The fundamental policies that influenced the reconciliation of work-family balance were evaluated in the present essay. In particular, state of work-family balance in Italy vis-à-vis Norway was analysed to determine the variations in policy practices in the realisation of family and work balance. The attainment of work-family balance was a critical factor because it was a predictor of employee engagement and workplace commitment – the two elements had a significant impact on the productivity of an organisation. Work-family conflict arose when there was a clash between family and workplace roles (St-Amour et al. 2007, p. 5; Njenga 2014, p. 9). In addition, the need for work-family balance was necessitated by the fact that most women were engaged in formal employment starting from the 1970s (Costa 2015, p. 2).
In the 20th
and 19th centuries, there was a clear separation of gender roles, and the responsibilities of each spouse were defined within the household. Men were the breadwinners while the women were tasked with household and children affairs. Nonetheless, education of women had contributed to the emergence of a “dual-partnership” scenario where spouses share financial and household responsibilities. Besides, there has been a rise in one-parent families. Therefore, in both instances, it has become increasingly challenging to sustain work-family balance (OECD 2007, p. 1). The inability to maintain family-work balance had resulted in a decline in the fertility rates, poor child development and gender disparities at the workplace. For instance, Northern European countries such as Norway and Iceland recorded a higher involvement of women in the workplace (> 70 percent).In contrast, women involvement at the workplace was less than 50 percent in Italy and Greece and other southern nations (OECD 2007, p. 3). The new dynamics introduced following the involvement of more women had raised fundamental issues regarding equality and recognition in the workplace (Ellingsæter 2007, p. 50). Consequently, it necessitated the establishment of the United Nations women's organisation that was specifically tasked with ensuring that all member countries achieved gender equity at the workplace (Levey 2010, p. 50). Following the establishment of UN Women, commendable progress had been made in reducing gender disparities and disenfranchisement of women from the labour system.
Literature Review
History of Modern Employment Policies
In the 20th
century, it was common for men to secure formal employment while women remained at home. Nonetheless, the situation changed in the 1960s when women leaders began to agitate for equal employment rights at the workplace. The enactment of the civil rights Act in 1964 eliminated all the biased employment policies that favoured men over women in the US (Pedriana 2006, p. 1718). In Europe, gender equality at the workplace was seriously taken into consideration following the adoption of the "Treaty of Rome in 1957" and gender mainstreaming since the 1990s (Crușmac and Köhler 2016, p. 50). The principal intention of the treaty was to ensure that there was equal pay for equal work regardless of gender. Nonetheless, given the ambiguity of the policy, the level of compliance was low, leading to the partial implementation of the plan (Stratigaki 2004, p. 34). Before that period, the proportion of married women at the workplace was 25 percent vis-à-vis 75 percent of men (Goldin 2006, p. 5). Therefore, only one employee out of every four employees was a woman. However, the unemployment inequalities declined with time. According to the US Census Bureau, the rate of male and female participation at the workplace between 1967 and 2009 increased to 56.1 and 43.2 percent, respectively (US Census Bureau 2009, P. 3).
Based on the statistics it was postulated that the traditional model in which a man was considered as the sole breadwinner as the woman remained at home was no longer tenable. The current rates of women participation at the workplace were an indication of the significant policy shifts (Lewis and Giullari 2005, p. 77).
The rates of women participation at the workplace around the world were not uniform partly due to variations in the national policies and unique family dynamics such as single-parent households (O’ Brien 2011, p. 3). Despite having more households led by single parents, it was noted that employers remunerated mothers lesser hourly pay compared to other women. The trends were attributed to the fact that raising children was associated with lesser job experience and lower workplace productivity. Moreover, mothers were naturally discriminated against at the workplace; thus, most parents preferred to search for jobs that were parent-friendly (Budig and England 2009, p. 204). The focus on work-family balance in the present research article was warranted given that the previous body of research evidence had not comprehensively the effects of work-family imbalance (Beauregard and Henry 2009, p. 3). Moreover, work-family imbalance negatively impacted organisational performance, owing to less productivity attributed to absenteeism and lack of employee embeddedness within an organisation (Beauregard and Henry, 2009, p. 7). Less workplace commitment had the potential to result in higher employee turnover. Therefore, it was in the best interest of all stakeholders to ensure that policies aimed at reconciling work and family responsibilities were implemented.
