Erika Pircher and Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (GenderLink)

GENDER MAINSTREAMING EUROPE

Father Friendly Policy –

The Road Ahead?
Equal Opportunities and Work/Life Balance
for Women and Men in the Workplace

Fourth Medium-Term
Community Action Programme
on Equal Opportunities for
Women and Men
1996-2000

1
Father Friendly Policy – The Road Ahead?
Equal Opportunities and Work/Life Balance for Women and Men in the
Workplace

International Conference Reader on Managing E-Quality

Reconciliation of Work and Family/Private Life
Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the Workplace

Frankfurt/Main 29 April 1999

Vienna 19 May 1999
London 27 May 1999

Edited by Erika Pircher and

Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (GenderLink Salzburg & Beirut)
In cooperation with Brigitta Kreß (balancing consult
Frankfurt/Main), Seána Robert (mbA London & Liverpool),
Birgit Buchinger (Solution Salzburg)

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Published jointly by: Bureau of Women’s Affairs (Frauenbüro MA57), City of Vienna &
GenderLink Network for Social Research OEG – Diversity Centre e.V.
Vienna/Salzburg 2000 (English edition)

In Cooperation with: Brigitta Kreß (balancing consult Frankfurt),

Seána Roberts (mbA London), Birgit Buchinger (Solution Salzburg)

Proofreaders & Editing: Kleo Mitsis <petesbrother@hotmail.com>, Steven Redman

& Dima Dabbous-Sensenig (LibanLink) <dimadab@cyberia.net.lb>
Graphic Design Herman Resch <h-resch@aon.at>
Printed by: Estermannn Austria

The MEQ Handbook has been published as a conference reader and is available in a German and
English format via: GenderLink – Network for Social Research Salzburg – Brussels – Beirut
Mirabellplatz 9, A-5020 Salzburg; ph: +43-662-8866-3513 or -3518, fax: 8866-239
e-mail: <Gender.Link@magnet.at> or <Genderlink.bxl@worldonline.be>

The texts used in this reader were produced during the following three MEQ conferences:
Frankfurt am Main 29 April 1999, Vienna 19 May 1999, London 27 May 1999

The printing of the MEQ Handbook was subsidised by the EU Commission (DG for Employment
and Social Affairs).

The three year Managing E-Quality project was subsidised partially or in its entirety by:
EU Commission (DG for Employment and Social Affairs), the City of Vienna’s Bureau of Women’s
Affairs (MA 57), the Women’s Affairs Bureaux of the Austrian Ministry of Economic and Labour
Affairs and the Austrian Federal Chancellery (or their respective forerunner ministries) and the
Austrian Labour Market Development Service (AMS).

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MEQ Handbook - Table of Contents
Preface
Renate Brauner
Eleonora Hostasch
Barbara Prammer

Introduction
Erika Pircher

Part I Keynote Speeches

Erika Pircher & Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous
Managing E-Quality, Improving European Workplace and Gender Democracy

Werner Sauerborn
Aspects of a New Gender Policy Approach

Peter Buijs
Men Don’t Know What They Are Missing

Ken Frew
Parents at Work in the Benefits Agency Project – Balancing Work and Family Life

Part II Reports
Susanne Loudon & Hilde Stockhammer
Implementing Managing E-Quality in the Austrian Labour Market Development Service (AMS)

Martina Rost
Positive Action for Women and Families at the Frankfurt Airport (FAG)

Elvira Biroga & Gisela Boywitt

E-Quality Teams at Deutsche Telekom AG

Brigitta Kreß
Positive Action for Women versus Father Friendly Policy?

Seána Roberts (Liverpool) & Jane Dawson (London)

British Equal Opportunities Policy and Managing E-Quality (synopsis)

Sue Lewitt (Dorset TEC, Bournemouth, UK)

Dovetailing Managing E-Quality with Existing UK Initiative

Part III Workshops

Elena de Graat
Positive Action for Women and Families, Differences and Common Ground

Seána Roberts & Jane Dawson

Introducing Managing E-Quality to the UK

Barbara Wagner & Erika Pircher

Marketing Managing E-Quality – Reflecting on Past Experiences and Strategy Development

Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, Peter Buijs, Christof Rossbacher

Working Fathers: Practical Experience with Work/Life Reconciliation

Bibliography

4
Preface

Renate Brauner (Vienna)

City Councillor for Minority Integration, Women’s Issues, Consumer Protection and Personnel
Development

I wholeheartedly support the fact that “Father Friendliness” has been chosen as the title of this
conference. The use of this term makes an important point, that we have overcome – or at least we
are in the process of overcoming – the period in which debate on topics including partnership,
childcare and work/life reconciliation automatically assumed that these were essentially women’s
issues. All three concerns are indeed generically social issues. They affect us all because they are an
integral part of social policy. The role of city government is one key to the redistribution of
resources. A partnership which includes all concerned parties, is only then possible when all sides
are willing to change and mutually commit to their further development.

Considering the fact that I am speaking as a city politician along with two federal ministers
who support the same position, I will concentrate on what can be done at the municipal level. I will
give a short overview of those options which we in Vienna have and are using to overcome
traditional gender roles and facilitate true partnership in the family. I assume many of you are
already aware of what I am going to say. Municipal-level initiatives can play a vital role in
determining the further development of gender roles. I want to illustrate this using a few examples.
The city of Vienna recently commissioned a study on park and playground planning and design.
This study made us aware of a very disturbing phenomenon: both boys and girls make use of these
facilities up to a certain age, i.e. until they are around 10 to 12. Girls then seem to disappear about
the time they reach this age. I encourage you to take a walk through Vienna and see for yourself. As
soon as girls reach the age of 10 or 12 they no longer play in our parks and playgrounds.
Admittedly, you might find them here and there, babysitting for younger brothers and sisters, but
the boys at their age have – in the true sense of the word – conquered the parks, and in particular the
football fields.

We have decided to restructure the public spaces in the city of Vienna to help girls win back
the public sphere. This goes hand-in-hand with our strategy to enable them to grow up as confident
young women who can take their future into their own hands and conquer those areas of society that
men have dominated until now. This includes, of course, politics, the economy and many other
endeavours.

