ABSTRACT

In recent decades, many countries modified their maternity and parental leave programmes, changing elements such as length, wage replacement levels, and eligibility criteria. We employ sequence analysis of women and men’s employment trajectories in the two years before and after a birth to explore changes occurring alongside reforms that advanced different policies: a short, compulsory, and well-compensated maternity leave in Switzerland in 2005, and a long, voluntary, but less well-compensated parental leave in Canada in 2001. Our results show that employment patterns changed little after the reform in Switzerland. Most Swiss women remained in or switched to part-time employment in the period preceding childbirth. After the reform in Canada, mothers in the province of British Columbia—the context of our study—spent more time out of employment after the birth of a child. However, they were also more likely to return to work full time. In both contexts, the employment trajectories of men did not change. Together the results highlight that parents are not passive recipients of policy change; rather, reform may reinforce old patterns or generate change depending on the extent of change and the context where it takes place.

摘要

近几十年来，许多国家修改了产假和育儿假计划，改变了时间、工资替代水平和资格标准等要素。我们对女性和男性在出生前后两年的就业轨迹进行序列分析，以探索伴随着推动不同政策的改革而发生的变化：2005 年瑞士的短期、强制性和高补偿产假，以及长期的、 2001 年加拿大自愿但补偿较少的育儿假。我们的结果表明，瑞士改革后就业模式几乎没有变化。大多数瑞士妇女在分娩前的一段时间内继续从事或转为兼职工作。加拿大改革后，不列颠哥伦比亚省的母亲——我们研究的背景——在孩子出生后花更多的时间失业。然而，他们也更有可能全职重返工作岗位。在这两种情况下，男性的就业轨迹都没有改变。结果表明，父母不是政策变化的被动接受者；相反，改革可能会加强旧模式或产生变化，这取决于变化的程度和发生的环境。