Introduction

Abstract

The movement of mothers, including those with young children, into paid employment outside the home has been one of the defining economic and social developments of recent decades. Further expansion is endorsed in the EU's Lisbon targets for enhancing the performance of the European economy, identifying low female participation as a major source of the US-EU employment gap. But this development brings its challenges. Women still provide most of the care for children (and other dependants) often curtailing or reorientating their labour market participation in order to do so. The reconciliation of work and family has therefore become a major new focus for social policies towards gender equality. At the same time employers have been expanding part-time jobs, and beginning to introduce other ‘family-friendly’ developments...