Beyond the ‘Crisis’ Rhetoric: Designing Policy for Work and Family Integration for Employed Mothers

By Jo Lindsay and JaneMaree Maher

Achieving sustainable work/family balance demands policy attention from a number of interrelated government portfolios including taxation, labour and industry, family and community services, health and population.

Understanding the intersections on such a complex policy grid requires a sophisticated understanding of contemporary social life and detailed data about everyday practices of employed women across all spheres of labour. Currently the rhetoric of 'crisis' which overemphasizes difficulty and the incompatibility of work and family has shaped the national debate. We need to move beyond 'crisis' to develop policies that support new flexible arrangements that contemporary families are currently using.

(Just Policy Edition 38; pp20-6)