spouses (Bracke et

al. 2008). Dahlberg et al. (2007) also confirm that the time spent caring increases with

age, with the highest levels of caring commitment in people aged over 80 years, and that

overall women commit more time to caring than men. The authors also indicate,

however, that men take over a large proportion in later life (caring for their partners), a

time when people have usually left the labour market. Also in the type of care delivered

a gender division can be found. Many studies report that women fulfil more intense,

personal care and often provide also more managerial care (Rosenthal et al. 2007,

Kruijswijk, Da Roit and Hoogenboom, forthcoming) both in countries with a more

equal gender division, such as Sweden (Jegermalm 2006) and countries with a stronger

divide, such as Japan (Hanaoka and Norton 2008) or Italy (Toffanin 2011). In terms of

consequences of caring Rosenthal et al. (2007) report that the provision of care often

leads to increased stress for women while for men care delivery often interferes with

work commitments.

Apart from different gender cultures how can the discrepancy between men and

women’s caring practices be explained? Geist (2005) argues that while occupational

gender segregation, gender differences in wages and workplace authority and the gender

gap in poverty have received widely attention, the factors determining stratification

processes within families have been studied less and that, in particular, an integration of

both perspectives within one framework is missing.

2.2 Structural factors

It has widely been argued that the gendered division of care labour cannot sufficiently

be explained by individual decisions but are rather shaped by structural factors linked to

economic, political and social conditions (Cooke 2006). Several structural factors have

been identified in shaping the gendered division of household labour and care labour.

The access to and the use of long-term care services varies according to health status,

gender and socio-economic position (Portrait et al. 2000). Similarly, in terms of support

for informal carers, Rogero-Garcia and Rosenberg (2011) observe that support (paid and

unpaid) is significantly lower among households with female caregivers and that in

particular the lower educated caregivers receive little outside support. Also Ungerson

(2000) emphasises the importance of economic and structural factors in determining the

distribution of care labour. In particular she argues that gender on its own is not

sufficient as a social category to understand the social division of care. Rather,

Page 3 of 24

economic inequalities linked to jobs and wages are equally important in creating the

link between labour market inequalities and care inequalities, both between men and

women, and between women from different social economic backgrounds.

Arksey and Morée (2008) identify an important tension between the fact that

several countries introduce policies to increase the participation of disadvantaged

groups on the labour market (such as women and older workers) while at the same time

demanding more from people in terms of care giving. This tension between the demands

of employment and the requirement of caring (see Crompton 2001) carries particular

gendered connotations, in that gender equality is promoted in the context of the labour

market, while the gendered division of care work often remains unchallenged

(MacLeavy 2007). Öun (2012) and Meiko (2010) therefore emphasises the important

role welfare institutions can also play in the household division of labour.

Thus, two structural factors specifically influence the realm of private care

giving and the division of care labour within people’s households: the labour market

conditions and structures and the social policies in place.

2.2.1 The labour market

In the literature so far inequality in the division of housework has often been linked to

labour market inequality where labour market differences are usually seen as

consequences of domestic labour (Geist 2005). This causal relationship is assumed in

much of the literature studying the gendered division of care labour. Jang et al. (2012),

for example, using SHARE data, emphasise that intensive care negatively affects labour

force participation among middle aged women in both northern and southern European

countries. They conclude that introducing further formal arrangements for care which

allow in particular women to share their informal carer’s roles might lead to an increase

in the participation of women in the labour market. Knijn and Kremer (1997) establish a

framework to analyse the relationship between labour market and care obligations,

inherently linked to gendered discussions of care as public or private possibility and

paid or unpaid work. They particularly focus on the development of social policies,

originally designed to ‘liberate people from the obligation to work so that they could

care’ (329). In the context of child care the relationship between the participation in the

labour market and care responsibilities has been studied widely. Ellingsæter and

Gulbrandsen (2007) argue that, in the case of Sweden or Denmark, the development of

well-funded public child care was explicitly linked to the facilitation of mothers’

Page 4 of 24

employment and gender equality. However, political discourses and policies still remain

to imagine women to be the main provider of informal care (Outshoorn 2002).