We recently organised a working conference covering these topics and the issue of gendered
pedagogy. The issues that played a role in the playground study played a role here. We have moved
forward in many areas at the city level. We now sponsor several pilot projects encouraging a
gendered approach to park and playground design. They are aimed at enhancing girls’ self-
confidence and creating new role models for them. We have also helped establish a model
kindergarten with a gendered approach as well as a variety of similar projects in related areas. We
have also developed strategies to encourage girls to make non-traditional career decisions. A
gendered approach to pedagogy means, of course, that we invest an equal amount of time and
energy in helping boys develop new ways of understanding their role in a partnership by
encouraging them to rethink typical male role models. It is by no means a coincidence that the
working conference I just mentioned was titled “Empowering Girls and Developing Boys.”

Today we are discussing the development of somewhat older boys, namely the fathers of
these children. At issue here is the ability to overcome outdated role models and achieve true
partnership, thus enabling women and men to enjoy a fulfilled life. In this context, both career and
family play a key role.

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 This is our declared goal when supporting gendered approaches to pedagogy, as well as
when dealing with all other areas of municipal planning or when living up to our responsibility as
an employer of approximately 80,000 people. Our city has passed an Equal Opportunities Act. We
have appointed five equal opportunities officers as well as numerous women, to serve as contacts in
each of the numerous city departments. Nevertheless, and I regret to admit this, we have not yet
successfully dealt with the fact that the majority of the top city positions are still held by men. We
have developed a very ambitious positive action plan by which we hope to overcome these
traditional hierarchies and career pyramids, but we are often confronted with tremendous setbacks.
However, we are also often able to celebrate satisfying symbolic victories, such as – and I am
especially proud of this – the hiring of Vienna’s first female member of the fire brigade. We are all
aware of the existence of the glass ceiling. The challenge of the glass ceiling is one of the issues that
the councillor for women’s affairs and personnel takes very seriously. Hiring our first female fire
fighter, in this bastion of male opposition to gender equality, was indeed a success. We were able to
at least symbolically crack the glass ceiling.

Our goal is obvious, but let me repeat it once in conclusion: we are attempting to enable
both women and men to lead a fulfilled life. This includes both a career and a family as well as true
partnership at home. With this in mind I wish you all a successful conference and fruitful
discussion.

6
Eleonora Hostasch (Vienna)
Former Federal Minister for Labour, Health and Social Affairs

One of my main goals in the field of employment and labour market policy is to increase the
participation of women in the workforce. We must do everything in our power to enable women to
find well paying jobs outside the home and to improve their ability to balance their career and
family responsibilities. Furthermore, we must ensure that both women and men will enjoy equal
opportunities in all fields of employment.

I’m proud to be able to assure you that during the Austrian presidency of the European
Council we were able demonstrate the need for an EU-wide policy of proactive measures geared to
achieve equal opportunities for women and men. One of the signals for more equality is the
employment guidelines of 1999 that include a general introduction of gender mainstreaming. The
inclusion of this principal into the gender debate was initiated at the informal Council of Ministers
meeting in Innsbruck, bringing together ministers of labour and gender equality from throughout the
EU.

Gender mainstreaming means that the concept of equal opportunities for women and men
must be respected on all levels of policy making. This includes the need to determine whether social
transfer funds as well as fiscal, educational and health measures – just to mention a few areas – are
truly serving the goal of enhancing women’s ability to enter the labour market.

Though the European perspective is indeed crucial, one should not forget the saying: the
proof of the pudding is in the eating. Concepts and strategies must be applied on the ground; only
when a concept has been successfully implemented can it gain public credibility as part of a
comprehensive programme.

It seems obvious that the best place to start this process is in one’s own domain. If we take a
look at the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs we can find recent improvements in many
areas. In my ministry the percentage of female employees has already topped 50% and is still rising.
The 40% quota for women in all fields of employment has been reached and in many areas
surpassed. Currently we have two female heads of sections. As of 1998 a total of 32.1% of all
department heads were female. Now we are moving forward to apply this quota covering various
fields of employment to positions on all levels of the career hierarchy, especially senior leadership
positions. This policy is based on the detailed plan of action laid out in the current positive action
programme for women, with ambitious targets set for female leadership, which should be reached
by the end of 1999.

I also wish to point out two initiatives which we introduced in our ministry and which I hope
will serve as role models for other government agencies: one is our women’s mentoring project and
the other is Managing E-Quality. Mentoring is an innovative personnel development scheme by
which women are individually encouraged on the basis of a “mentorship” agreement through which
an experienced female staff member (mentor) supports and counsels a young, inexperienced
employee (mentee).

Managing E-Quality has already been introduced in my ministry. Throughout Europe, we

were the first major employer in the field of public administration to implement MEQ. A workshop
was especially developed for our mainly male senior executives, thus sensitising them to staff needs
and enabling them to support the introduction of equal opportunities and work/life reconciliation
policy in our ministry. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

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 In conclusion I wish to briefly point out the significance of the Family Leave Policy reform
package, which the federal government recently introduced. These measures aim at improving the
work/life balance. This is especially true for those fathers who have been encouraged by this policy
to take advantage of family leave for the first time. These new measures represent one of the many
positive examples of Father Friendly Policy. Finally, a working father now has an independent right
to family leave. Up until recently he could only have this privilege transferred to him via the mother
of his child.

Until the newborn child reaches his or her second birthday, the father and mother also have
the opportunity to split the parental leave on two occasions. Furthermore, each parent is permitted
to save up to three months of paid family leave for later use, up until the child turns seven. Thus
father, mother and child profit from this new policy initiative.

I am convinced that we have just begun a long process of policy reform and that in the
coming years a wide spectrum of new ideas will be needed to better focus and further improve
equal opportunities policy.

8
Barbara Prammer (Vienna)
Former Minister for Women’s Affairs and Consumer Protection

The policies of equal opportunities and positive action for women by no means contradict “Father
Friendliness” - the issue of today’s conference. Rather, the former encompasses the later. A key
concern in this respect is the gendered division of labour between (oft times well paid) employment,
on the one hand, and unpaid work in the care sector, on the other. The continuing predominance of
the outdated assumption of female responsibility for the household and care of children and
dependent adults perpetuates the double burden of women and starkly limits their career chances. In
order to alleviate the barriers undermining female performance in the workplace, the needs of both
men and women must be considered. The concept of “equal opportunities” is not based on a one-
sided equation. Any attempt to reconcile work and private responsibility inside and outside the
home must incorporate both the male and female perspective. Positive action measures for women
will continue to undermine the needs of female workers if they exclude men. In order to facilitate
male appreciation for the need to overcome a gendered division of labour, men must be offered a
real alternative. Equal opportunities must therefore include steps which will permit men to shoulder
their fair share of household and family responsibilities. On the other hand, women must also be
prepared to “release” some of their responsibility. Indeed, “the private” is not “private”.

