| Research Abstract |
In the 1990s, a traditional regional difference of fertility between the South Europe and the North Europe had reversed, and many researchers have supported a new hypothesis that fertility rates tend to rise with a high female labor force participation rate among the developed countries. Esping Andersen(1990;2000) has provided a hypothesis that female labor participation is determined by the degree of the provision of child care, which is affected by the regime type of welfare state. I have engaged a comparative study of child care in Sweden and United State, investigating the location of formal child care providers in a metropolitan region, as well as the social policy concerning child care and female labor participation.
In Sweden known as a typical social democrat welfare state, a commune provides child care in a children's neighborhood. In a well planned high rise residential areas, with good accessibility of public transportation, which serves effectively for working parents, sever
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al child care centers tend to be located within a walking distance, which also helps working parents. A study of a working female's time diary from a time geographic perspective reveals a real life situation of working parents who are able to cope with work and child care. The most of Swedish females, after child birth, take a paid leave for about a year, and work part-time while children are young. Their male partners participate very well in child care and household chores, usually without extra work after regular work hours. The social, urban, and transportation planning in Sweden is also excellent in helping working parents.
In the United Sates, which is known as a residual welfare state, child care is provided by a market principle without the state's intervention, and only poor income families are allowed to get access to child care assistance, food stamps and Medicaid. This dual structure of a welfare state is revealed in an urban space as a residential segregation, which was intensified after a start of busing in a central city school district in the 1970s in the Columbus metropolitan region, Ohio. In the suburbs, many for profit child care centers are located along a drive way with a large parking lot. Major chains of the child care industry are located in suburban areas in order to serve high or middle income residents. On the other hand, in the inner city areas, low income people as well as many blacks depend on social welfare and charity. Government provides child care assistance for poor working families, especially poor single mothers, and Head Start Program for disadvantaged children. Many non-profit child care centers of faith organization as well as non-faith organization, provide less expensive child care in a poor neighborhood. After school programs are provided by non-profit agencies, such as Boys and Girls Club, which is located near a downtown area. Restructuring of a welfare state started from the 1980s increased the importance of the voluntary sector in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Less
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