Welfare State Regimes and the Social Organization of Labour: Childcare Arrangements and the Work/Family Balance Dilemma

Access to paid employment has increasingly become a central aspect of social integration and a main route to accessing welfare and social rights in the post-industrial world. Recently, the 'full employment strategy' has been placed at the forefront of social and employment policies in Europe at both country and EU level. The participation of women in paid employment is a crucial part of the strategy (female employment being the major source of employment growth in Europe over the last few years). This social and economic concern for increasing labour force participation has also been articulated politically in terms of discussions about gender equality and women's right to engage in paid labour. Issues of work and family balance have been a salient policy discourse regarding female employment and gender equality, including different forms of employment flexibility, the balance between paid employment and unpaid domestic work and the social organization of care.