Spiess and Schneider (2003) identify a negative relationship for women between

the changes in care giving and changes in working times in European Union countries

arguing that a change in work hours is negatively associated with the beginning of a

care giving period. In their analysis they could not, however, establish a relationship

between the ending of a care giving period, or the reduction of care hours and increasing

labour market participation. The authors argue that this suggests that reductions or

terminations of work due to care giving responsibilities are not compensated later. They

also find important differences between northern European countries and Southern

European countries (including Ireland), linking the consequences of care giving on

working hours to the availability of formal care arrangements.

Similarly, Kotsadam (2011), drawing on data from the ECHP, finds women’s

employment to be negatively associated with care-giving to elderly people. However,

the gendered effects seem to be more negative in Southern European countries and less

negative in the Nordic countries, and in between in the Central European countries. He

demonstrates that not only do women provide more care in Southern European

countries but that also the negative correlation with the probability of being employed

and the number of working hours is stronger. Other authors, however, argue that a

straightforward link between women’s increased labour force participation and

reduction of informal care cannot be observed (Doty et al. 1998), as care responsibilities

are often taken over at times when people have already left the labour force.

In an analysis of the weaker labour market involvement of informal carers in the

UK Henz (2006) concludes that the lower levels of involvement of female carers to the

labour market was predominantly a result of their adaptation to caring. This means that

part-time working women are more likely to leave the labour market than those working

full-time. The reason she finds not in the idea that part-time work is easier to combine

with care obligations but rather that part-time work is seen as marginal work and

temporary work in comparison to full-time work. However, also this link is influenced

by socio-economic differences in that rather working class women reported effects of

caring on their work arrangements. In another contribution Henz (2010) applies a

household-division-of-labour perspective to analyse the distribution of care, showing

that those working full-time provide lower shares of care for their parents with needs

than those who are less strongly attached to the labour market. Henz (2010) argues that

Page 5 of 24

this effect is not only linked to time constraints of carers but rather higher bargaining

power derived from paid works.

Elsewhere, Henz (2009) argues that in particular for men full-time employment

seems to be a reason not to engage in care. However, also the distribution of fulltime

and part-time work is only one factor in the link between labour market characteristics

and care divisions. Tavora (2012) shows with the case of Portugal that high rates of

female fulltime employment can also be linked to high levels of familialism in the realm

of care. Putten et al. (2010) in a study on the Netherlands find no empirical relationship

between work hours and the provision of support to parents. They therefore argue that

the feared declining support for older people as a result of changing labour market

participation for women cannot be observed in the Netherlands. For men they find a

particularly inelastic relationship between work hours and caring responsibilities (men

do not cut down working hours as a result of supporting parents in need). However, the

Dutch case is particular in the sense that part-time work is widely available and that in

middle age the vast majority of women (and increasingly men) work part-time, which

might enable an easier combination for both men and women of working and caring

responsibilities.

Sarkisian and Gersel (2004) specifically analyse the effects of different

employment characteristics (and differences between men and women) on the gender

gap in helping parents. They find that apart from the crucial factor of having or not

having a job (which in particular counts for women’s availability to care) certain job

characteristics can explain the gender gap. While the analysis suggests that, all things

being equal, employed women and men provide equal amounts of help the authors

strongly emphasise the fact that employment patterns differ significantly and that

therefore, all things are not equal. In particular they identify different wage levels and

the number of self-employed people as defining the gender gap. As higher wages are

typically associated with fewer hours of supporting parents the gender wage gap

translates itself into a gender care gap. Similarly, the fact that fewer women are self-

employed leads to a higher probability to take over the help for parents. Henz (2010)

agrees that spouses do not heavily negotiate the care for their parents but that rather

employment conditions play a crucial role. In particular full-time employment, wage

differences (in particular in low-income households) drive the gender care division (see

also Heitmueller and Inglis 2007). While Sarkisian and Gersel (2004) therefore

recommend that a change in the payment structures of jobs would directly change

Page 6 of 24

gender divisions in people’s support of their parents, they do not take into account the

role social policies can play in this equation.

