El Debat sobre conciliació ocupació-família dins el marc de la Unió Europea

Abstract

The object of the article is to discuss some of the policies, recommended by the European Union, regarding the reconciliation between family life and work. Firstly, we find that the implementation of these measures has been made from very different ideological orientations in the various European countries. Furthermore, we discuss the concept of «work» used in many of the justifications for the reconciliation policies. After a description of the different work-family reconciliation schemes in Europe, it is clear that these policies can be used either to slow down the present process of change in the sex and family relationships, or to support it. Thirdly, we discuss in depth the concrete measures towards a labour market flexibility and part-time work; considering that these measures are in favour of the reconciliation between ones family life and ones job, in reality they are supporting other interests. The central issue in this debate and the question to be discussed is the following: given that women are dedicating more space and time of their daily life to salaried work, it seems just that they let go some space and time of domestic-family work. However who is going to fill this space and time?: the private service market? the state? the men in their family group? or, the voluntary sector?