Working time options over the life course: Changing social security structures

This study focuses on a sample of six European countries – France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These cover a wide spectrum of the potential societal systems, with variations in labour market characteristics, welfare state regimes, gender relations, level of participation and working time patterns. As the selected countries diverge significantly in terms of social protection systems, working time and gender regimes, they illustrate the impact of the institutional structure on the gender division of paid work and income development over the life course.