Work‐family Balance, Gender and Policy

Citation

Dupuis, A. (2010), "Work‐family Balance, Gender and Policy", Gender in Management, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 522-524. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542411011069918

Professor Jane Lewis' web page shows her impressive list of publications since 2001, largely devoted to issues of gender, gender equality, children, family, care and social policy. The most recent book from this notable scholar, Work‐family Balance, Gender and Policy, adheres closely to her established repertoire of concerns. With a focus on 15 European Union (EU) member countries, Lewis argues that work and family balance policies are an increasingly important aspect of national policy agendas, the context for which has been women's increased labour market participation, the changing nature of women's and men's household contributions, greater employer demand for flexibility, significant changes in childcare and parental leave arrangements, and greater diversity in family forms. For Lewis, the issue underlying work‐family balance is that of gender inequalities, or in her words “the gendered divisions of paid and unpaid work, which has long been a source of gender inequalities” (p. 1).

Broadly the text shows that with the increase of women's labour force participation and increased hours worked, it has become increasingly difficult for families to combine paid work and care work. Firmly set within this frame, Lewis provides a critical and detailed analysis of the way various EU country governments have implemented policies to address this issue. Generally, however, the approach taken has been instrumental, with the goal of increasing female employment rates to attain broader economic goals of achieving higher productivity, economic growth and greater competitiveness. Lewis also weaves into her analysis the concern within many European counties about low fertility rates and the ways policy packages can meet the joint needs of economic goals and demographic concerns. Much less emphasis has been given to preferences and goals of women and men within families and ways their preferences for managing their paid and care work are recognised.

Chapter 1 introduces a number of important themes that act as a backdrop for the text: family change; welfare state change; policy changes across the EU; and gender equality. Lewis skilfully brings together these themes and, especially in the section on gender inequality, raises a number of challenging questions that recur and are discussed throughout the text. Lewis provides a useful discussion of what constitutes equality before setting out her approach to defining gender equality. Rather than focusing on equality of outcome, Lewis stresses the importance of agency and “the possibilities different policies and policy packages hold for permitting a ‘real choice’” (p. 18). Lewis argues that real choice cannot be achieved through purely instrumental approaches to policy. Instead real choice, in all its complexities, can be worked towards not through single policies aimed at improving child care or parental leave, but through policy packages that consider together working and caring time, cash transfers to buy care to facilitate labour market participation (or conversely to buy time for caring activities) and the provision of care services. Nor is securing real choice simply about policy: it must also involve employers recognising and responding to real‐life concerns of their employees.

Part I of the book (Chapters 2‐4) is broadly comparative, focussing mainly on EU member countries, although reference is also made to the USA. This comparative dimension illuminates the complexities involved in the key concepts underpinning the text. In particular, it demonstrates vividly the importance of locating work‐family balance policy packages within the specific national contexts in which they are shaped and implemented. Chapter 2 is a careful examination of the policy‐making context, focusing on behaviour, and attitudes and preferences, in relation to paid work and childbearing. Lewis makes it clear that while these phenomena are related, the relationship is often complex and misunderstood. The old assumption of women's higher labour force participation and lower fertility does not hold when national data are examined. Lewis again amasses an array of cross‐national data to discuss the policy implications. Foremost among these is that work and are arrangement policies with enabling goals will secure positive feedback in terms of behaviour and attitudes. Conversely, policies that are simply instrumental in nature, aimed at either increased labour force participation for women or higher fertility, are more likely to achieve negative feedback. With respect to achieving gender equality, which Lewis reminds us is rarely an explicit policy goal in relation to work and family policies, policymakers must consider both employment and care work, and the enabling policy goal of maximising choices for both women and men, with consideration of both paid and unpaid work. Lewis sums up the gist of this chapter perfectly when she remarks “it is always going to be difficult for people, especially women, to negotiate systems in which neo‐liberal economic policies effectively penalise childbearing, while conservative family ideas demand sacrifices” (p. 70).

Chapter 3 examines existing policy packages on work and family balance in the EU countries and associated issues. In their efforts to promote flexible working governments can draw on a range of policy options. However, as Lewis shows, these are underpinned by a range of policy “logics” and demonstrates the way past policies shape the present. The section on these influences is a “must‐read” for policy students and scholars alike. The remainder of the chapter shows that while the EU countries considered have favoured state intervention in what in policy terms has been called work and family reconciliation, they have adopted similar policy approaches, although the type of policy instruments and their emphasis has differed considerably across countries.

The Chapter 4 looks in some detail at work‐family balance policies in four countries; France, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK. This is a fascinating chapter as it again highlights important differences among these countries despite a common goal of employment‐led social policies, adhering to the adult worker model family. Lewis works through the key policy reforms for each country with respect to work‐family balance, but also charts the continuities. She also identifies what she terms “the potential for dissonance between the behavioural and attitudinal reality”, where there appears to be a clash between employment led social policy goals that focus on the individual adult worker and flexicurity and existing patterns of gender inequality in the labour market, where men and women are not similarly situated with respect to wages and salaries, hours worked and access to flexible working patterns.

Part II is UK focused and provides an analysis of aspects of policymaking over the decade 1997‐2007. The UK provides an especially fertile context in which to explore the way policy develops in a specific context, given that in 1997 the UK had not implemented any specific work‐family policies, and across the decade women's employment increased especially for mothers with dependent children, alongside the phenomenon of fathers working long hours compared with their equivalents in other EU nations. After an introductory scene‐setting section which examines both labour market behaviour, in terms of employment rates, and usual hours worked, and preferences around attitudes to women's employment, the remainder of the chapter is given over to a detailed analysis of work and family‐balance policies in the three areas already established as major components of the policy package: flexible working patterns; childcare services; and parental leave. Lewis observes that in the UK it appears that mothers' articulated desire to care for their young children and work in paid employment was recognised by policy makers and impacted on the resulting policy package that emerged.

Lewis concludes that the goals of work‐family balance policies vary for the various stakeholders. Governments hope to increase women's employment, address low fertility rates and the welfare and care of children and modernise working practices. Employers hope to retain valued workers, smooth churn and promote job commitment and thus higher productivity. Parents hope to reduce stress and pressure and attain a satisfying balance in their work and family lives – a balance between paid and care work. What Lewis demonstrates so clearly in this book, is that governments have tended to focus on economic and productivity issues as much – or in many cases more – as the welfare of family members. Lewis describes the purpose of this book as understanding “the nature of the work and family balance packages that have developed in different countries, together with their implications for gender equality” (p. 20). The three areas where these policies have been most developed – childcare, leave and flexible working – have been the focus through which Lewis constructs and develops her arguments. What her description does not capture is the breadth and scope of this book, which is ambitious to say the least. I was greatly taken with the scholarly and careful approach taken by Lewis in this book. It is skilfully argued and packed full of fascinating, and often puzzling, comparative data. Elsewhere, Lewis has been described as a “graceful” writer. I can only endorse this description of her style as she leads the reader effortlessly through the history, implementation and complexity of the crucial issue of work‐family balance – an issue that impacts on us all.