Lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important in today’s societies. Individuals have to maintain and develop their skills in order to cope with changing demands, such as new technologies. Our research compares participants of adult education with non-participants across countries with different institutional frameworks and welfare state regimes. When focusing on non-participants, we analyze perceived barriers to adult education, considering gender differences and family structure.

Although the participation in lifelong learning has positive effects on individuals and their life chances, not all individuals want or can take part in adult education. Cross (1981) distinguishes between situational, institutional and dispositional barriers in participation to adult education. Rubenson and Desjardins (2009) resort to the Bounded Agency Model in explaining how barriers are produced and how an interaction between different kinds of barriers can arise. They put forward that each welfare state regime affects barriers to participation through the policies in place. In addition to a direct effect on institutions through policies, welfare states can also have an impact on individual perceptions and with it on dispositional barriers. Welfare policies do not treat all individuals in the same way. According to Esping-Andersen the citizens of welfare states are workers and individuals are not taken into account if they are not on the labor market. Many welfare states are based on the assumption of a male breadwinner and unpaid work is not valued. One of the main points of criticism in the classic typology of welfare states is their gender blindness (Lewis, 1992). Welfare policies thus affect men and women in the reconciliation between employment and family responsibilities differently. Coordination of work and family has been seen as a specific female problem for a long time, however, this issue is now on the agenda in many European countries.

The employment rate of women compared to men is traditionally lower. This also affects the participation in adult education as most of it takes place in a work context (Desjardins, 2015). If employed, women are more likely to hold a part-time or temporary job than men, employers might interpret this as less commitment to the work place and have even fewer incentives to invest in female workers (OECD, 2011).  Furthermore, most of the unpaid work in terms of childcare and family work is carried out by women. All of these aspects allow women even less opportunities and less time for further education, thus creating gender inequality. However, differences in the gender employment gap and the share of unpaid work between countries, especially between Western and Southern European countries, exist.

We analyze countries that belong to the three “classical” types of welfare states, according to Esping-Andersen (1990), and in addition extend it by the “Southern type” (Leibfried, 1993). These types differ in the role of family, market and state (Abrahamson & Wehner, 2006). We contribute to ongoing research on barriers to lifelong learning with the following research questions: 1. Are there gender differences in participation in adult education and do they persist when controlling for family structure and employment status? 2. What are the main barriers to participation in adult education and how are they related to having young children? 3. Do perceived barriers differ across countries with different welfare state regimes?

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