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Traditionally considered to be family policy laggards, continental European countries have witnessed significant changes in parenting leave policies in recent years. In this chapter, we compare the modernisation of parenting leave policies across Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. We analyse the extent to which these three continental European countries shifted away from male breadwinner-focused parenting leave policies between 2005 and 2020 and how these modernisation trajectories frame what is expected of parents in their leave-taking behaviour. Our analysis shows similarities and differences, as well as stasis and change across all three countries. In the final section of the chapter, we consider these developments in light of dominant gender cultures and the expectations of mothers and fathers. We suggest further research is needed on this grouping of countries to sufficiently explain the relationship between these gender attitudes and parenting leave modernisation trajectories.

This article examines COVID-19 and residential care for older people during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, comparing a range of countries – Denmark, England, Germany, Italy and Spain – to identify the policy approaches taken to the virus in care homes and set these in institutional and policy context. Pandemic policies towards care homes are compared in terms of lockdown, testing and the supply of personal protective equipment. The comparative analysis shows a clear cross-national clustering: Denmark and Germany group together by virtue of the proactive approach adopted, whereas England, Italy and Spain had major weaknesses resulting in delayed and generally inadequate responses. The article goes on to show that these outcomes and country clustering are embedded in particular long-term care (LTC) policy systems. The factors that we highlight as especially important in differentiating the countries are the resourcing of the sector, the regulation of LTC and care homes, and the degree of vertical (and to a lesser extent horizontal) coordination in the sector and between it and the health sector.