WORK-FAMILY POLICIES AND THE POSITION OF PARENTS ON THE LABOUR MARKET

New challenges that welfare states cope with brought to changed priorities in the area of social policies and the growing promotion of the dual-breadwinner model in European countries. As patterns of behaviour of men and women in the labour market are not just a reflection of the economic situation, the cultural context and individual beliefs, but also of the existing institutional arrangements in the area of social policies, work-family policies are becoming increasingly important and the area of growing intervention in many countries. Variations in work-family policies and economic activity, and the characteristics of the employment of parents in European countries bring the issue of their effect on the outcomes of parents at the labour market in the focus of interest of political and scientific debates, and efforts have been particularly made to answer the question which schemes of work-family policies really contribute to larger employment rates of parents and their better outcomes at the labour market, which is the central question of this paper as well. After a brief insight into the position of parents at the labour market in EU countries, particularly focusing on the gender differences and the differences between parents and childless individuals, the paper presents a detailed review of the results of the research dealing with the effects of different institutional context, i.e. work-family policies, on the outcomes of the parents at the labour market. The final part of the paper contains a brief discussion about the implications of the presented results of comparative studies on the situation and the development of measures in the area of work-family policies in Croatia, which clearly indicate the need for reforms.