Municipal Political Dynamics in Childcare Implementation: Conditions for Facilitating Women's Substantive Representation

Abstract

Abstract

This three-paper dissertation examines the political dynamics of female representatives shaping regional diversity in policy implementation within increasingly decentralized welfare states. This approach broadly contributes to the welfare state and policy implementation studies, and specifically advancing the concept of women’s substantive representation. This dissertation focuses on the variation in childcare supply expansion for children under three, addressing two key questions: (1) At the local level, which local-level women representatives substantially contribute to policy implementation? (2) What conditions facilitate/hinder the achievement of local-level women’s substantive representation? Childcare for under three is chosen because it is one of the new social services being expanded in developed countries; access to it is directly linked to “women’s interests,” and it reflects the defamilialization. Paper 1 and Paper 2 examine western Germany despite the national policy guaranteeing the legal entitlement to obtain childcare placements after the age of one (KiföG; Kinderförderungsgesetz). While other OECD countries also implement childcare at the local level, western Germany was chosen because of the above research puzzle and because the history of the male-breadwinner model shows less path dependency. Paper 1 employs multilevel analysis to address the first question, while Paper 2 uses qualitative comparative analysis to address the second question. Papers 1 and 2 use a newly collected municipal-level dataset comprising variables related to political representation in politics and administration. Paper 1 partly demonstrated that an increase in women holding political positions leads to the increased expansion of the childcare supply. While the increase in female council members contributed to the expansion of childcare regardless of partisanship, the role of female mayors was model-dependent. The results in Paper 2 identify two pathways for increased childcare supply, highlighting the critical role of female council members. The first path outlines the pathway for conservative parties to expand childcare, while the second one shows the path for liberal parties. In the second pathway, the alignment between the female deputy mayor and the female council member underscores the importance of a comprehensive analysis of representatives across political and administrative spheres. Paper 3 contributed to the first and second questions by examining Japan as the most likely case where an increase in women’s representation is expected to drive increased childcare expansion, similar to the results in Paper 1. A new dataset at the municipal level in Japan was created for Paper 3. However, Paper 3 finds that the increase in female councilors and administrative managers does not lead to the increased childcare expansion. Notably, regional sexism suppresses the expansion of childcare, implying that regional sexism might hinder the local women’s substantive representation. Comparisons with Germany suggested that the strength of the legal framework at the central level in favor of addressing women's issues creates favorable conditions to facilitate women’s substantive representation at the local level.

Die Dissertation ist gesperrt bis zum 27. Mai 2027 !