Chances of Men and Women to Return to the Labour Market after Child-Care Leave

The reconciliation of work and private life has become one of the most important topics today, receiving more and more attention from management researches. Already supported by several studies, it can now be said that family-friendly governmental and organisational solutions may ease the various conflicts ensuing from the reconciliation process: one such solution is the wild range of child-care leaves reserved for families with a new-born baby. Hungary belongs to the EU member states with the longest such child-care leave period, which can be taken by men and women alike. This possibility has a positive effect on family life; however, the question still remains: how does it influence an individual’s chance of reintegration to the labour market when the child-care leave expires? This essay is using the results of two empirical researches to outline the chances and prospects of those men and women who had a shorter or longer period of child-care leave and now would like to actively return to the labour market. We are examining, among other things, how employers and employees see the chances of re-integration, as well as how tolerant different organisations are with these returning employees. To give a complete picture, we had a look at the possibilities of not only women who decide to stay at home on child-care leave, but also those of men making the same decision. We conducted our researches on men and women in 2008 and 2011 respectively; the essay contains the partial results of the two studies.