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From Implicit to Explicit Familialism: Post-1989 Family Policy Reforms in Poland

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Gender and Family in European Economic Policy

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to present the reforms of family policies in Poland and to analytically assess their direction and possible gendered effects. In particular, I will focus on three policy fields: parental leave reforms, childcare services and support in cash including child allowances and tax credits. My main argument is that the reforms of family policies extending financial family support might signal transformative change of the policy model from implicit to explicit familialism, as increase in monetary support is accompanied by only weak development of care services. Although Poland went quite smoothly through the economic crisis, the country did not invest so much in care services, but rather in financial support for the families, with stronger maternalist direction in public discourse on childbearing, especially during the right-wing coalition in office since November 2015.

The original version of this chapter was revised. An erratum to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41513-0_13.

The research for this chapter (From Implicit to Explicit Familialism: Post-1989 Family Policy Reforms in Poland by Dorota Szelewa) was supported by the National Research Centre in Poland, grant no 2012/04/S/HS5/00440.

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Change history

  • 29 March 2018

    An erratum has been published.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Dorota Szelewa

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  1. Dorota Szelewa
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Correspondence to Dorota Szelewa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Applied Sciences, Bielefeld, Germany

    Diana Auth

  2. University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany

    Jutta Hergenhan

  3. University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany

    Barbara Holland-Cunz

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Szelewa, D. (2017). From Implicit to Explicit Familialism: Post-1989 Family Policy Reforms in Poland. In: Auth, D., Hergenhan, J., Holland-Cunz, B. (eds) Gender and Family in European Economic Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41513-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41513-0_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41512-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41513-0

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