Introduction

Managing paid work and family life is a major challenge for many European workers. Growing numbers of women with children are remaining in paid employment albeit with a diverse range of working time regimes and different levels of state support across Europe for reconciling work and family (Fagnani, Houriet-Ségard and Bédouin, 2004). In addition, with changing family structures more men want to or need to be involved in family care. The European Commission, driven by the twin concerns of gender equality and the demographic challenges of the twenty-first century, has encouraged the participation of both women in the workforce and men in family life. Gender equality has historically been constructed by the EC in relation to the position of women in the labour market, leading first to an emphasis on equal pay and, more recently, to a commitment to combat the structural barriers to equality in the workplace through the promotion of a “level playing field” in which women can compete fairly alongside their male counterparts (Lewis, 2001). This has involved promoting policies which take account of the position of women as primary childcarers in the family and of the impact this has on the career progression and wages of women. This coincides with the recent preoccupation in Western Europe with “ageing societies” (OECD, 2006) and the need to encourage the labour market activity of sections of the working age population that are traditionally less active, such as women with children.