Studies have shown that being employed is important to people living in Estonia: in case of economic security, only 10% of women and 2% of men would stop working (The Office of the Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs: Reconciliation of Work and Family, 2007). At the same time, however, many people wish to be parents and to enjoy free time, which might result in a conflict between these areas of life.

The reconciliation of work and family mainly deals with three problematic areas and attempts to reconcile these: wage work, childcare and the distribution of household chores. The reconcilation of work and family life is an issue which affects both women and men. In order to be a parent, partner and employee, domestic responsiblities should be equally divided between parents. Also, it is important that employers acknowledged the problem and offered employees flexible forms of work. State intervention is equally important, especially in making child care options more available.

Source: The Office of the Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs: Reconciliation of Work and Family

The topic of reconciling work and family has been already for several years an important one for ENUT. We have focused on it for both women/mothers and men/fathers.