Balancing work and family: western Europe versus eastern Europe

Beatrice-Elena Manea, Faculty of Social Sciences, Brno

The family and work spheres interact in many and different ways. How do employees balance their work and family lives is an area of increasing interest to many researchers from different fields of study. Although Europe shows more integrated patterns due to the EU enlargement, differences between East and West still perpetuate. The year 1989 represented a major turning point for Eastern Europe, bringing changes to the political, economic and social environments with impact on work and family. Eastern European countries rather embrace the patriarchal model, but elements of the partnership model could be found as well. As for the Western Europe, the modernism along with the partnership model does not completely lack of patriarchal characteristics. A better understanding of the relation between paid work and family obligation is needed in order to evaluate adaptation processes in Europe and to formulate new policy responses to specific needs.