2.2.2 Social policies

Social policies can be found in relation to both, labour market and care. Generally social

policies for supporting unpaid care work have developed rather modestly all over

Europe when compared with labour market activation policies (Pascall and Lewis

2004). Bühlmann et al. (2010) argue that a comparative perspective shows that the

division of labour is different in countries with more egalitarian values and that this

shift in values is strongly moderated by welfare policies. These policies are furthermore

linked to equality policies on a broader scale. Fuwa and Cohen (2007) in that context

observe how women’s fulltime employment and higher income has strong effects on the

gender division of housework in countries with greater equality of access policies.

At the same time it is important to pay attention to the fact that policies are also

based on an image of and that they also reproduce images of women and men in certain

social roles (Rake 2001). Hammer and Oesterle (2003) for example, show the

reproductive effect of (social) policies on the gendered division of care labour arguing

that in Austria only for those with higher financial means alternatives of informal care

are accessible, and Morgan and Zippel (2003), demonstrate how paid child care leave

policies are reinforcing the traditional division of care work in people’s homes, also

observed by Kvande and Brandth (2009) in relation to cash for care systems.

The fact that the design of the welfare state and its (care) policies is affecting both

women’s labour force participation (Semyonov 2006) and the gendered division of

informal care labour (Ungerson 2000) requires a framework that links together the

effects of public interventions and policies on both fields of interest (Saraceno and Keck

2011). Therefore the question we aim to answer in this paper is: is there a relationship

between government care policies and the labour market position of European women

on the one hand, and the relative contributions of women (in comparison to men: the

“gender care gap”) to the informal care for partners on the other? And if so, what

patterns between countries can be identified how can these patterns be explained? In

order to be able to investigate the interlinkages between the three factors – gender care

gap, labour market position and social policies – in the next section we will develop a

research model based on the Fuzzy set/Qualitative comparative analysis method which

Page 7 of 24

enables the identification of patterns in the relationship between the three factors in

thirteen European countries.

3. Methods

In this paper we choose to apply the Fuzzy set/ Qualitative comparative analysis method

(Fs/QCA) in stead of the “classic” quantitative of qualitative approaches for two

connected reasons. First, the Fs/QCA method allows us to discover ‘configurations of

causes’ (Ragin 1994:114). Thus while the literature suggests that individual factors

cannot account for the gender care gap in various European countries, the FS/QCA

method helps to discover combinations of factors producing a certain outcome.

Moreover, the method opens the possibility to find different sets of causal conditions

producing the same outcome, in our case the presence/absence of a gender care gap.

Second, the Fs/QCA method is particularly useful when a limited number of cases in

analyzed, which is mostly the case in welfare state research. In this paper, due to the

limited availability of data only thirteen European countries can be included in the

analysis.

Following the Fuzzy set/ Qualitative comparative analysis method we first

translate “outcome variables” (variables related to the gender care gap) and “condition

variables” (variables related to social policies and labour market) into fuzzy sets that

‘reflect theoretical concepts and analytical constructs’ (Kvist 2007:204). Thus, on the

basis of theoretical considerations we determine the degree to which a case (a country)

belongs to a certain set. For example, on the basis of substantive criteria we decide how

high the score of a country on the indicator must be to be “included” in the set “gender

care gap”. Yet in stead of creating binary “crisp sets” (cases are either “in” or “out”), we

make four-value fuzzy sets with value 1 when a case is “fully in”, 0.67 when a case is

“more in than out”, 0.33 when a case is “more out than in” and 0 when a case is “fully

out of” the set (Rihoux and Ragin 2008: 91).

Page 8 of 24

Outcome variable: gender care gap

The outcome variable in our analysis is the gender care gap (CAREGAP), which we

define as the difference between the contributions of men and women in the caring for

an elderly parent. The variable is calculated by dividing the proportion of men and

women with at least one non co-resident natural parent caring for mother and/or father

"almost weekly" or more often, by the proportion of men with the same characteristics

(see Annex 1 for the sources and calculation methods). When constructing the fuzzy set

we consider that cases are “fully in” (1) when the value of the outcome variable is

higher than 3, i.e. if women dedicate three times as much time to the caring for their

elderly parents as men (see Table 1). Countries with a score between 1 and 3 are

deemed “mostly in” (0.67), countries with a score between 0 and 1 are considered

“more out than in” (0.33), and countries with a score smaller than 0 are deemed “fully

out” (0) which means that in these countries there is no gender care gap (see Table 1 for

the fuzzy-set score conversion table, and Table 2 for the CAREGAP scores).

