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Parental Leave and Career Interruption of Mothers in France and Hungary

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A Longitudinal Approach to Family Trajectories in France

Part of the book series: INED Population Studies ((INPS,volume 7))

Abstract

Mothers generally give up work for a while after the birth of a child. This interruption may negatively affect family income, the woman’s position on the labour market and her career advancement.

This comparative chapter on France and Hungary shows that a woman’s return to the labour force depends strongly on the country’s social norms (attitudes towards working mothers with a very young child) and on the existence of paid parental leave. In France, where working mothers are well accepted and efforts are made to reconcile work and family life, 70% of mothers are in work six months after the birth of their first child. In Hungary where, in line with social norms, mothers receive support via paid leave, the proportion is just 22%. However, in both countries it is the fact of having a job before the birth which has the strongest influence on the likelihood of entering the labour force after a birth. This effect is stronger in France than in Hungary, and there is a larger difference between women who worked before the birth and those who did not.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Parental leave can be taken by the mother or father, but it is the mother who does so in 98% of cases.

  2. 2.

    The law has changed since the GGS survey. See the conclusion for details.

  3. 3.

    For more details on the fertility rate and the job market in Hungary, see Makay 2012.

  4. 4.

    The policy was reformed on 1 January 2014 to make the system more flexible. Parents can now combine benefits with a salary after their child’s first birthday. The data used in this chapter pre-date this legal change.

  5. 5.

    Following French policy reforms introduced on 1 January 2015, the names of some benefits changed and more gender equality was introduced into the system: a share of the leave can now only be taken by the father. The data used in this chapter pre-date this legal change.

  6. 6.

    The communist system collapsed in Hungary in 1989 and free elections were held in 1990 (the first since the Second World War). The planned economy was replaced by capitalism, and mass unemployment ensued, with around one million people losing their jobs in the years following the transition.

  7. 7.

    This has been the case since 1996. Before that, only women who had previously worked were eligible. Before the 1990s, all women fulfilled these conditions thanks to full employment. For a short period between 1990 and 1995, part of the female population did not qualify for the GYES.

  8. 8.

    A more in-depth investigation could be conducted using the longitudinal data of the GGS survey (which make it possible to measure changes in opinions with each new survey wave), but this goes beyond the scope of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary

    Zsuzsanna Makay

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  1. Zsuzsanna Makay
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Correspondence to Zsuzsanna Makay .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), Paris Cedex 20, France

    Arnaud Régnier-Loilier

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Makay, Z. (2017). Parental Leave and Career Interruption of Mothers in France and Hungary. In: Régnier-Loilier, A. (eds) A Longitudinal Approach to Family Trajectories in France. INED Population Studies, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56001-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56001-4_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56000-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56001-4

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