Parliament amended existing family affairs legislation in June of 1999. This policy reform
made clear in which direction we must move in the future. Divorce is a particularly negative
experience for housewives. The current rate at which partnerships fail accentuates the fact that these
relationships are not based on mutual support, let alone a dynamic development of both partners.
On the contrary, marriage all too often prevents a fair sharing of responsibility. As long as women
are excessively burdened with caring for family and home they will remain unable to compete in the
workplace. Men, on the other hand, are at a distinct disadvantage when they sincerely attempt to
accept their domestic responsibilities in a partnership. Male employees who take their families
seriously and apply, for example, for their right to take parental leave, are placed under undue
pressure, not only by their superiors, but also by their male colleagues. Therefore Father
Friendliness must begin in the workplace, especially in those departments where strategic business
and human relations policy decisions are made. Leadership positions in these fields still remain an
almost exclusively male domain. For this reason, Managing E-Quality targets men in senior
management positions in order to enhance their awareness and appreciation for work/life balance
and gender equality.

The Managing E-Quality concept was introduced under the auspices of the European
Commission’s “Fourth Medium-Term Community Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for
Women and Men (1996-2000). This project has now entered its third and final phase. To date, it has
been carried out in France, Germany, the UK and Austria with the financial support of the EU as
well as the Austrian Minister of Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Labour, Heath and Social Affairs,
the city of Vienna’s Bureau of Women’s Affairs (MA 57) and the Labour Market Development
Service (AMS). This project is based on two goals of the Action Programme in particular, i.e. the
mobilising of economic and social players, in order to facilitate equal opportunities and the support
of policy measures aimed at enabling men and women to better achieve work/life balance. Using
the concept of Gender Mainstreaming – inherent in goal one – as a point of departure, MEQ does
not relegate gender equality to the exclusive needs of women. Equal opportunities is rather seen as
an issue affecting all areas of society. For this reason, all measures in this field attempt to include
the business community as well as political decision makers on the national, state and local levels.
Managing E-Quality offers private enterprise an attractive opportunity to set and achieve equal
opportunity goals.

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 In conclusion, I wish to emphasis again that work/life balance measures must always target
both men and women. Only then will both sexes be able to shoulder their fair share of social
responsibilities. This will require that we rethink the way we organise the workplace and paid
employment as a whole. Special attention must be paid to the reintegration of parents returning
from parental leave, and to the needs of reconciling employment and childcare. The benefits of this
transition in organisational policy will be enjoyed not only by employees and their families; they
will also positively affect an employer’s bottom line. Equality is good for business.

I wish the participants in this conference, and especially GenderLink as the project director,
a very successful conference and hope you will be able to achieve valuable and far reaching results.

10
Introduction

Erika Pircher (Salzburg/Brussels)

Transnational Project Director

This handbook has incorporated the most important results of three international conferences on
work/life balance and gender equality, held in Frankfurt/Main on 29 April, in Vienna on 19 May and
in London on 27 May, 1999. Following the invitation to reflect on the issue of “Father Friendly
Policy, The Road Ahead? Equal Opportunities and Work/Life Reconciliation for Women and Men in
the Workplace,” all three meetings were designed as “work-in-progress” events. They united many
of the most important researchers and practitioners in the field and laid the groundwork for the final
phase of MEQ that began the fall of the same year. These conferences were an integral part of the
dissemination process inherent in the second phase of the three year Managing E-Quality project.
The conference design was developed by the transnational MEQ project partners: GenderLink
(Salzburg) as transnational director, as well as mbA Training, Research and Development
(London/Liverpool), balancing consult (Frankfurt/Main) and Solution (Salzburg). MEQ was carried
out under the auspices of the European Commission’s “Fourth Medium-Term Community Action
Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (1996-2000). This project was initiated in
1997 by the Viennese Institute for Conflict Research (IKF) with the financial support of the EU as
well as the Austrian Minister of Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Labour, Heath and Social Affairs,
the city of Vienna’s Bureau of Women’s Affairs (MA 57) and the Labour Market Development
Service (AMS). This project is based on two specific goals of the Action Programme, i.e. the
mobilising of economic and social actors, in order to facilitate equal opportunities and the support
of policy measures aimed at enabling men and women to better achieve work/life balance. During
the first project phase in 1997-1998, leadership of the MEQ project was transferred by IKF to the
Salzburg gender equality and diversity management institute, GenderLink, which also headed the
second and final phases, ending in the later half of the year 2000.

The main object of this project was to develop a totally new and generic approach to
European management training, highlighting the work/life balance agenda. The distinct added value
of the Managing E-Quality approach is the incorporation of an awareness and sensitivity training
programme for senior executives with an organisational development strategy aimed at reconciling
the needs of career and family for working fathers. The net projected result of this training
programme is the introduction of organisational strategies that enable both women and fathers with
family responsibilities to compete on a level playing field. Combined with positive action and
gender mainstreaming, MEQ helps secure job opportunities and helps staff shatter the glass ceiling.

At the time this handbook went to press, Managing E-Quality was in the process of
completing its third project phase. A few chapters have been slightly edited to reflect this fact.
During the initial phase, a pilot MEQ course for senior managers was designed and tested. Four
manager training courses were carried out in Austria, France and Germany, including participants
from private enterprise (e.g. Deutsche Telekom AG, Frankfurt Airport FAG, LaFarge Braas AG),
semi-public organisations (e.g. Austrian Labour Market Development Service AMS formerly the
Arbeitsamt, Vienna Employee Development Foundation WAFF), as well as representatives of the
social partners (e.g. regional chambers of commerce), employment agencies, municipal authorities,
consumer protection agencies and the Ministry of Labour.

The Managing E-Quality Manual, titled “Executive Training for Equality Oriented
Management,” was simultaneously published in a German and an English language generic version
for each market respectively. It was the most tangible result of the first project phase. The manual
gives management trainers, continuous education centres and other public and private organisations,
as well as the social partners and individual employers an overview of the MEQ course. First and
foremost, however, the MEQ manual is a guideline offering prospective participants in the MEQ
11
“Train the trainer” (TTT) seminars orientation and preparation. It is thereby also a dissemination
tool for the second phase of the project. The TTT seminars have provided over 20 certified trainers
in the UK, Germany, Hungary, Austria and Switzerland with the skills to carry out work/life and
gender equality management courses. During the third project phase, MEQ was introduced to the
Hungarian market, and thus the European accession states, for the first time. An EU funded
dissemination project also provided the means to introduce MEQ to the Dutch/Flemish and Italian
markets.

