ABSTRACT
This chapter compares the role of part-time work in shaping mothers employment patterns. It assesses the penalties and potential integration or exclusion of part-timers in relation to patterns of segregation and employment conditions in each of the three countries. The chapter argues that different regulatory systems, national working-time debates and associated policy interventions have had an important influence on the quality of part-time work which has developed in each society. These factors, in conjunction with the degree to which women are already integrated into the labour market, determine whether part-time work weakens or reinforces the "breadwinner" gender contract. Policies to promote the expansion of part-time work as a means of stimulating more flexible working patterns and to address unemployment have complex effects on gender segregation and equity. Part-time work began to expand quite early, from the 1960s onwards, initially within the context of labour shortages and as a device to entice married women to work in the expanding service sector.