fuzzy set score 1 0.67 0.33 0

CAREGAP >3 between 1 and 3 between 0 and 1 <0

EXPSERV >2 between 1 and 2 between 0.5 and 1 <0.5

PTGAP >3 between 2 and 3 between 1 and 2 <1

PAYGAP >20 between 10 and 20 between 2 and 10 <2

CARERES >=0.5 between 0.4 and 0.5 between 0.3 and 0.4 <0.3

GENDCARE > 30 between 20 and 30 between 10 and 20 <10

Table 1: Fuzzy-set score conversion table

Page 9 of 24

Country Gender care gap CAREGAP

Austria 2.8 0.67

Belgium 1.2 0.67

Czech Rep. 0.4 0.33

Denmark 1.1 0.67

France 1.2 0.67

Germany 0.1 0.33

Greece 4.9 1

Italy 1.4 0.67

Netherlands -0.1 0

Poland 4.1 1

Spain 0.1 0.33

Sweden -0.2 0

Switzerland 1.7 0.67

Table 2: The outcome variable: the gender care gap in thirteen European countries, and

the fuzzy set

Condition variables

On the basis of our discussion of the literature in Section 2, we select two clusters of

conditional variables: the labour market position of women relative to men and social

policies aimed at elderly people in a country. Following Sarkisian and Gersel (2004),

Henz (2006) and Heitmueller and Inglis (2007), we use two indicators to measure the

relative position of women to men on the labour market: the “part-time gap” and the

“pay gap”. The part-time gap (PTGAP) is defined as the difference between the part-

time employment rate of women and men aged 50-64, an age category which is most

likely to be active on the labour market while caring for an elderly parent (Dahlberg et

Page 10 of 24

al. 2007). We borrow the condition variable pay gap (PAYGAP) from Eurostat that

defines it as the difference in average wages between men and women. We measure the

level of social policies for elderly people in a country (EXPSERVE) by taking the total

public expenditure on long-term services for non co-resident natural parent as a

proportion of GDP.

In addition to the labour market position of women relative to men and social

policies aimed at elderly people in a country, we selected two extra conditional

variables: problem pressure and gendered care attitude. The variable problem pressure

(CARERES) is included in the analysis since it is likely that the gender care gap

increases when societies are confronted with growing numbers of elderly people due to

the ageing of their populations (Meiko 2010). Finally, the conditional variable gendered

care attitudes (GENDCARE) is included in order to check to what extent the magnitude

of the gender care gap can in a country be attributed to its prevailing attitudes towards

the role of men and women in caring gap (see Table 1 for the fuzzy-set score conversion

table, Table 3 for the scores, and Annex 1 for the sources and calculation methods).

Page 11 of 24

Gen

dere

d

care

att

itude

s

Fs-v

alue

0.67

0.33 1 0.33

0.33

0.67 1 0.67

0.67

0.33

0.67 0 0.33

Scor

e

20.9

17.0

34.1

13.0

11.6

26.2

35.3

27.7

22.4

16.5

20.6

7.6

16.5

Prob

lem

pres

sure

Fs-v

alue

0.67

0.67

0.33

0.33

0.67

0.67

0.67 1 0.33

0.33 1 0.67

0.67

Scor

e

0.43

0.45

0.31

0.36

0.45

0.45

0.48

0.53

0.34

0.30

0.50

0.43

0.42

Pay

gap

Fs-v

alue

1 0.33 1 0.67

0.67 1 1 0.33 1 0.33

0.67

0.67

0.67

Scor

e

25.5

9.1

23.6

17.7

16.9

23.0

21.5

5.1

23.6

7.5

17.1

17.9

18.7

Part

-tim

e

gap Fs

-val

ue

1 0.33

0.33

0.67

0.67 1 0.33

0.33

0.33 0 1 0.33 1

Scor

e

3.0

1.6

1.1

2.4

2.4

3.9

1.1

1.8

1.6

0.4

3.2

1.8

3.3

Publ

ic

expe

nditu

re

Fs-v

alue

0.67

0.67

0.67

0.67

0.33

0.67 0 0.33 1 0 0.33 1 0.33

Scor

e

1.1

1.7

1.2

1.8

0.7

1.1

0.3

0.9

3.5

0.4

0.6

3.6

0.8

Cou

ntry

Aus

tria

Bel

gium

Cze

ch R

ep.