This handbook is an attempt to sum up the results of Managing E-Quality training during the
first two project phases. An attempt was made to determine whether the “missing link” between
work/life balance and equal opportunities had indeed facilitated the consciousness-raising process
among working fathers in general and senior executives in particular. Although “Father
Friendliness” is the most obvious “added value” provided by MEQ, this project was obviously not
restricted to the needs of working fathers. The gender mainstreaming approach enabled MEQ to
enhance the awareness of decision makers on the top levels of management – up stream, so to
speak. Thereby the groundwork was prepared during the first two years for phase three of the
project, i.e. the implementation of Managing E-Quality in individual enterprises (Walk Through),
and the dissemination MEQ goods and services throughout the European Union.

In order to improve the readability of this handbook, the various reports have been
categorised according to topic rather than conference. A limited number of chapters are a synopsis
of two or more reports or workshops at various conferences. The first section contains a selection of
the most important speeches held in Frankfurt, Vienna and London in the spring of 1999. The
introductory report by Erika Pircher and Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous puts the practical application of
this gender equality project in a theoretical context. Emphasis is placed on the difficulties
encountered while introducing the MEQ concept to markets with disparate gender and social policy
cultures. It highlights the problems inherent in any attempt to turn a nationally developed project
design into a product with a truly European approach, i.e. to move from the specific to the generic
and back again.

The following three keynote speeches, all presented by men, provide a broad based as well
as very personal overview of the work/life balance issue from the perspective of working fathers in
three EU member states. Werner Sauerborn, trade unionist and editor of the German magazine for
men, (PAPS,) provides the reader with proposals for a new gender policy approach, which may
seem controversial to many. He describes the need for a paradigm shift in the gender debate,
highlighting the need to direct attention to the family needs of working fathers at the expense of a
discussion that, to date, has largely seen the workplace as the key arena in which to achieve gender
equality. In order to convince men that this shift is indeed in their own interest, Sauerborn proposes
the introduction of structural changes in social and infrastructure policy, thus laying the groundwork
for change. The Dutch occupational physician and health consultant, Peter Buijs, also struggles with
the issue of how to convince more men to take an active interest in the work/life agenda. Compared
to Sauerborn, Buijs’ report is more personal, relating his life and career experience and the success
he had in realising his desire to raise his two children. To make this possible, he left a promising
full-time career in a leadership position in order to find more flexible part-time employment. He can
indeed be seen as a role model for many working fathers. The British gender expert Ken Frew
combines the private and the political in his report on the work/life project “Parents at Work in the
Benefits Agency.” As director of this work/life and gender equality initiative of Britian’s largest
social services provider, he was able to gather first hand experience on the advantages and pitfalls
of government sponsored “father friendliness”.

The second section contains six reports on the direct application of work/life and gender
equality policies in the field. The Austrians Susanne Loudon and Hilde Stockhammer, both holding
key management positions in the Labour Market Development Service (AMS Vienna), the Germans
12
Martina Rost (Frankfurt Airport FAG), Elvira Biroga and Gisela Boywitt (both Deutsche Telekom
AG Frankfurt/Main) and national project partner Brigitta Kreß (Frankfurt/Main), and finally the
British expert Sue Lewitt (Dorset Training and Enterprise Council) and the national project partners
Jane Dawson and Seána Roberts (mbA, London and Liverpool respectively) -- all provide brief
overviews of their individual experience with the MEQ concept in their respective markets. One
significant result of the first two years of MEQ implementation is the great strides this concept has
made in Austria – despite this country’s dismal private sector track record to date – because of the
dedicated support of the AMS. Austria was able secure a leading position in the linking of work/life
and gender equality EU-wide. The final section of this handbook includes summaries of the various
conference workshops. The workshop reports combine a summary of the minutes (taped) of the
workshop leaders speech, participant debate and final plenary presentation. Elena de Graat
(Cologne) and Roberts/Dawson deal with the current – and oft times controversial – debate on the
various approaches to positive action for women, family friendliness and work/life balance in their
respective countries. Within this context, the relatively new concept of “diversity management” is
discussed, especially with respect to the long term British experience with “race” relations and
sexual orientation. The criticism of the purely gender related initial MEQ approach - often aired in
these workshops – has had consequences. GenderLink is now developing a project design that will
reflect the EU’s embrace of diversity via Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty. In the future, “race”,
ethnicity, religion, world view, disabilities, sexual orientation and age will play a key role in MEQ
training, along with the central issues of gender equality and the reconciling of career and private
responsibilities for men and women.

Managing E-Quality was designed from the start as a product that could be sold for a profit.
The results of the Frankfurt workshop, headed by Barbara Wagner, and the Vienna workshop,
headed by Erika Pircher, have been integrated into one report, in order to give the reader a better
understanding of the marketability of MEQ in various settings, especially with respect to the highly
competitive management training sector. The workshop lead by Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, with
the support of Peter Buijs and Christof Eschbacher (Initiative for Men Graz), targeted working
fathers specifically. This workshop report provides an overview of the legal and political measures
necessary to convince men to become more involved in the work/life scenario.

In conclusion I wish to express the appreciation of the entire MEQ project team to the
Austrian national co-financiers, who not only provided the Vienna conference with value assistance
and financial support, but also covered the general MEQ dissemination costs, not foreseen by the
budget proposal. In particular, I wish to thank Ilse König (formally at Institute for Conflict
Research, now at Federal Ministry of Science and Research Vienna), for her initiative in designing
this groundbreaking approach to gender mainstreaming in a European context. Her continuous
dedication to this project was also evident in the manner in which she moderated the Vienna
conference. As an employer and market leader, the Austrian financial institute BAWAG
demonstrated its support for the gender and work/life agendas by providing the venue and
conference catering free of charge. The editors of this conference reader hope that the information
and proposals presented here will provide new impulses and encourage further discourse towards
the establishment of genuine gender democracy throughout Europe and its neighbouring countries.

