European mothers’ time spent looking after children - differences and similarities across nine countries

We describe and compare how many hours per week mothers reported looking after children in nine European countries in 1996. In addition, we explore to what extent cross-country differences in socio-demographic characteristics and parental employment contribute to differences in maternal time spent looking after children. Thedata are from the 1996 wave of the European Community Household Panel for mothers with children under 16 years of age. We find cross-country differences in the mean number of hours mothers reported looking after children. Only a small portion of these differences is explained by variation in socio-demographic characteristics and employment status. Country-specific policies aimed at reconciling parenthood and employment appear to explain some of the differences.