ABSTRACT
This chapter is entitled “Embracing Complexity” because I strongly believe that this is what we as researchers and policymakers must do, both to better understand the nature of work and family life at the start of the 21st century and to propose more effective solutions to existing problems. Yet acknowledging complexity is often antithetical to how we generally approach research and policy issues. There is elegance in analytic simplicity; moreover, the lack of data often forces us to research just a few aspects of a highly complex issue. In the policy arena, people often want short, bulleted suggestions on how to improve the situation at home or at the workplace without taking the complexities into account.