Salzburg, 1999

13
Erika Pircher/Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (Salzburg/Beirut)
“Managing E-Quality”
Improving European Workplace and Gender Democracy

Gender equality in the workplace can only truly be achieved after responsibility for unpaid work in
the home and private sphere has been fairly re-allocated. Flexibility in the workplace facilitates the
re-division of household responsibilities between women and men; however, it also tends to
undermine employment security and reliability. To deal with these contradictory developments a
European approach to gender policy has been developed, only to be confronted with the barriers
stemming from disparate gender and social policy traditions on the national level. The global trend
toward downsizing, outsourcing and just-in-time management has prevented many employers from
embracing the concept of work/life balance although they are aware that employee satisfaction does
improve the dedication and loyalty of their staff and thus enhances productivity and return on
investments. Those male employees who do attempt to access their right to work/life balance, in
order to take their responsibilities in the home seriously, are more often than not discouraged by
superiors, fellow workers, friends and family – but also by the very nature of the job assessment
process. They are put under pressure to revise their divergent behaviour and adjust their attitudes to
the expectations of the “normal” workplace. Finally, many companies which have introduced
reconciliation measures for working parents are currently experiencing an increase in employee
complaints and general dissatisfaction if these policies ignore the needs of those staff members who
are either childless or have no direct care responsibilities.

Gender policy in fin de siècle Europe is confronted by a wide variety of contradictory

influences that can either be seen as leading directly towards a dead end or – using a more
optimistic reading - be understood as individual parts of a dialectical puzzle. The relationship
between work/life and gender equality is indeed archetypal of the contravening currents influencing
the workplace. The corporate body language prevalent in many organisations pressures female
employees to choose between either career or family. The number of women opting for a career
based on the male breadwinner model may be laying the groundwork for the transition from a
fatherless to a motherless - or parentless - society. On the other hand, most work/life reconciliation
schemes have been introduced exclusively with working mothers in mind, thus cementing the
traditional division of labour between men and women -- the very backward state of affairs that
European policy makers have been attempting to overcome.

Managing E-Quality is the missing link between work/life and equal opportunities; between
a generic, European gender mainstreaming approach and customised, regional programmes;
between the process of continuous deregulation and flexibility, on the one hand, and the
autonomous organisation of work/life balance, on the other; between the needs and desires of
employers and of workers with and without care responsibilities; between the top-down
implementation of new job assessment methods and the desire of both men and women to “get a
life.”

MEQ is currently completing its third project phase and has been piloted with varying
degrees of success in France, the UK, Germany, Austria and Hungary. The MEQ programme is
based on a three-tiered approach. It is made up of a work/life and gender equality course for
managers (MEQ I), a Train the Trainer seminar (MEQ II – TTT), and an in-house implementation
phase (MEQ III – Walk Through). Overall, a wide variety of trainers and managers have taken part
in the MEQ process, representing private enterprise, the public employers, NGOs, urban centres as
well as rural areas, large corporations and small and medium size enterprises -- the so called SME
sector. The second as well as the third and final phases of Managing E-Quality were financed in
their entirety by the European Commission (DG for Employment and Social Affairs), the City of
14
Vienna’s Bureau of Women’s Affairs (MA 57), the Women’s Affairs Bureau of the former Austrian
Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (currently Economic and Labour Affairs), and the
former Minister of Women’s Affairs and Consumer Protection (currently Women’s Affairs Bureau
of the Austrian Federal Chancellery). Hungary joined the MEQ project during its final year. This
was made possible by the rapid progress experienced in the Central and Eastern European (CEE)
countries during their transition phase from “real socialism” to a market economy, as well as the
approaching EU accession of many of Austria’s and Germany’s eastern neighbours. GenderLink
was thus able to gather valuable experience not only in moving MEQ from a generic to a nationally
customised format, but also in assisting its Central European partner to help create a market demand
for a commercial product that until recently did not exist.

In following, current debate on the issue of reconciling career and private responsibilities
will be introduced in general terms. This will be followed by a presentation of the Managing E-
Quality target groups and the three-tiered MEQ approach. Finally, a brief evaluation of the success
of the project in the respective participant countries will be attempted.

1. The Missing Link between Gender Equality and Work/Life Balance

Employment and social policy legislation within the 15 member states of the European Union (not
to mention the numerous accession countries) differs sharply despite the attempts by the EU over
the decades to harmonise this sector. These legal and regulatory disparities are accentuated by even
more obvious cultural differences in the areas of workplace and gender culture. Examples of this are
the traditions governing social partner interaction and conflict resolution. All these factors help
determine to which extent work/life balance and gender equality can be dealt with as an issue
involving predominantly employers and employees, on the one hand, and to which extent
lawmakers must become more involved. Thus, any attempt to harmonise Managing E-Quality will
be immediately confronted with the fact that a generically European approach to equality is in a
nascent state of development.

Germany and Austria have well established traditions of government intervention,

permitting policy makers to assume responsibility for mitigating the “female double burden”, i.e.
work inside and outside the home. The laws regulating leave for childbirth, childcare (NB: up to
three years) and eldercare have, for many years, permitted women to balance home and career and
guaranteed their right to return to their former jobs following clearly defined periods of absence. As
of the end of the last century, men now enjoy the same rights as women in this respect, based on the
EU regulations on parental leave. However, the modest lump sum monthly payments offered by the
federal social insurance system (circa € 300 in German and € 320 in Austria) continue to discourage
men from taking advantage of their right to reconcile work and family. This bad situation is made
worse by the predominant “corporate body language” existing in most organisations, which does
not embrace the needs of working fathers “with open arms” but rather, “gives them the cold
shoulder.” Considering the fact the men in both countries still earn between 30% and 40% more
than women and that active fatherhood (and motherhood) are still defined as career liabilities,
work/life balance will most likely remain a women’s issue, despite the relatively generous
provisions made by the state in Central Europe. Currently, no more than 2% of the males qualifying
for parental and eldercare leave actually take advantage of it, largely because of the drastic
reduction in overall family income and career opportunities (glass ceiling) this would entail.

The United Kingdom adopted the European work/life agenda in the late 1990’s. The EU
parental leave directive (96/34/EC) became British law at the end of 1999, providing female
employees with 18 weeks of mandatory paid maternity leave and both parents with up to three
months of unpaid (sic) leave for childcare responsibilities. The situation in the accession states and
the eastern part of Germany was in a state of accelerated transition over the last decade. Until 1989
the leftist governments of the former East Bloc attempted to achieve 100% female employment and
15
were therefore forced to introduce a wide variety of childcare, eldercare and other professional
family services. These were largely dismantled or deregulated after the demise of “real socialism”.
It is well known that female unemployment skyrocketed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. However,
it has remained relatively high in many of the former “real socialist” parts of Central Europe,
compared to many countries in Western Europe. The abrupt incorporation of East Germany and
rapid integration of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and other ex-communist
regions into the EU’s gender mainstreaming agenda, have laid the foundation for the harmonisation
of work/life and gender equality policy in the very near future.

