ABSTRACT
The family has often been in the forefront of employment policies, to compensate for the deficiencies of both the welfare state and the market. After all, perhaps the family is a more reliable, more stable vector of solidarity than any institutional arrangement based on the principle of state-led redistribution. The evolution of family structures is undeniably the "good" reason most often brandished in official discourse. When a strong, supportive family network with substantial exchanges exists among the upper classes, it is usually more efficient, not only because it is more structured, but also because the rules governing mutual aid are more demanding of those that practise it than in the other social groups. Socially vulnerable individuals are considered the potential beneficiaries of family service jobs, and it is those very same individuals who are expected to possess all of the features that characterise the professional service worker.
