Work-Family Arrangements in Europe

by Dulk, Laura Den; Van Doorne-Huiskes, Anneke; Schippers, Joop

• ISBN13: 9789051704754
• ISBN10: 9051704755
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Purdue Univ Pr

Summary

The time that most women were full-time housewives has gone. European women today are well educated and have a strong orientation towards employment and career making. Balancing work and family care responsibilities is becoming an important issue in many households. Both women and men look for ways to combine tasks. Strategies aimed to reconcile employment and family life differ between countries and depend on the availability of work-family arrangements such as child care, leave, and flexible working hours. This volume discusses government and workplace policies designed to enable employees to combine paid work with family responsibilities in various national contexts. Experts from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy and Sweden discuss the number and nature of facilities available in their country, the role of employers and the impact of the welfare state regime. the book gives an overview of the various political debates in Europe and of the provisions that have been realised. Questions raised are: how do government policies interact with practices of organisations? Is it true that an active public policy prevents firms from realising work-family arrangements or does it invite employers to create supplementary provisions? These and other questions explore ways in which reconciliation of work and family life can be achieved.

Table of Contents

1 Work-family arrangements in the context of welfare states
Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes, Laura den Dulk and Joop Schippers	1	(20)
2 Work-family arrangements in the Netherlands: the role of employers
Laura den Dulk	21	(20)
3 Work-family arrangements in the UK
Suzan Lewis	41	(16)
4 Work-family reconciliation in Germany: trends in public and corporate policies
Wolfgang Erler	57	(18)
5 Women's labour market participation and the reconciliation of work and family life in Italy
Rossana Trifiletti	75	(28)
6 Work-Family arrangements in Spain: family adjustments to labour market imbalances
Anna Escobedo	103	(28)
7 Sweden and the reconciliation of work and family life
Elisabet Näsman	131	(20)
8 European regulations and initiatives on work-family policies
Jacqie van Stigt, Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes and Joop Schippers	151	(16)
9 Epilogue: Towards new patterns of responsibility for work-family policies?
Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes, Laura den Dulk and Joop Schippers	167	(8)
About the authors	175