Employment and childbearing are two important phases of a woman's life. The book Childbearing, Women's Employment and Work-Life Balance in Contemporary Europe demonstrates the relationship between women's employment and childbearing intentions (or desires) in five European countries – Sweden, France, Germany, Poland and Hungary.

One outstanding feature of this edited volume is its selection of countries. These countries are representatives of different welfare regimes, with Sweden a representative of the Social Democratic welfare regime; France and Germany standing for the Conservative welfare regime; and Poland and Hungary representing the Post-socialist welfare regime. Sweden and France are high fertility countries in Europe with high female labour force participation rates. To a large extent, this is attributed to the extensive policy support in these two countries that facilitate women's reconciliation of work and family. Gender-equity oriented parental leave, sufficient public care services, and flexible working hours characterize the policy support of Sweden; reducing the cost of childrearing in large families, universal parental leave allowance, and subsidized childcare characterize that of France. The fertility level of Germany is rather low. Policy support in East and West Germany shows different scenarios. The reconciliation of family and employment is difficult in West Germany due to the lack of childcare for infants and the rejection of the idea of out-of-family care for them. However, a wide range of reconciliation policies, such as childcare and all-day programs support working mothers in East Germany. Poland and Hungary both have low fertility rates and low female labour force participation rates. The diminishing state provision for families after the political transition challenges women's work-life balance in these two societies. Geographically, the selected countries for this book are scattered in the Northern, Western and Eastern Europe. The picture of Southern Europe is not included.

One other prominent feature of the volume is its consistent theoretical concepts into which the five country case studies are embedded – (i) uncertainty and risk, and (ii) incoherence. The former argues that the growing prevalence of temporary employment positions and the high unemployment rates inspire young adults to seek for higher educational attainment and strengthen their labour market engagement first before considering family commitments. The latter posits that the gender equity incoherence in the public sphere and the family sphere may restrict women's fertility desires. A few other theoretical frameworks are addressed in certain chapters, such as the capability approach, the opportunity cost theory, the theory of social production function, the preference theory, the gender equity theory, and the social capital theory.

The chapters on Sweden, France, Germany and Poland apply logistic regression models, and the chapter on Hungary is based on qualitative method. In the studies for Sweden, France and Germany, ‘employment’ is the main explanatory variable, categorized into permanent/temporary employment, or long-term/short-term job, or full-time/part-time job. The unemployed or not employed status is also considered. These classifications provide us with a better insight into how the social policies of different contexts at the macro-level may have shaped the employment-fertility relationships among different social actors in different ways. The study on Poland explores the childbearing intention differences between the work-oriented and the home-oriented women; the study on Hungary reports the childbearing desires of 100 working parents in Budapest.

A negative relationship between employment uncertainty and women's intention to become a mother is seen in societies under different welfare regimes. In Sweden and France, where extensive social support is provided to families with children, holding temporary jobs and being unemployed restricts women's intention to enter motherhood. In West Germany where less policy support is offered to enable women to combine work and family life, a similar pattern is seen. These results seem to imply that secure labour market position is important for motherhood entry, irrespective of the social policy configuration of a society. In East Germany, however, unstable employment positions are prevalent. Such employment contracts mean having financial conditions for becoming a parent. Further, with better availability of formal childcare and a better use of childcare services, women with unstable employment positions in East Germany do not have restricted desire to become a mother. The link of labour market position to family size enlargement differs by context. For example, unemployment does not affect mothers’ intention to have another child in West Germany, but matters in East Germany. In transition countries like Poland, home-oriented women have a higher intention to have a first and subsequent child. Further, women who enjoy better gender equity in the family sphere have a higher intention to have a second child. In Hungary, economic uncertainty and hardship is pinpointed as an inhibitor on the realization of the fertility desires of parents.

In general, this book provides a good resource for scholars interested in employment-fertility relationships under different welfare regimes in Europe. It also offers great inspiration for scholars keen on similar research topics in non-European contexts. It is an interesting combination of countries and analytical approaches. The editors and authors’ contribution to literature is greatly appreciated.