The issue of anti-discrimination is quite a different matter. During the 1970’s the UK was a
leader and role model for the rest of Europe in this field. The British Equal Pay Act of 1970 laid the
groundwork for all future legislation by outlawing income discrimination for the first time. Most
other forms of discrimination based on gender were banned in 1975 through the introduction of the
Sex Discrimination Act. Men and women were soon protected against discrimination based on
disabilities, ethnicity, skin colour, citizenship and sexual orientation through the “Race Relations
Act” of 1976, the 1986 amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act, the Disabilities Discrimination
Act of 1995 and the Protection from Harassment Act of 1997. In Austria and Germany, workplace
discrimination based on gender would not be outlawed for another decade. Equal opportunities acts
were passed in both Central European countries in 1979 and 1980 respectively. These laws,
however, offer only EU citizens real protection against sex discrimination and ignore workplace
discrimination based on skin colour, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, sexual orientation and
disabilities. In the Central European accession countries, sexual orientation was not an issue before
1989. Open manifestations of racism and national chauvinism were punished through the use of
draconian measures typical of the East Bloc regimes. After the demise of “real socialism” lack of
public awareness for equality issues lead to open job discrimination. Throughout the early 90’s it
was argued that these countries had other more pressing problems to solve and equality would have
to wait.

The disparities in the field of positive action remain, however, the largest stumbling block
for the harmonisation of Managing E-Quality. Positive action, which in Germany has often been
referred to as “positive discrimination” - even by its supporters (sic) - has become well established
in the public sector in Austria and Germany. Federal and state governments, as well as many cities,
have introduced mandatory programmes which set medium and long-term goals for hiring an
increasing number of women (so called women friendly measures); these same governments
encourage the private sector and NGOs to do the same on a voluntary basis. As a rule, these
measures do not include ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, thus overlooking the issue of
double or multiple forms of discrimination. In the UK, on the other hand, positive action measures
can be introduced to hire and further the careers of all employees if they can demonstrate that an
employer has been guilty of discrimination based on “race”, gender or nationality over a period of
12 months. In such cases, positive action measures can be introduced to help train and counsel
victims of past discrimination. Gender or ethnicity quotas are not permitted. Many employers have
introduced positive action schemes voluntarily in order to demonstrate good faith and thus protect
themselves against future charges of racist and/or sexist discrimination. Comprehensive “women
friendly” guidelines, common in public sector in Germany and Austria, are not permissible in the
UK. The situation in the accession states is quite different indeed. Only recently has equality for
women and men – a mainstay of the old communist regimes – resurfaced as a politically tenable
issue. The concept of positive action – originally imported from North America (affirmative action)
– has been newly introduced by those institutions preparing their civil societies and local
communities for EU membership. Positive action for ethnic, religious and social minorities
(disabilities and sexual orientation), has yet to come of age.

Similar disparities exist in all four countries with respect to interaction between employers
and employees at the industry and plant levels. The deregulation and privatisation initiative
16
introduced in the UK as of the early 1980’s lead to the undermining of the collective bargaining
process and a general weakening of trade unions and shop stewards throughout the country.
Industry-wide work/life and gender equality measures based on collective bargaining agreements
are largely unthinkable. Employees’ organisations are relegated, as a rule, to negotiating with the
individual employers or plant managers. In stark contrast to the UK, the conservative Christian
Democratic government in Germany never attempted to dismantle the historic social partnership
ties existing there, despite the fact that the CDU/CSU was in office for a comparably long period of
time. The new OeVP/FPOe centre-right coalition in Austria – formed during the last MEQ project
phase - has also shown little interest in copying the British model. This has meant that Managing E-
Quality has been able to count on strong support from the federal and state governments, the
employers’ organisations and the trade unions and their elected shop stewards “works councils”
(Betriebsrat) in both countries. Social partnership traditions were of course much different in the
former “real socialist” parts of Europe. With the exception of Poland, legally recognised
independent trade unions had not existed prior to 1989. Because the Managing E-Quality project
deals exclusively with the Ministry of Social Affairs in Budapest as a project partner and Walk
Through client, the results of the project in this area cannot be seen as being representative of the
situation as a whole.

Managing E-Quality concentrates on the lowest common denominator when linking

work/life balance and gender equality within a diverse set of international parameters. In general the
linchpin in any organisation, with respect to work/balance, are the needs of the individual manager.
MEQ training is based on a personalised approach to issues that are generally deemed public,
economic or political. As a rule, the mainly male managers participating in a typical three-day
course are all able, in one way or another, to influence personnel policy in their respective
organisations. By kicking off the course with an awareness raising-session, dealing with the
participants’ personal lives, they are made aware of the inter-relatedness of their private and
business agendas. After completing this personalised kick-off, managers then move on to more
complex issues related to the bottom line. Key topics in this follow-up phase include discussing the
links between gender and time management, and the role which the participants own gender and
that of their colleagues and subordinates has played in their individual careers. This leads to a
discussion on their ability as leaders to lead gender related change.

If the upper echelons of a company can be convinced that MEQ is not only good for
business, but also offers each participant an improvement in his or her personal quality of life, the
initial manager training course can move on to the final implementation phase. The foundation for
the MEQ III implementation phase– the Walk Through – can actually be laid through use of the
final module of this introductory course. The MEQ in-house implementation programme is offered
together with local or international consultancy firms, which have entered into a cooperative
agreement or joint venture with the national project partner. The “Walk Through” targets anyone
and everyone. The interests and needs of all individuals who might be potentially affected by the
work/life and equality measures are considered. However, MEQ III highlights – along with
management - the role of trade unions, shop stewards, equal opportunity officers, the human
resources department and individuals who have for whatever reason demonstrated interest for these
issues in the past. The Walk Through is voluntary. It uses the results of a customised “company
diagnosis” or gender audit as a point of departure, thus establishing an objective appraisal of the
current state of affairs within each company. Participating organisations can make use of these
results – which are presented during the initial MEQ manager course – to establish a benchmark for
future action. The trainers and Walk Through consultancy also assist the client in carrying out a
cost-benefit analysis. The results of this survey are invaluable when discussing the need for gender
related change with potentially disgruntled staff members. MEQ has been developed with the
bottom line in mind. The business argument and the generic nature of the course modules enable
MEQ trainers to easily adapt the material to the needs of other EU countries and the accession
states.
17
2. MEQ Target Groups

