Balancing Work and Family Commitments: Developments in Innovative Organisations

Abstract

In the 1990s, balancing work and family commitments is increasingly seen as an issue to be pursued at corporation and individual levels, with social policy measures providing at best a basic set of minimum standards. This paper seeks to explore how some of the more exemplary corporations are responding to these challenges, their workers’ experience of family friendly policies, and the extent to which this shift is promoting gender equity. We argue that current trends make it extremely difficult to address the more costly aspects of work and family policy, and that, in spite of innovation in some areas, most policy programs tend to reinforce rather than challenge the tendency for women to take up ‘jobs’ rather than ‘careers’.