What's in a Name? ‘Work and Family’ or ‘Work and Life’ Balance Policies in the UK since 1997 and the Implications for the Pursuit of Gender Equality

Abstract

Since 1997 , Labour has developed a wide range of policies on childcare services, care leaves and flexible working hours. In 2000 , the term 'work-life balance' was introduced and has been used by Government Departments and by the academic community with very little discussion of its meaning vis à vis the use of 'family-friendly' policies, or the promotion of 'work and family balance'. We explore the introduction of the term work-life balance, the reasons for it, and its significance at the policy level, especially in terms of its implications for the pursuit of gender equality. We find that at the policy level, its use was more a matter of strategic framing than substantive change. Nevertheless, because of the UK Government's largely gender-neutral approach to the whole policy field, it is important to make explicit the tensions in the continuing use of the term work-life balance, particularly in relation to the achievement of gender equality.

Time Use, Exploitation, and the Dual-Career Household: Competing Perspectives

“…In the context of Becker's work this assumption has attracted criticism from heterodox economists; for example, Hodgson (1988: 117) has suggested Becker's assumption of permanent preferences produces outcomes of questionable worth. Likewise, other feminists have been critical of Hakim's preference theory for failing to analyze the emergence of preferences and for failing to acknowledge their (sometimes) contradictory nature (Lewis and Campbell 2008).…”

“…Interestingly, work is counterpoised with "life," rather than "family." Lewis and Campbell (2008) suggest this may be because of a desire to present such conflicts in gender-neutral terms.…”

Work–Life ‘Balance’, Recession and the Gendered Limits to Learning and Innovation (Or, Why It Pays Employers To Care)

“…The data also indicate that workers' everyday struggles to juggle work, home and family are particularly acute for female IT workers with young children who, despite a gender convergence in parents' contribution to childcare time (Lewis and Campbell, ; O'Brien, ), continue to undertake the majority share of household labour and childcare responsibilities:

Your life is lived at a speed, constantly running to get to work, get home from work, get a meal on, get the laundry done, homework, you don't know what it is to relax. You try and do the jigsaw on the floor while doing the dinner, while checking to see that the laundry hasn't yet finished, while trying to hold a conversation with my other daughter.

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Identity work: young disabled people, family and sport

“…Scholars have pointed to the growth of dual-earning parents, changing gender roles in which males are no longer positioned as the 'breadwinner', reconstituted families brought about by remarriage, cohabitation and step-parenting, and families with same sex parents (Scott, Treas, & Richards, 2004). Meanwhile, in the UK, changing ideologies of the family have courted the attention of government who have instigated, among other things, policy agendas relating to flexible working and adapted workplace cultures (Lewis & Campbell, 2008). Koerner and Fitzpatrick (2004) usefully present three interrelated perspectives constituting the family including: structural (focusing on the presence or absence of certain family members), psychosocial (focusing on maintaining a household, socialising children, providing support) and transactional (focusing on family identity, emotional ties and shared history).…”