Part-time work, work–life balance and gender equality

Abstract

Part-time working is commonly used by many women across Europe and other developed countries to manage work and care responsibilities. Many more women than men work reduced hours, while at the same time fulfilling normative expectations by taking responsibility for child-rearing and domestic work. In spite of the positive impact of part-time working on work-life balance and overall life satisfaction for some, there are well-known career penalties for part-time workers, including lower status and pay, and fewer training and development opportunities, as well as lower pensions upon retirement. Policy changes, implemented at EU level, have been developed to improve the availability and quality of part-time jobs, but evidence from the UK shows that little has changed: because of the limited part-time options available in highly skilled jobs, many well-qualified women compromise their careers by crowding into lower-level part-time jobs. Not only does part-time work tend to be under-valued at the organisational level, it can serve to maintain traditional gendered patterns of responsibility for domestic work and childcare. In this article, I discuss part-time work and its impact on work-life balance, as well as its potential impact on gender equality. At the same time, suggestions for the improvement of part-time work will be made, using evidence from the UK Quality Part-time Work Fund, which was set up to improve gender equality in the workplace and to increase the availability of quality part-time work.