国际比较视野下的公共家庭政策与两性就业平等关系——基于“福利国家悖论”现象的考察

Relationship between Public Family Policies and Gender Employment Equality from the Cross-national Perspective:A Rethinking Based on Welfare State Paradox

自“福利国家悖论”提出后,西方学术界对公共家庭政策的悖论效应进行了大量的理论阐述和实证检验。“福利国家悖论”揭示了父母育儿休假、公共儿童照料服务等家庭政策虽能促进女性劳动参与,但却会通过强化雇主对女性的统计性歧视、妨碍女性自身的人力资本积累以及将女性吸引到服务类岗位等机制阻碍女性的职业发展与收入提升,进而深化男女两性的职业隔离和收入差距。然而目前已有的那些基于国际比较视角的实证检验结果却存在不一致,支持与反对的证据都存在,因此,中国在积极发展“二孩生育政策配套措施”的背景下,选择家庭政策工具时需要全面审慎的考虑。

Since the issue of welfare state paradox was established,lots of theoretical and empirical explorations on the paradoxical effects of public family policies have been made in Western academia.Under the background that the Chinese government is actively developing social supports for two-child births,this paper investigates the welfare state paradox research,aiming to offer a reference for the choice of family policies in China.From the review,it is found that scholars put forward an argument that those family policies that facilitate maternal employment,such as family leaves and public childcare services,could harm women’s occupational opportunities and earnings capacity by fostering employers’statistical discrimination against women,by hindering mothers’human capital accumulation,and by attracting women to female-typed service jobs rather than pursuing powerful and high-paying positions.However,the empirical evidences mostly from the international comparative studies are inconsistent,with pros and cons being both existed.Therefore,comprehensive considerations are needed when choosing the tools of family policies in China.