European childcare regimes beyond the ‘average family’ model: A fuzzy clustering analysis

The sustained expansion of early childhood care policies across Europe has altered the landscape of work-family reconciliation, yet this transformation remains unevenly distributed across social groups. This study utilises an intersectional (de)familialisation framework that attends to inequalities of access to parental leave and childcare provision. Drawing on comprehensive policy data across European countries, we expand the care regime typology beyond the average workers’ perspective to offer insight into care regimes from the perspective of the unemployed. By analysing three separate periods of a child’s life until school age, we trace the shifting policy driven incentives for care as the child grows. Our sample also begins to close the gap in knowledge about family policy in Southeastern Europe. Finally, we present and utilise fuzzy clustering, a method that combines the strengths of traditional clustering and fuzzy set ideal type analysis, while addressing their limitations. Combining eligibility considerations alongside the established dimensions of leave generosity, childcare availability, and gender concentration of rights, we aim to contribute to a growing intersectionality-led policy scholarship that puts the question of who is excluded from policy goals at the heart of the analysis. Our findings examine the class asymmetries in access to leave rights, while also offering a perspective in which class and gender inequalities are not separate axes of (dis)advantage.