MEQ has been developed primarily to fit the needs of those employers and senior managers who
have realised that by improving their staff’s quality of life they will also increase their
organisation’s productivity and profitability. Many companies now recognise that employee
satisfaction and customer satisfaction are directly related. According to the Wall Street Journal
(23/Dec/99), various surveys in recent years have demonstrated that there is indeed a close
correlation between the frequency with which employees describe their workplace as pleasant and
the probability that customers will recommend this company to others. The studies cited include in-
house reviews at Monsanto and Sun Microsystems as well as a systematic, long-term survey by
Nielsen Market Research. MEQ is based on a somewhat unconventional understanding of work/life
balance. The business argument is therefore very important when attempting to convince potential
clients to link their personnel and productivity prognoses and projections. Currently, worker
satisfaction is declining all over Europe. According to the results of an international conference
sponsored by the work/life balance institute, “Work and Family Connection,” reconciliation and
thus employee satisfaction has been severely undermined by increasing workplace stress as a result
of the accelerating globalisation process. “Europe now works seven-day weeks. How are human
beings coping with the pressure of too much work and too little personal time? Not very well.”
(Work-Life 1999).

These global developments should make employers worry. An international study carried out
in Europe, Russia, North America and Japan by Gemini Consulting and Yankelovich & Partners
(AFP 10/Sep/98), asked 10,339 participants to rank the following five aspects of an optimal
workplace: work/life balance, enjoyment, security, pay, good relations to fellow employees. With
the exception of Russia, where pay was ranked number one, the overwhelming majority of all
respondents put work/life balance ahead of all other considerations. Furthermore, all respondents
complained about their inability to reconcile their work and family needs. Two somewhat older
studies carried out in Finland in the early 1990’s (Frone et al 1992; 1996) show that men and
women suffered equally from work/life imbalance. This was the result of the shift in gender roles. A
large percentage of Finnish women take a career for granted. Many men now take their family
responsibilities seriously and are aware of the barriers imposed by the workplace. “Men are
increasingly expected to be good husbands and fathers and devote time to the family. Thus, the
ability of men to maintain a positive family related self-image is hindered.”

It has long been recognised that work/life imbalance produces stress and that stress related
ailments, including substance abuse or heart disease, produce higher levels of absenteeism and job
loss. There are now indications that this might also work in the opposite direction. Recent US
studies have demonstrated something that many employers have often thought might be true,
namely that successful fathering is good for a man’s health and thus good for business. According to
a National Institute of Mental Health study, quoted in James Levine’s classic “Working Fathers”
(1997, 45), “Being a father who is deeply involved with his children is good for a man’s health.”
The recognition of the fact that satisfied parents are more healthy and productive workers has done
much to awake interest in Managing E-Quality.

MEQ also targets a secondary group within each organisation that plays a vital role once the
decision has been made to implement the programme. Although middle and junior level
management, employees’ representatives (e.g. labour unions, shop stewards), equal opportunities
officers and informal gender equality initiatives exercise little or no influence on personnel decision
making, they can make or break a gender equality scheme. Following the initial MEQ management
course, the work/life balance and equal opportunities agendas should be “outed” within the
organisation from the top down. It is highly advisable to formalise projected reforms through the
18
use of an overall company employment contract or other form of binding agreement with the
employees’ representatives. If senior management begins to “practice what they preach,” their role
model function will convince subordinate management levels to follow suit. The effectiveness of
top-down strategy has been substantiated by both the European MEQ partners as well as related
projects carried out abroad. According to the British partner (mbA, also see Dawson/Lewitt report
in this handbook), work-life is “a commitment which is led from the top and filters down
throughout the entire organisation.” The Canadian “Conference Board” <http://www.conference-
board.org>, a leader in the work/life balance industry, emphasises that companies must “convince
senior management to be role models” (Work-Life 1999). On the other hand, middle management,
as well as the employees’ representatives, can also be key players in the successful implementation
of MEQ. The workshop reports contained in this handbook document how middle management can
be convinced to support Managing E-Quality, but just as easily position itself against change of this
nature. A very encouraging sign from the lower echelons is the increasing willingness of
predominantly male trade unionists to include work/life demands into the collective bargaining
process (Wall Street Journal 29/Jun/00). The three year European MSU project “ The Challenge of
(Gender) Mainstreaming for the Trade Unions” (Paris 2000) is a further example of the growing
support for the work/life agenda within the ranks of the European social partners.

The attempt to reconcile career and family can actually undermine the overall work/life
balance of an organisation’s staff as a whole if the interests of employees without care
responsibilities are ignored. Giving working parents or individuals caring for dependent adults
priority treatment when scheduling vacations, overtime and weekend shifts, can lead to additional
stress for the remaining workforce. This has led to a degree of backlash in many companies (see
<www.childfree.net> or <http://members.home.net/no-kids> for links). In order to guarantee parity
between workers with and those without care responsibilities, major employers such as Marriott,
ABN Amro, ING Bank, Corning and Kodak have replaced their work/family with work/life
policies. Single workers often use this additional flexibility to take part in wellness programmes,
continuous education courses, sabbaticals or other life improvement and career advancement
schemes, which are oft times paid for or subsidised by their employers (Pichard 9/1997). The
extension of the reconciliation agenda to include all types of households was introduced to
continental Europe several years ago. In Germany, Elena de Graat (see workshop report) champions
this comprehensive approach <www.work-and-life.de>. Managing E-Quality was designed from the
outset to incorporate both agendas; offering additional family-friendly consulting services to
employers in markets where the reconciling of career and family enjoys particular government
support.

