ABSTRACT
Inevitably, in a pluralist society, one's conceptions of family and family roles are no longer monolithic, but kaleidoscopic, almost infinitely variable. On a very different level, the background reality of the breadwinner homemaker bargain provides the context against which the contributions of both partners to parenting are evaluated. Both in judicial determinations and where parenting arrangements are negotiated by the parties' legal representatives or through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). It provides the baseline for 'normal fathering', just as it does for 'normal mothering'. Like labour market policy, family policy has, except for a brief period in the 1980s, assumed that women's labour force participation is contingent, rather than core, perhaps summed up in the statement that men have careers and women jobs. Taxation law and policy further entrench the status quo, providing rebates for single income households and encouraging the affluent to split investment income to reduce the tax impost on the primary breadwinner.
