Nation as Context: Comparing Child Care Systems across Nations

Abstract

This article provides an overview of recent trends in female employment and preschool provision in the United States and the European Union. It then explores some of the ways in which governments have responded to issues regarding women's work and child rearing. One type of cross-national research—“nation as context”—is then developed by comparing and contrasting the child care and early education systems of three nations: the former German Democratic Republic, France, and the United States. A model is presented for comparing these systems along two dimensions, one marking the degree of administrative and fiscal centralization, the other the degree of uniformity.