If part-time work is not the
, therefore, one should
how to make full-time work more flexible and
to the personal needs of women. There are three main difficulties in
full-time work with family responsibilities:
1. First, the "long hours" culture
in some jobs often makes
by women with family responsibilities difficult. For instance,
suggests that one of the main reasons behind the lower
of women in managerial positions is the very long working hours usually
of managers.
2. A second difficulty is the unpredictability of work
that affects some types of jobs (again, unpredictability is higher in managerial and professional
, and also in some
such as hotels and restaurants), placing them outside the
of women with family responsibilities. Work
that are regular and predictable make it easier to
full-time work and family life.
3. The final and probably most important difficulty in
family and full-time work in Europe is the
of
to flexible working-time arrangements. Most European jobs have rigid time
, with very limited possibilities for workers to
working times to their needs. More than two thirds of European employees have
working
, with no possibilities for change; only around 13% of all European
offer advanced forms of flexible time arrangements such as working time
or annualised working hours. So there is no doubt there is room for
in this area,
which would have a substantial
on the capacity of European workers (male and female) to
paid working hours to the
of life outside work.