Her research interests are in the area of work-family linkages in Dutch and other societies. Together with Arie Glebbeek she directed the integrated research program 'Time Competition: disturbed balances and new options in work and care', financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. In 2004 she received a grant (together with Esther Kluwer) from Utrecht University for the comprehensive interdisciplinary research program 'Interdependencies between work and family life'. She is coordinating the large-scale international comparative project 'Quality of life in a changing Europe', financed by the European Commission. She has published extensively on the division of labour between spouses, time use and time pressure in a comparative way, and labour market positions of men and women in Western and Eastern European countries. Her publications include