Towards a democratic division of labour in Europe?: The Combination Model as a new integrated approach to professional and family life

In past decades, most democratic European countries sought to achieve a more equal division of labour between men and women, both within families and organisations. At the same time, they wanted to offer individuals and families sufficient freedom to determine their own roles. But how far can the basic values of ‘equality’ and ‘freedom’ be realised in the daily division of labour in a complex modern society? How can they be linked with other principles, such as ‘solidarity’ and ‘efficiency’?

Towards a democratic division of labour? starts from the challenge of balancing these values in all sections of modern society, introducing the Combination Model as a scientific tool for studying the division of professional and family work. Following an integrated conceptual approach, the book explains the historical evolution of the division of labour in modern welfare states. Three policy models are developed to illustrate how a democratic division of labour can be conceived in the long-term and the Complete Combination Model is presented as the most suitable for the development of an integrated policy programme.

Towards a democratic division of labour? offers inspiration to all scientists, policy makers, representatives of societal organisations and managers who are searching for new theoretical, empirical and policy perspectives.