Introducing the network

The international network on leave policies and research, consists of over 60 members, all of whom are experts on leave issues and who come from 43 countries across the world. Members bring not only expertise to the network, but great commitment and enthusiasm, enabling the group to grow and flourish without any regular source of external funding and to provide a unique forum for exchange, dialogue and collaboration on issues of care, employment and gender.

 

An international leave policy review, with country updates and cross-national tables, is produced yearly (report 2018). The review is a unique policy and academic resource, widely used by academics, students and organisations. 

 

The network holds yearly seminars (programme 2018) focusing on leave policies in a host country and wider cutting edge international developments in leave policy and research (gender equality; care across the life course; workplace cultures; links between parental leave and early childhood education and care; fathers and leave policies; fertility decline). Representatives from intergovernmental organisations (e.g. OECD, EU) and relevant national government departments are present at these seminars.  

 

Members have collaborated on a range of research projects and publications including Sheila B. Kamerman and Peter Moss (Editors) 2009 The Politics of Parental Leave Policies: Children, Parenting, Gender and the Labour Market, Policy Press

 

Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Editors) 2015 Leave policies in challenging times: reviewing the decade 2004–2014 Community, Work & Family Volume 18 Issue 2 

 

Margaret O’Brien and Karin Wall (Editors) 2016 Comparative Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality: Fathers on Leave alone (Springer Publications)

 

The international network on leave policies and research was founded by Fred Deven (CBGS - Population and Family Study Centre) and Peter Moss (TCRU Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education University of London), who co-ordinated the leave network until 2015 (see History).

 

Since 2015 Sonja Blum, Ann- Zofie Duvander, Alison Koslowski and Margaret O’Brien have become coordinators sharing responsibilities for the annual review, membership, developments and seminars.

Contacts

General inquiries, membership and seminars:

Ann- Zofie Duvander and Margaret O’Brien

ann-zofie.duvander@sociology.su.se; Demography Unit, Department of Sociology, Stockholm University
m.obrien@ucl.ac.uk; Thomas Coram Research Unit, Department of Social Science, University College London.

 

Annual review:

Sonja Blum, Alison Koslowski and Alexandra Macht 

sonja.blum@fernuni-hagen.de; University of Hagen
Alison.Koslowski@ed.ac.uk; School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
amacht@brookes.ac.uk; Oxford Brookes University