유럽연합의 가족정책과 유럽연합 회원국의 대응: 일·가정 양립에서 일·생활 균형으로의 전환

As a response to the global transition period, each country is developing family policies. Europe is also responding proactively to changes by shifting from a family policy of work-family balance to a family policy of work-life balance. The purpose of this paper is to study EU's family policy stance and responses of EU member states. The family policy of ‘work-family balance’ implies the state's active involvement in the private realm of the home while recognizing woman as the subject of care and a man as an assistant. However, in the new ‘work-life balance’ family policy, the concepts of ‘father’ and ‘mother’ encompass the concept of gender equality beyond women and men and realize well-being based on gender equality in the areas of care and labor, in which men were treated as superior. Specifically, the European Union included the increase in the rate of child care service use in the agenda of ‘work-family balance’ in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1999. In 2019, gender equality and the right to parental leave for fathers or second parents were introduced through ‘Guidelines for Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers’. Therefore, this paper analyzes the rate of child care service use, the ratio of pure child care fees, and the number of days spent on father’s leave to find out how EU member states are responding to EU's family policy stance. The results of the study results show that family policies of EU member states differed significantly from country to country rather than adopting them consistently and equally in accordance with the EU's direction. It is difficult to say that EU's family policy has had an impact at a certain point, as it has shown irregular increases and decreases even within a country. However, it was confirmed that EU member states are moving from work-family balance to work-life balance, in accordance with the long-term direction of the EU.