The Work and Family Balance Worldview
Presently, gender and employment policy makers have been faced with the challenge of reconciling family and work primarily within the EU member countries (Stratigaki 2004, p. 30). Various policy changes (such as paternity leave) had been implemented to encourage paternal involvement, both emotionally and economically in child rearing (Dermott and Miller 2015, p. 183). The focus on paternal involvement the developmental process of the children was partly augmented by political discourse (Dermott and Miller 2015, p. 189). Nonetheless, so far paternal involvement in child rearing had remained inelastic (Kershaw 2006, p. 341).
The current policy developments were defined by the obligation to enhance work and family equity and the co-option of feminist policies in the labour sector. Some of the specific feminine strategies that were coopted included paid and unpaid work (Stratigaki 2004, p. 32) such as paternity and maternity leave. However, the realisation of social integration among the member countries was impeded by contrasting policies due to the unique challenges facing the social integration processes among individual states.
A renewed interest in the attainment of work-family balance was noted among member countries within the EU due to the realisation of the fact that the workplace productivity was impacted by the inability to enforce family-friendly policies. Besides, the conflict attributed to a clash of work and family roles was a risk factor to stress-related health complications, lesser birth rates and re-emergence of a labour market that was less-receptive to women (Abendroth and den Dulk 2011, p. 235).
Daly (2011, p. 2) argued that most of the European countries that had not adopted socialist policies regarding maternal welfare at the workplace were experiencing some form of “Scandinisation"; the affected states were obliged to adopt policies that had been proven effective in Scandinavian countries. Such policies included promoting women involvement in the workplace and incorporation of childcare into the public policy (Daly 2011, p. 2). Besides, there has been a growing shift towards familization and the adoption of gender equity policies. Familization in Europe was manifested through family and parenting privileges. For instance, most governments were assisting families with care related expenses through family or child benefit schemes (Daly 2011, p. 2). Other policies associated with familization included pension credits and extended maternity leave. The UK government adopted a proactive approach to work-family balance in the labour market by encouraging the adoption of family and work friendly policies. The policies included tax credits for working parents and childcare provisions. The tax concessions were mainly aimed at helping parents with less disposable incomes to satisfy the needs of the dependent children. The subsidies were aimed at enhancing social inclusion and financial independence of working parents, while at the same time ensuring that children were not disenfranchised from the society (Mcdowell 2005, p. 366). According to Fineman (1995, p. 2181), the society was obliged to help the weaker members – in this case, women who bore most of the parenting responsibilities and costs. Thus, based on the researcher’s worldview, the government subsidies were justified. Schober (2013, p. 30) noted that in the absence of a support system, individuals were most likely to resort to marriage dissolution or delayed childbearing to avoid the stress and frustration associated with parental responsibilities.
Familization policies had enabled working parents to maintain a work-family balance. However, the adoption of family-friendly policies had ripple effects on the economy. For instance, the number of full-time hours had declined in most European countries (Gornick and Heron 2006, p. 151) because most of the engaged parents preferred to work on under flexible terms. Japan also witnessed a decline in the office hours. On the other hand, the US experienced an increase in office hours. The disparities were attributed to the fact that the US had not initiated any policy changes aimed at reconciling family and employment duties. Nonetheless, the policy limitations were complemented by flexible working schedules (Gornick and Heron 2006, p. 151).
In addition to familization, flexicurity was another approach that was adopted in an attempt to improve the work-family balance in the EU. Contrary to the familization policy which aimed to reduce the burden associated with raising children, flexicurity aimed at achieving both work hours flexibility and job security for the working parents (Lewis and Plomien 2009, p. 434). Therefore, the approach aimed at achieving both internal and external flexibility and in turn, improve organisational productivity. Therefore, the adoption of the flexicurity approach would safeguard employees' entry to the labour market, sustain employee engagement within the labour market and foster career progression. The flexicurity approach was considered valid given that it was in line with the adult worker model (Lewis and Plomien 2009, p. 434).
