MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ülikool

TÖÖ- JA PEREELU ÜHITAMINE RECONCILING WORK AND FAMILY LIFE
In addition to the question regarding which of the parents would take parental leave, the length of
the leave is also of relevance. A general opinion is that a short i.e. one-year-long parental leave
facilitates women’s re-entrance to the labour market. With a longer parental leave, there is a
possibility that women have difficulties in re-entering working life, especially in a situation where
new technologies and rapid changes demand constant professional development (Hofäcker
2003). (Table 1)
Kandla (2000) has studied the length of the period during which females would like to stay at
home with their children. Women would like to be at home on average for three years. Staying at
home with children for more than three years is considered necessary by only 14% of the
respondents. The circumstances that influence the length of the period of the actual stay at home
can be divided into three main groups: 1) health and development of the child, the child should
manage by him- or herself, 2) at a certain time the child needs other children, it depends on
whether there is a kindergarten available and on its reputation, as the kindergarten would better
prepare the child for socialisation, and 3) economic coping of the family – if possible, many
respondents would stay at home for longer (Kandla 2000).
The fact that economic coping influences the length of parental leave is revealed by a regression
model containing different characteristics which affect the length of parental leave. Household
income and its amount is not one-to-one similar to coping but, as a general rule, a higher income
would ensure better economic coping. According to the model, women included in the fourth
quartile on the basis of household income were twice unlikely to take a parental leave of at most
one and a half years than women in the first quartile. Women who belonged to the third quartile
were more likely to take a shorter parental leave. The reasons for this contradiction may be
related to the occupation, educational level and labour status. A shorter i.e. up to one and a half
year-long parental leave was more likely in case of persons who had a higher educational level
and were white-collar workers and also employed at the time of the survey. Belonging to the third
income quartile might not ensure certainty about financial income and, therefore, as imminent as
possible return to the labour market becomes more important in order to guarantee the necessary
level of income and avoid a fall in the level of acquired human capital (professional skills,
education). The likelihood of non-Estonian women to take a longer parental leave may be
affected by the difficulties they experience in the labour market in general, due to which a longer
leave may also be of forced nature.
Use of childcare services
While parental benefit and parental leave regulate directly or indirectly the temporary absence
from work and the length of absence, public childcare services and the availability of these
services are decisive in the return to the labour market. The age of children for which these
services are meant is just as important, since this might make the parents who wish to return to
the labour market postpone their return or use private childcare services which, as a rule, are
more expensive.
The childcare system in Estonia is comparatively well-developed in comparison with respective
systems of other European countries (Plantega and Remery 2009, reference according to
Järviste 2010). Childcare services are provided by pre-school childcare institutions (crèches,
kindergartens, nursery-primary schools, kindergartens for children with special needs) or
alternative childcare institutions.
Alternative childcare institutions include play groups, playing rooms, children’s centres, family
centres, childcare activities, etc. The provisions of Pre-school Child Care Institutions Act should
be considered of high importance what concerns childcare services. Proceeding from the act, a
rural municipality or city government provides all children from one and a half to seven years of
age whose residence is in the administrative territory of the given rural municipality or city and
whose parents so wish with the opportunity to attend a childcare institution in the catchment area.
However, implementation of the act is often affected by the financial situation of local
governments as well as the response time to population changes. The studies carried out so far
76
MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? MAN'S HOME IS THE WORLD, WOMAN'S WORLD IS HER HOME?