Policies concerning childcare are one of the central themes in the discussion of the welfare states. As Esping-Andersen argues, providing appropriate care of children contributes to decrease the pool of “unemployable” future workers. Furthermore, extensive childcare policies free women from performing unpaid care work within the family and encourage them to participate in the labor force. Esping-Andersen argues that social exclusion of individuals result from child poverty. He criticizes current policies concerning amelioration of social isolation of individuals—activation, make-work-pay, and life-long learning—for their inadequacy. Rather than focusing on providing welfare policies and benefits to adults who are experiencing social isolation, he states that prevention of social isolation among future workers (children) through income assistance and maintenance programs, good and affordable childcare provisions, and mechanisms to encourage children to finish secondary education, is the key to eroding further (child) poverty. To ensure his policy suggestions, Esping-Anderson especially …show more content…
Peter McDonald points out that gender equity and fertility transition are closely interrelated. While the common assumption about this relationship is unidirectional (changes in women’s lives affect fertility rates), McDonalds argues that fertility rate may go down due to women’s expectations about future advancement in their career or lack thereof. Further, he highlights the importance of gender equity in both institutional and familial contexts: according to McDonalds, the moral support for family formation and organization that guarantees women control over fertility in both individual-oriented and family-oriented institutions are crucial in fertility transitions. In other words, gender equity inside as well as outside of family ensures high fertility