Considering that the obligation to provide a conducive environment for work-family balance was a private responsibility, there were widespread inequalities in work-family balance in the European countries. Scandinavian countries were leading the adoption and implementation of policies that fostered work-family balance (Abendroth and den Dulk 2011, p. 235). The northern European countries were able to reconcile work and family because they were social democracies. In contrast, countries in southern Europe were conservative welfare states. For instance, in Spain the family was regarded as the only source of social support (Abendroth and den Dulk 2011, p. 237); an illustration of why Spain had one of the highest rates of work-family conflict. In a study by Dermott and Miller (2015, p. 341), it was noted that transformational leadership had the potential to moderate work-family balance because transformational managers provided personalised considerations and inspiration at the workplace; it was hypothesised that such provisions had the potential to reduce work-related pressure.
The Adult Worker Model
The main construct advanced by the adult worker model was that the labour sector had begun to treat both men and men as individual entities; that is individualisation was evident at the workplace (Daly 2011, p. 4). Moreover, according to the worldview personal choices made each day regarding participation in the job market represented the expression of individual willpower. Such assumptions were founded on sociological perspectives of modern societies. In addition, to the appreciation of individual choices in choosing whether to participate in employment, the individual worker model also highlighted the erosion of traditional practices in the labour sector (Daly 2011, p. 5), that have further compromised the ability of women to raise a family and build their careers simultaneously.
In addition, according to the individual worker model, the growing emphasis on individual identities and lack of social support structures as more people became independent impeded the reconciliation of work and family because women were expected to raise children by themselves. Some of the adverse effects of the current approach included delays in getting married and starting a family (due to socioeconomic considerations). Additionally, it was also argued that the current approach had resulted in the defamilization (Daly 2011, p. 5) rather than familization – the hallmark of EU gender equity. Therefore, individuals were increasingly finding solace outside the confines of the family.
Work-family Balance in Italy, Greece and other EU Countries
A recent study observed that minimising work and family conflict had become a matter that defined the national political discourse in the EU (Jan and Alvarez 2016); there was a consensus that policy reforms regarding work and family balance were belated in Italy. Contrary to other countries in the EU such as Sweden and Netherlands, where employee welfare was governed by a combination of labour laws and collective agreements, employment in Italy was governed by labour laws which were less flexible (Gornick and Heron 2006, p. 153). For instance, the rate of part-time employment of women was low; thus, women were obliged to either work full time or remain unemployed (Lewis and Plomien 2009, p. 446). Based on recent events, it was evident that Italy had a low level of compliance with the flexicurity policy because part-time employment was the primary means through which mothers secured jobs in Europe.
The inability to adopt policies that facilitated work-family balance risked enhancing sexual segregation at the workplace and increasing the disparities in income among working-class men and women (Lewis and Plomien 2009, p. 454). The problem was further exacerbated by the fact that at least 92.4 percent of women in their prime working years (18-44 years) had children (Fagnani 2011, p. 15); in contrast, only 68.7 percent of men had family responsibilities. The skewed labour policies in Spain had resulted in longer working hours for parents and extended school hours for children (Jan and Alvarez 2016). The cumulative effect was that parents had less time for their children and they had to delegate their responsibilities to grandparents and older siblings. The general society was affected by the absence of work-family balance.
Legitimate concerns were raised including the fact that policy changes might not be implemented because the current system was premised on employee working hours in place of productivity – a deeply entrenched culture among Spanish companies (Jan and Alvarez 2016). The actualisation of the proposed policies was also impeded by the lack of political goodwill given that similar policies had been proposed in 2013 but they were never debated in Congress. Apart from political and cultural considerations, it was estimated that the reconciliation of work and family would cost an average of 1.4 billion Euros (European Commission 2018). Thus, a significant amount of money was needed given that the economy was experiencing a recession (GDP growth was expected to decrease from 3.3 in 2016 to 2.1 percent in 2019) (European Commission 2018).
The current disparities in work-family balance in Spain were not observed in the entire country; Catalan – a semi-autonomous region in Spain had recorded significant strides in the actualisation of employee-centric work policies that improved the level of work-family balance (Jan and Alvarez 2016). Therefore, the larger Spain had the option of either adopting the Catalan model or the strategies implemented by social democracies in Northern Europe.
