ABSTRACT
Some of the chapters in this book make clear that the existence of family policies is
highly dependent on national context (e.g., Poster, Chapter 7, Den Dulk, Chapter 8),
which in turn has an impact on people’s sense of entitlement to integrate paid work and
personal life in equitable ways (Lewis & Smithson, 2001). However, the chapters also
show how global tendencies are interacting with national culture to produce patterns that
may be far from optimal (Poster, Chapter 7). The dilemma-that global forces are calling
for more and more effort in employment with very little consideration for the effect on
people or societies-is what we wish to address in this chapter.
