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Since Esping-Andersen [(1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. New York: Wiley] classified 18 capitalist countries into "three worlds of welfare capitalism", comparative studies of welfare have been dominated by his work and the responses to it. This paper focuses on two important responses. Firstly, there is a criticism that East Asian welfare regimes have not been given sufficient attention in the study by Esping-Andersen (1990). Secondly, analysts have doubts about the assumption that welfare regimes have a high degree of internal policy cohesion. To make contributions to these two responses, two analytical tasks are conducted. Firstly, new health care, education and leave benefits policy domains covering 16 East Asian and European capitalist countries/territories are built. Secondly, evidence generated from these policy domains is used to inform the discussion of two arguments: (i) there is a lack of essential conditions for East Asian countries/territories to form their own unique category of welfare regime in the areas of education, health care and leave benefits; and (ii) welfare regimes have a high degree of internal policy cohesion.

This article is intended to explore the link between the study of defamilisation and that of the adult worker model. To meet this purpose, a defamilisation framework for studying issues concerning the adult worker model and defamilisation is developed. To show the empirical significance of these issues, evidence is drawn from a childcare gap typology covering eight European countries. Conducting these analytical tasks provides insights into the development of social work practices for enhancing women’s welfare.

This article aims to advance the discussion of government policies for improving women’s work and family life. It focuses on exploring whether it is reasonable to expect that the supported adult worker model will play an important role in guiding governments to reduce the gender employment gap and, at the same time, increase women’s resources for strengthening their control over family and work life. This model posits that governments should take a proactive approach to encouraging women to take part in formal employment, such as providing care support measures. To examine the impact of the model, this article develops an ‘input adult worker model typology’ and an ‘output adult worker model typology’ using cluster analysis of comparative data covering 15 countries. The findings show that it is important not to overestimate the impact of the supported adult worker model on reducing the gender employment gap or increasing women’s control over their lives in most of the 15 countries. The evidence generated from these typologies highlights the difficulties involved in promoting women’s welfare despite the use of the adult worker model as a substitute for the male-breadwinner model.