Does EU Membership Matter?
Pertenece a: ARCHIVE OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION $archive.titulo–> Descripción: This paper analyzes social policy development in Norway and Sweden, focusing on women-friendly (Hernes 1987) public policies such as parental leave and child care. In the past decade, Norway has rapidly been catching up with Sweden (and other Nordic Countries) in these two policy areas. An investigation into Norway s past exceptionalism, and what made Norway turn around in the 1980s, as well as an examination of factors that account for Sweden s faster development in these policy areas, will shed light on forces for change in welfare state patterns at the end of the twentieth century. The paper also briefly addresses the issue of European Union membership and what effect it may have on future social policy development. While drawing on the mainstream and feminist welfare state literature, as well as country case studies, the study focuses on the influence of women s agency, or lack thereof, in policy developme