In response to growing pressure from other European countries to Europeanise its employment and social policies, Italy had implemented some policies aimed at addressing the inequalities. However, any attempts to overhaul the current system was inhibited by traditional approaches to family. In particular, four factors were responsible for the current situation in Italy. The first issue was that feminism and segregation of women in employment were in most cases considered a non-issue depending on the government in power (Donà 2012, p. 112). The country was also faced with institutional constraints due to uncoordinated policy-making by the legislature and laxity by the concerned ministry officials. The country’s legislature was also faced with critical limitations attributed to its inability to customise EU legislation to suit the local conditions. Finally, inherent cultural limitations originated from the Italian family structure and variations in personal choices regarding family. Therefore, Italy’s approach to familization was not congruent with the approach that was adopted by the EU primary because most of the stakeholders purposed to preserve the current status quo (Orozco 2012, p. 22).
Greece was faced with similar challenges as Italy, especially during the Greece economic crisis. Less progress had been achieved in Greece due to the uncoordinated implementation of EU policies regarding gender equality in the workplace. For instance, there was less public participation, and stakeholder initiatives were fragmented (Αlipranti-Maratou, Katsis and Papadimitriou 2017, p. 29). Therefore, most of the employers had continued to enforce policies that were biased against women despite the fact that most of the women were tasked with household responsibilities. Additionally, it was claimed that until recently work-family policies implemented in Greece were not aimed at enhancing gender equity (Αlipranti-Maratou, Katsis and Papadimitriou, 2017, p. 30) but to show compliance to EU directives. The claim was justified given that maternity leave in Greece was not available to all but only to a small segment of the population which was entitled to such privileges (Αlipranti-Maratou, Katsis and Papadimitriou 2017, p. 32).
Nonetheless, Greece had adopted different policies that were aimed at safeguarding the reproductive privileges of women such as maternity and post-delivery leave. Additional measures implemented by the government included the establishment of care facilities for pupils in the 5-12 year age group. The care facilities were known as the KDAP – the sole aim of the facilities was to reduce the household responsibilities of working women (Αlipranti-Maratou, Katsis and Papadimitriou 2017, p. 31). However, despite the adoption of the above-listed approaches, it was noted that Greece was still lagging behind in the implementation of policies that would reconcile work and family.
The structural and policy limitations transferred the burden of taking care of children to grandparents; recent statistics indicated that close to one in five children were under grandparent care in Greece. Furthermore, it had contributed to poor working conditions to the extent that parents were unable to acquire childcare services (Αlipranti-Maratou, Katsis and Papadimitriou 2017, p. 33). The absence of such services compromised the ability of the parent to perform both work and household roles effectively.
Challenges in Reconciling Work and Family Roles
Despite the adoption of EU directives, it was noted that the traditional approach to gender roles in the Italian society, and the greater reliance on the nuclear family had made it impossible to implement the paternity leave among other policies (Orozco 2012, p. 79). Further delays in harmonising work and family roles had contributed to the widespread marginalisation of female employees and the inability to redefine household roles (Nishaat 2017, p. 2061). Therefore, to achieve satisfactory of integration of women in the workplace, it was recommended that the entrenched perceptions regarding men's work and women's work had to be eliminated. Such biased cultural beliefs impeded social progress because Italian men were less willing to share household responsibilities with women because Italian tradition obliged women to perform all household chores (Orozco 2012, p. 80). According to Orozco (2012, p. 80), remnants of fascist ideology and deeply entrenched Catholic traditions and beliefs made it increasingly difficult for the society to adopt new perspectives regarding gendered roles to enhanced gender equity.
Work-family Balance in Norway
In contrast to Italy, Norway had recorded considerable progress in the attainment of work-family balance. The policy measures that had facilitated the achievement of work-family balance in the Norwegian society had their roots in the post-industrial social revolution. The revolution resulted in the development of a care policy that placed more emphasis on parenting responsibilities among working-class employees as espoused in the care policy reforms (Ellingsæter 2007, p. 49). The social care policy in Norway was founded on three key pillars namely the freedom of choice, appreciation of the value associated with parental care and gender equality (Ellingsæter 2007, p. 53). In 1993, Norway restructured its paternity and maternity leave policy; the maximum number of weeks available to mothers were extended to 52 while the paternity leave was limited to four weeks. Subsequently, in 1998 cash benefits were introduced to help parents with children aged between one and two years. The government introduced additional benefits for single-parents to a maximum period of 10 years (Ellingsæter 2007, p. 53). Such incentives enabled women to take good care of their children without compromising career development. The policy reforms listed above were a stark contrast to the prevailing labour policies in Spain which indirectly discouraged parenthood owing to the inflexible working hours and a culture that placed more premium on employee presence at the workstation.
