Laurent Toulemon

In France, family policy is a branch of our Social Security system, and family policies are managed by the National family allocations fund. To study them, it’s important to see how they fit into social policy—education policy, for example. In France, schooling is free and compulsory starting at age 3, and schools take in children from early morning until late afternoon-early evening. This system may be seen as enabling both parents to work. In other countries, education policy reflects the understanding that a child’s school day should be shorter, so the way their policies impact employment will not be the same. Housing policy should also be examined, to see whether the number of children families have is a criterion in allocating social housing. In France, the family or household is the decisive unit and family income level determines eligibility for family benefits, whereas in other countries—Sweden, for example— the focus of family policies are the children, regardless of parents’ income.

Yes. In the century running from th late 1800s to the late 1900s, natalism—encouragement of high birth rates and large families—was at the heart of French family policy. Then, in the 1990s, at a time when fertility was quite high in France compared to other European countries, the main family policy goal changed to combatting male-female inequalities. To achieve this, the public authorities began designing policies that would encourage women to move (back) into the labor market, the goal being to improve family living standards and women’s financial independence. Another priority was also put forward: combatting poverty among families with children, specifically poverty resulting from couple separation. 

The aims formulated in France’s Social Security System funding bill of February 25, 2025 include making some compensation for family expenses available to all parents, providing still greater assistance to vulnerable families (low-income, single-parent), facilitating life-work balance (by making establishing child care arrangements compatible with women’s employment and careers, and introducing social norms that implicate men in family life, such as extending paternal leave time), while guaranteeing the financial viability of the system. Since 2015, however, France has seen a decrease in fertility, a phenomenon giving rise to new worries and one that has brought back the natalist goal. 

It’s difficult to compare countries on this question, because there can be so many regulatory differences between them. For example, in taxation some do not use either household or couple deductions, in contrast to the situation in France. In Sweden, for example, individual taxation designed to facilitate women’s labor market participation has replaced couple taxation. For the same purpose, the allocation of a widow(er)’s pensions has been suspended in Sweden, whereas in France the system as a whole is based on the assumption of spousal resource sharing. Family policy plays an important, substantive role in France, a country where the state is still perceived as the guarantor of family support, whereas in Southern European countries, families have to count more fully on private solidarity. 

All these particularities need to be considered when designing and conducting comparative studies. For example, regarding the issue of reconciling family and work life, France is in fact closer to the Northern European countries.