Den

mar

k

Fran

ce

Ger

man

y

Gre

ece

Italy

Net

herla

nds

Pola

nd

Spai

n

Swed

en

Switz

erla

nd

Table 3: The condition variables: labour market position of women relative to men,

social policies aimed at elderly people, problem pressure and gendered care attitudes in

thirteen European countries, and the fuzzy sets

Page 12 of 24

4. Results

In this section we present the results of the analysis of our data using the Fz/QCA

software (Ragin 2008). The aim of the analysis is to identify possible combinations of

conditions leading to a given outcome, in our case the presence of a gender care gap or

its opposite, the absence of a gender care gap. To do so, Fuzzy set analysis requires the

determination of the “necessary conditions” and the “sufficient conditions” for a

specific outcome. A condition is “necessary” for the outcome when all the membership

scores of the outcome are less than or equal to the membership scores of the condition.

When a condition is necessary its “consistency score” (the extent to which one set is

contained in another) exceeds a certain threshold set by the researcher, generally 0.90 or

higher. The “coverage” indicates what proportion of the cases is ‘covered’ by the

condition (Ragin 2000, Rihoux and Ragin 2009). The analysis of our data shows that

there are no necessary conditions for the gender care gap outcome, since non of the

consistency scores exceeds 0.90 (see Table 4). This means that non of our condition

variables – social policy, part-time gap, pay gap, problem pressure or gendered care

attitudes – necessarily needs to be present to produce a gender care gap in the countries

that we analyse.

Consistency Coverage

~EXPSERV 0.854494 0.946287

PTGAP 0.664765 0.636612

PAYGAP 0.807418 0.605996

CARERES 0.808845 0.707865

GENDCARE 0.710414 0.711429

Table 4: Analysis of necessary conditions for the “gender care gap” outcome

(CAREGAP)

Yet even if not necessary a condition variable or a combination variable can be

“sufficient” to produces the outcome, a gender care gap. To find out to what extent this

is the case we need to build a truth table containing all the possible combinations of

Page 13 of 24

conditions leading to the outcome (Rihoux and Ragin 2009). After building the truth

table a “frequency threshold” is defined for the number of cases in each configuration in

the truth table. Since our N is relatively small (thirteen), the threshold is set at 1. In

addition, a “consistency threshold” is set in order to discern configurations that are

consistent subsets of the outcome from those that are not. We set the threshold at 0.80.

On the basis of our frequency and consistency thresholds and by choosing the so-called

the “intermediate solution” (see Ragin 2008) the Fz/QCA software recalculates the data

and identifies the combinations of conditions that are sufficient to produce the outcome,

a gender care gap. For the analysis of the results, three criteria are crucial: “raw” and

“unique coverage”, and “solution coverage”. The raw coverage indicates the proportion

of the outcome cases covered by a specific combination of conditions. The unique

coverage indicates the proportion of the outcome cases covered solely by a given

combination of conditions, which means that no other combination of conditions covers

those cases. Finally, the solution coverage indicates the proportion of cases covered by

all the combinations of factors included in the solution (Rihoux and Ragin 2009).

Our analysis of the sufficient conditions for the CAREGAP outcome is

presented in Table 5. The table indicates three paths which can produce a gender care

gap. The first path, associated with four European countries (France, Greece, Italy and

Poland), produces a gender care gap as a result of a relative lack of public services for

elderly people in need of care (~EXPSERVE, “~” indicates the negation of a condition).

The second path, associated with two countries (Belgium and Italy), combines a high

problem pressure (CARERES) with a relatively low pay gap (~PAYGAP), indicating

that in these two countries even with the absence of a pay gap between men and women

on the labour market, the relatively high care needs of elderly people “induces” women

to do more than men in the care for an elderly parent. Finally, the third path, also

associated with two countries (France and Switzerland), combines three factors that

together lead to a gender care gap: a high problem pressure (CARERES), a relatively

large occurrence of part-time labour by women (PTGAP) and little gendered care

attitudes (~GENDCARE). This third solution suggests that even if gendered attitudes

towards caring are mild in these countries, the fact that women hold more often than

men part-time jobs induces women to care more than men for an elderly parent. The

three-paths model presented in Table 5 shows satisfactory consistency (0.83) as well as

a satisfactory coverage (0.95).

