Taking both the work-family tension and gender equality as key outcomes we hypothesise that the consequences of different household working arrangements will vary across country/welfare states. The incidence of different household arrangements is of course also influenced by the extent to which state policies support maternal employment. There are a number of different question that can be addressed in this research:
i) The first objective would be to map out levels of work/life balance tensions among individuals in different household types in different institutional settings. ii) What types of working arrangements are most associated with work-life tensions (shift work, working hours, overtime, commuting time). How important are other job characteristics such as level of autonomy and work intensity? iii) Are there trade-offs between work-life balance and gender equality within couples? (Here one could look at earnings inequality, equality within the household – e.g. decision making, division of household work ). Do women disproportionately pay the price for work-life balance? iv) A fourth element would be to consider the consequences of work-life tensions for individual well-being and for family relationships. v) Is there a social inequality dimension to work-life balance and how does this vary by welfare regime? vi) Has the level of work-life balance changed over time?