Solutions to the Crisis
Various solutions were proposed in an attempt to address the current care crisis experienced by working parents with young families. One of the solutions was the advancement of incentives to enable SMEs to provide flexible working hours to the employees (Jan and Alvarez 2016). Another recommendation was the lengthening of the paternity leave to four weeks. Goodman (2016) recommended that there was a need for organisations and government agencies to "reinvent their culture" by placing more emphasis on parenting privileges of working women because women were most affected by work-family conflict. The proposition was relevant to employers in Italy and Greece. In addition, on an individual basis, women were encouraged to establish boundaries between work responsibilities and household duties and to ensure that they created time for their personal life (Goodman 2016). Moreover, it was recommended that the affected countries should adopt best practices implemented by France and Germany to improve the rate of women participation in the workplace. Specific policies adopted by France included longer and paid maternity leave (16 to 24) weeks (Make Mothers Matter 2012, p. 4). In Germany, close to 40 percent of the companies provided some form of support for working parents with children (Federal German Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth 2010, p. 7). The German government had also provided incentives to enable companies to accommodate employees with families (Federal German Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth 2010, p. 7).
Conclusion
The current study highlighted the barriers and drivers to harmonisation of family and work roles in Italy and Greece were benchmarked against Norway. Based on the case study analysis of the individual countries, it was noted that work-family conflict was attributed to the poor and uncoordinated implementation of EU directives regarding gender equality in the workplace. The inability to customise EU directives was attributed to the entrenched traditions and uncoordinated stakeholder efforts. For instance, the Roman Catholic traditions, Fascist ideology and gendered roles in the Italian society had made it difficult for women to strike a between work and family roles. In contrast, socialist democracies in northern Europe and other countries such as Germany and France were able to reconcile family and work through the adoption of paid maternity leave, flexible work-schedules and state subsidies for working mothers. Therefore, work and family harmonisation was dependent on the commitment of the stakeholders in the private sector and the government.
Please note: The reference highlighted in yellow was inaccessible.
Schober, P. S. (2011) ‘Family Policies from Gender Equality Perspective- A European Comparision’, http://piaschober.net/gender_fampol.pdf,
References
Abendroth, A. K. and den Dulk, L. (2011) ‘Support for the work-life balance in Europe: The
impact of state, workplace and family support on work-life balance satisfaction’, Work, Employment and Society, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 234–256.
Αlipranti-Maratou, L., Katsis, A. and Papadimitriou, P. (2017) Work-Life (Im)balance A
quantitative research in Greece during the crisis.
Budig, M. J. and England, P. (2009) ‘The Wage Penalty for Motherhood’, American
Sociological Review, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 204–225.
Costa, E. (2015) ‘The Welfare State and Gender Equality : Work-Family Reconciliation Policies
in Southern Europe’, ECPR – Gender and Politics Standing Group, pp. 1–28.
Crușmac, O. and Köhler, I. (2016) ‘Gender Mainstreaming and Work-Family Reconciliation. An
Analysis of Family Policies in Romania and Germany’, The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 49–74.
Daly, M. (2011) ‘What adult worker model? A critical look at recent social policy reform in
Europe from a gender and family perspective', Social Politics, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 1–23.
Dermott, E. and Miller, T. (2015) ‘More than the sum of its parts? Contemporary fatherhood
policy, practice and discourse’, Families, Relationships and Societies, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 183–196.
Donà, A. (2012) ‘Using the EU to Promote Gender Equality Policy in a Traditional Context:
Reconciliation of Work and Family Life in Italy’, in Forest, M. and Lombardo, E. (eds) The Europeanization of Gender Equality Policies: A Discursive- Sociological Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 99–120.
Doucet, O. Poitras, Jean Chênevert, Denis (2014) ‘The impacts of leadership on workplace
conflicts’, International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 20, no. 4 pp. 340 - 354
Ellingsæter, L. A. (2007) ‘"Old" and "new" politics of the time to care: Three Norwegian
reforms', Journal of European Social Policy, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 49–60.