Page 14 of 24

Solution ~EXPSERVE + CARERES*

~PAYGAP

+ CARERES*PTGAP*

~GENDCARE

Cases with

greater than 0.5

membership

France (0.67)

Greece (1.0)

Italy (0.67)

Poland (1.0)

Belgium (0.67)

Italy (1.0)

France (0.67)

Switzerland (1)

Consistency 0.946288 0.900602 0.782796

Raw coverage 0.854493 0.426533 0.519258

Unique coverage 0.288160 0.048502 0.048502

Solution consistency: 0.832709; solution coverage: 0.951498; Frequency cut off in

truth-table: 1.0; consistency cut off in truth table: 0.831658. Causal conditions included

for minimization: ~EXPSERV, PTGAP, PAYGAP, CARERES, GENDCARE.

Note: * logical AND; + logical OR; ~ negation.

Table 5: Analysis of necessary conditions for the “gender care gap” outcome

(CAREGAP), intermediate solution

We now turn to evaluation of the conditions for the negated “gender care gap” outcome

(~CAREGAP) to find out what combination(s) of conditions may produces a situation

in which there is no gendered care gap. Based on the same model, we perform the same

analyses as performed above concerning the presence of a gendered care gap

(CAREGAP). When we set the threshold for the consistency score again at 0.90, there is

one necessary condition for the situation in which a gendered care gap is absent,

relatively high public expenditures for elderly people in need of care (EXPSERV, see

Table 6). Subsequently, following the same procedures as for the presence of a

gendered care gap our analysis of the sufficient conditions for the ~CAREGAP outcome

suggests that there are two paths which can produce a situation in which a gender care

gap is absent (see Table 7). The first path combines relatively high public expenditures

Page 15 of 24

for elderly people in need of care (EXPSERV) with a low problem pressure

(~CARERES), i.e. relatively few elderly people in need of care. This path is associated

with the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. The second path, which is only associated

with Sweden, combines relatively high public expenditures for elderly people in need of

care (EXPSERV), a relatively small part-time gap between men and women (~PTGAP)

and relatively mild gendered care attitudes (~GENDCARE). The model presented in

Table 7 shows satisfactory consistency (0.80) and coverage (0.89).

Consistency Coverage

EXPSERVE 0.943239 0.847076

~PTGAP 0.555927 0.586268

~PAYGAP 0.385643 0.631148

~CARERES 0.609349 0.731463

~GENDCARE 0.662771 0.661667

Table 6: Analysis of necessary conditions for the negated “gender care gap” outcome

(~ CAREGAP)

Solution EXPSERV*~CARERES + EXPSERVE*~PTGAP*

~GENDCARE

Cases with

greater than 0.5

membership

Czech Rep. (0.67)

The Netherlands (1.0)

Sweden (1.0)

Consistency 0.914787 0.872180

Raw coverage 0.609349 0.387312

Unique coverage 0.113522 0.056761

Page 16 of 24

Solution consistency: 0.797904; solution coverage: 0.889816; Frequency cut off in

truth-table: 1.0; consistency cut off in truth table: 0.829146. Causal conditions included

for minimization: EXPSERV, ~PTGAP, ~PAYGAP, ~CARERES, ~GENDCARE.

Table 7: Analysis of sufficient conditions for the negated “gender care gap” outcome (~

CAREGAP)

5. Conclusion

In this paper we investigated the relationship between the relative contributions of

women – in comparison to men: the “gender care gap” – to the informal care for their

partners, government care policies and the labour market position of European women.

