Description
When my attention was brought to the overwhelming lack of family policy support in the United States, my curiosity led me to look into what other industrialized nations are doing to support growing families and find out what policies and programs have been put in place to better facilitate the work-home balance. I first provide a brief background context of family policy in the United States, leading up to the development and implementation of our nation's parental leave legislation, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). I present the crucial concerns of this provision, as well as the effects that policy has on children's well-being. The second major part of this analysis deals with child care programs and the myriad challenges so many families encounter in this realm. Specifically addressed are the topics of affordability, accessibility and quality of child care found in the U.S. After an in-depth look at U.S. policies, I transition to a comparative analysis of parental leave and child care provision in a range of other nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), specifically Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden and Norway. I carefully chose these countries to offer a broad spectrum of family policies to compare to our own. I then return to a discussion of limitations of U.S. family policy and the values and ideology it represents, as well as the importance of strengthening such policies.
Details
Title
- Parental leave and child care policies and programs: an in-depth look at the United States and comparative analysis of industrialized OECD nations
Contributors
- Martin, Amanda Jean (Author)
- Swadener, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor)
- Nakagawa, Kathryn (Committee member)
- Joanou, Jamie (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2012
Subjects
- public policy
- Individual & Family Studies
- Education Policy
- Child care
- comparative research
- Family policy
- international comparisons
- Parental leave
- political policy
- Parental leave--Government policy--United States.
- Parental leave
- Parental leave--United States.
- Parental leave
- Child care services--Government policy--United States.
- Child care services--United States.
- Parental leave--Government policy--OECD countries.
- Parental leave
- Child care services--Government policy--OECD countries.
- Child care services
Resource Type
Collections this item is in
Note
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thesisPartial requirement for: M.A., Arizona State University, 2012
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bibliographyIncludes bibliographical references (p. 154-163)
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Field of study: Social and philosophical foundations of education
Citation and reuse
Statement of Responsibility
by Amanda Jean Martin