European Commission (2018) Economic forecast for Spain [Online]. Available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-performance-and-forecasts/economic-performance-country/spain/economic-forecast-spain_en [Accessed 7/3/ 2018].
Fagnani, J. (2011) ‘Work-family life balance : future trends and challenges’, in The Future of
Families to 2030. OCDE Publishing, pp. 119–188.
Federal German Ministry for Family and Affairs Senior Citizens Women and Youth (2010)
‘European Company Survey on Reconciliation of Work and Family Life’.
Fineman, M. L. A. (1995) ‘Masking Dependency : The Political Role of Family Rhetoric’,
Virginia Law Review, vol. 81, no. 8, pp. 2181–2215.
Goldin, C. (2006) ‘The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women ' s Employment, Education
, and Family’, The American Economic Review, vol. 96, no. 2, pp. 1–21.
Goodman, C. K. (2016) 5 Ways to Overcome Work-Life Balance Obstacles, Miami Herald
[Online]. Available at: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/worklifebalancingact/2016/03/5-ways-to-overcome-work-life-balance-obstacles-.html [Accessed 9/3/2018].
Gornick, J. C. and Heron, A. (2006) ‘The regulation of working time as work-family
reconciliation policy: Comparing Europe, Japan, and the United States’, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 149–166.
Jan, C. and Alvarez, P. (2016) Can Spain take a European approach to the work-life balance?
El Pais [Online]. Available at: https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/04/13/inenglish/1460554418_902495.html [Accessed 7/3/ 2018].
Kershaw, P. (2006) ‘Carefair: Choice, duty, and the distribution of care’, Social Politics, vol. 13,
no. 3, pp. 341–371.
Levey, L. D. (2010) Work-Life Policy, Practice and Potential: Recommendations for the United
Nations System [Online]. Available at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/Work Life Policy, Practice and Potential background paper for EGM.pdf [Accessed 9/3/2018].
Lewis, J. and Plomien, A. (2009) ‘“Flexicurity” as a policy strategy: the implications for gender
equality’, Economy and Society, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 433–459.
Lewis, J. and Giullari, S. (2005) ‘The adult worker model family, gender equality and care: the
search for new policy principles and the possibilities and problems of a capabilities approach’, Ecology and Society, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 76–104.
Make Mothers Matter (2012) Work-family balance Good practices from France.
Mcdowell, L. (2005) ‘Debates and commentary Love, money, and gender divisions of labour :
some critical reflections on welfare-to-work policies in the UK’, Journal of Economic Geography, 5, pp. 365–379.
Nishaat, B. Z. (2017) ‘Achieving Work-Family Balance (WFB) Among Professional Working
Women in Mauritius: A Qualitative Study’, International Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 2053–2074.
Njenga, L. N. (2014) Effect of Work-life Balance Policies on Women Employees Retention in
UNDP- Somalia. The University of Nairobi.
O’ Brien, M. (2011) ‘Work-Family Balance Policies’, pp. 1–64.
OECD (2007) Matching Work and Family Commitments.
Orozco, C. (2012) Why EU Work-Family Reconciliation Policies Fail in Italy : A Feminist Legal
Analysis. The University of San Francisco.
Pedriana, N. (2006) ‘From Protective to Equal Treatment: Legal Framing Processes and
Transformation of the Women’s Movement in the 1960s’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 111, no. 6, pp. 1718–1761.
Schober, P. S. (2013) ‘Gender Equality and Outsourcing of Domestic Work, Childbearing, and
Relationship Stability Among British Couples’, Journal of Family Issues, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 25– 52.
St-Amour, N. et al. (2007) The Difficulty of Balancing Work and Family Life: Impact on the
Physical and Mental Health of Quebec Families. Quebec: Gouvernement du Québec.
Stratigaki, M. (2004) ‘The Cooptation of Gender Concepts in EU Policies: The Case of
“Reconciliation of Work and Family’, Social Politics, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 30–56.
US Census Bureau (2009) Women in the Workforce [Online]. Available at:
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/pdf/women_workforce_slides.pdf
[Accessed 7/3/ 2018].
