Is the push by female employees for family-friendly practices context-dependent? Comparative evidence from Sweden, Poland and Germany

Abstract

This paper examines the role of a country's care regime as a potential moderator of the link between the share of female employees and the provision of family-friendly practices in companies. Based on theoretical sampling, we compare the provision of flextime and day care services in companies in three country contexts (Sweden, Poland, and Germany) with varying degrees of de-familialization and support of maternal employment to exemplify our model. Our empirical analysis is based on 732 observations from 152 public companies listed on the Swedish OMX, the Polish WIG20 and the German DAX/MDAX, during the period 2005–2015. Random effects logistic regressions reveal that there is no automatism concerning a demand-driven push towards employer-provided family-friendly practices. Rather, the care regime seems to play an important role for whether the provision of family-friendly practices in companies is affected by the share of female employees and which family-friendly practices are affected.