We analysed the interlinkages between the three factors in thirteen European countries

by applying a research model based on the Fuzzy set/Qualitative comparative analysis

method. We chose this approach in order to be able identify patterns in the relationship

between the three factors, since in the literature it is suggested that none of the factors

alone can explain the presence or absence of the gender care gap. The results of our

analysis in this paper suggests that the extent to which countries are confronted with the

ageing of their populations and the (absence of a) policy reactions to this problem are

crucial to understanding the gender care gap in the care for elderly parents in need of

care, while the presence or absence of gendered care attitudes plays a relatively minor

role. Only in Sweden relatively mild gendered care attitudes contribute to an equal

distribution of care obligations between men and women, but only in combination with

relatively high government expenditures for elderly people in need of care and the

absence of a part-time gap between men and women on the Swedish labour market. In

France and Switzerland relatively mild gendered care attitudes can not prevent a gender

care gap from occurring. Labour market characteristic seem more important in the

creation of a gender care or its opposite, but only in combination with other factors.

What seem crucial in understanding the gender care gap or its opposite are two factors:

public expenditure and problem pressure. In all the paths to a gender care gap or its

opposite our analyses produced one of these factors or both play a role. Most important

seem public expenditures for elderly people in need of care, which in Sweden, Czech

Republic and the Netherlands contribute to a relative equal distribution of

Page 17 of 24

responsibilities between men and women, while in France, Greece, Italy and Poland

relatively low expenditures alone explains the presence of a gender care gap. Likewise,

problem pressure figures in three of the five paths we discerned, but always in

combination with another factor.

The conclusions of this paper should be taken as preliminary, however, due to

study limitations, more specifically data availability and the small number of countries

included in the study, which increase the problem of “non-observed diversity” (Ragin

2008). As to the former limitation, especially the data we used to measure the dependent

variable, the gender care gap, in various European countries seem questionable. These

data are based on the self-reported contributions of men and women, which may have

been affected by socially desirable responding, and contain figures that contradicts other

research results. For example, the value of Spain for the gender care gap appears too

low, while the value of Denmark seems too high (see Table 1, cf. [SOURCE]). Future

research should be based on more “objective” data on the contributions of men and

women to the informal care for their parents.

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ANNEX 1: Definitions and sources of variables

Name Definition Calculation (if

applicable)

Source

CAREGAP Difference between

the proportion of men

and women with at

least one non co-

resident

natural parent caring

for mother and/or

father "almost

weekly" or more

often, over the

proportion of men

with

the same

characteristics

(Proportion of women

with at least one living non

co-resident parent caring

"almost weekly" for

mother or father MINUS

proportion of men with the

same characteristics)

DIVIDED BY proportion

of men with the same

characteristics

www.share-

project.org, Survey

of Health, Ageing

and Retirement in

Europe (SHARE),

own elaborations,

retrieved 8 August

2012.

EXPSERV Public expenditure on

long-term services for

non co-resident

natural parent as a

proportion of GDP

www.stats.oecd.org

, OECD statistics,

retrieved 8 August

2012.

PTGAP Part-time

employment gap, i.e.

the difference

between part-time

employment rate

of women and men

50-64

Proportion of women 50-

64 employed in part time

jobs MINUS proportion of

men with the same

characteristics DIVIDED

BY proportion of men

with the same

characteristics

www.eps.eurostat.e

c.europe.eu,

Eurostat, online

data from LFS,

retrieved 8 August

2012.

Page 23 of 24

PAYGAP The gender pay gap,

(GPG), i.e. the

difference in average

wages between men

and women. The

definition and

calculation are

provided by Eurostat

on line and are not

changed by the

authors.

“The unadjusted gender

pay gap is calculated as the

difference between the

average gross hourly

earnings of male and

female paid employees as

a percentage of average

gross hourly earnings of

male paid employees.”*

www.eps.eurostat.e

c.europe.eu,

Eurostat, online

data from LFS,

retrieved 8 August

2012.

CARERES The intensity of need

of people 75+

Number of people aged

75+ over number of people

aged 50-64

www.eps.eurostat.e

c.europe.eu,

Eurostat, online

data from LFS,

retrieved 8 August

2012.

GENDCAR

E

Gendered care

attitudes

Proportion of people

disagreeing or strongly

disagreeing with the

statement "fathers are as

suited as mothers to look

after their children"

http://

www.europeanvalu

esstudy.eu,

European Value

Study, 2008 wave,

retrieved 8 August

2012.

*. epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Glossary:Gender_pay_gap_(GPG), retrieved 20 August 2012.

Page 24 of 24