Reconciliation (of work and family life)

Abstract

The reconciliation of work and family life is a challenge for any society willing to implement gender equality. The present development of public policies in this sense faces different economic, political and ideological obstacles related to how the sexual division of labor has been shaped and conceptualized historically around two separate and hierarchical public and private spheres. The Spanish and European legal framework in which reconciliation policies are inserted is revised. Finally, present debates on reconciliation measures’ main achievements and constraints as well as the need to develop real co-responsibility between women and men regarding domestic and care work are raised.