3. MEQ Implementation

Managing E-Quality is certainly not alone on the gender equality and work/life training market. The
MEQ approach is unique, however, in two specific areas. MEQ combines a gender awareness-
training programme with an emphasis on the needs of working fathers, i.e. the majority of the senior
management participants themselves. Thus, an understanding for the benefits of successfully
reconciling parenthood and career are not only intellectually understood, but experienced from the
top down. When male executives see work/life balance as an opportunity to improve not only their
profits, but also their quality of life, motherhood ceases to be seen as a business deficit. Secondly,
MEQ is a gender mainstreaming tool. Establishing an understanding for the missing link between
equal opportunities and positive action, on the one hand, and work/life balance or family
friendliness, on the other, enables firms to lay the foundation for a comprehensive approach to
gender. This first significant step in fulfilling recent EU gender mainstreaming stipulations puts
companies on the fast track in their attempt to shatter the glass ceiling for women and working
fathers. It publicly documents a significant good will attempt, on the part of employers, to overcome
the female double burden.
19
 Nevertheless, the Managing E-Quality management course has neither been easy to market
nor to implement. This also holds true for the Train the Trainer (TTT) seminar, developed during the
second project year. Despite a general appreciation for the “missing link” message propagated by
MEQ, interest has been limited because of various legal and political barriers. These were often
accentuated by cultural and market-related? issues. Federal and state legislation regulates both
gender equality and work/life balance in each and every market involved in the project. These
regulations often include legal sanctions, such as fines and contract termination, for long-term
violators of government policy goals. MEQ, however, goes above and beyond the legally required
common denominators and bases its training on a “good practice” role model approach. Although
many individual employers throughout Europe are now convinced that they must go the extra mile,
many private enterprises are lagging behind. There are important exceptions. In Sweden, well
known for its progressive gender policy, Ericsson recently came to the conclusion that the
government’s ceiling on family leave compensation – 80% of current income – was discouraging
males from participating in the programme. As a result, an in-house parental leave bonus was
introduced, topping this country’s already generous provisions. This initiative proved necessary
because the highly competitive IT sector is currently suffering from a severe shortage of manpower
(Reuters 10/Aug/99). Such good practice initiatives remain rare in the four countries currently
participating in the MEQ project. Many organisations limit their gender mainstreaming approach to
the fulfilling of existing legislation, ignoring the challenges of the future.

Those employers participating in MEQ generally accepted the cost-benefit argument –which
demonstrates that initial outlays pay off on a medium term basis. An international list of best
practice examples (part of the training tool) proved to be very convincing. MEQ is, however, more
than a stopgap, “feel good” awareness programme for middle management. As a rule most firms
have not yet been faced with internal pressure from management or the general workforce to change
their gender or family policies. For this reason senior executives who initially demonstrated their
willingness to introduce MEQ often did not follow through and limited their support to lip service
to the politically correct. One of the most discouraging signs, demonstrating that progress will
continue to be slow, is the fact that many international organisations and multinational corporations
with headquarters in best practice countries do not implement their role model policies abroad.
“Gender whipsawing”, i.e. taking advantage of the underdeveloped equal opportunities and
work/life legislation still in place in many European markets, remains widespread. This certainly
can lead to a negative impact on the home workforce - which continues to enjoy gender equality
and work/life benefits – if the wind should change and this scheme should be deemed too
expensive. The exceptions to this practice – e.g. the Dutch ING Bank or ABN Amro – seem to
prove the rule.

The marketability of Managing E-Quality is of key importance. The MEQ management

course was conceived from the very beginning as a project that should prove profitable for both the
client and the training organisation. During the first year of the project (1997-1998), MEQ courses
were successfully marketed in Germany and Austria. Piloting the project in France, however,
proved to be more difficult. The Francophone market has demonstrated a general lack of
appreciation for the “self-awareness approach” to training, commonly accepted in the Anglophone
and German speaking parts of the world (König/Pircher 1998). The commercial nature of MEQ
proved to be an asset during the second project phase (1998-1999). The individual trainers and
training organisations which where contacted during this year could judge the value of the training
product via the success it had demonstrated in their respective market. Independent trainers
recognised an opportunity to expand their service portfolio. In-house trainers were impressed by the
fact that large organisations and medium size companies with significant name recognition had
purchased this product.

20
 In the long run, the initial marketing difficulties proved to be a valuable learning experience.
Because MEQ had to be sold at a price that covered both trainers’ fees and overhead costs, each
project partner was forced to develop a realistic canvassing, sales and follow-up approach. A
general lack of comprehensive government sanctions and the widespread disinterest in all four
markets for the PR advantages of a “best practice” reputation in the field of gender equality and
family friendliness made MEQ a hard sell. The skills and data that resulted from two years of MEQ
marketing are a valuable resource for trainers considering investing in MEQ. The MEQ Network
offers this newly acquired intellectual property to clients Europe-wide.

Looking into the future, it appears that MEQ will remain a European women’s prerogative.
The overwhelming majority of participants in the train the trainer seminars carried out to date in the
UK, Germany, Hungary and Austria were female. This was also the case with respect to the MEQ
conferences in 1999 and the MEQ dissemination programmes and one-day presentations (MEQ
Portfolio) in 2000. On average, the gender ratio of the participants in all training and educational
events (with the exception of the management seminars) was 7 to 1, female to male. Considering
that most of these presentations were billed as being “father-friendly,” MEQ’s track record does
send mixed signals. It is encouraging, on the one hand, to see that women have recognised that
work/life balance for men is in their enlightened self-interest. On the other, it is discouraging that
most men don’t yet seem to get this message. They have not yet understood that an approach to
gender, based on the tenants inherent in MEQ, will positively impact their quality of life. During the
three transnational conferences documented in this reader, all four male keynote speakers – Buijs,
Frew, Sauerborn and Sensenig-Dabbous – reflected to an extent on their own experience. On the
whole, they agreed with the predominantly female participants, workshop leaders and experts in
emphasising the need for men to change. The general consensus derived from these conferences
could be summed up in the following: employers will not improve work/life balance as long as men
don’t make reconciliation a male issue. Debate in the workshops substantiated the claim made by
many speakers, that the current state of affairs is detrimental to the interests of both men and
women. Fathers normally neglect their private lives when faced with a family-unfriendly work
environment. Mothers usually don’t have this option and neglect their carriers in order to care for
children and dependent adults.

4. MEQ in Europe

The situation in the three participant countries during the second phase of Managing E-Quality (i.e.
the Train the Trainer programme TTT), proved to be as divergent as it was in the initial phase. The
Parental and Family Leave Directive (96/34/EC), Equal Pay Directive (75/117/EWG) and Equal
Treatment Directive (76/207/EWG) do regulate gender equality and work/life balance within the
European Union. However, they are merely the starting point for most countries, which in turn have
introduced much more far-reaching policies of their own. As was stated earlier, the integration of
the social partners within the decision making process in this field also varies. Finally, although the
organisational culture within the market economies of Central Europe tends to be similar, as a group
they differ from the situation in France or the UK. On the positive side, debate on gender issues and
the political clout of the women’s movement does seem to be more or less the same in all partner
countries with the exception of Hungary, which joined MEQ in 2000 and will be joining the EU in
2003 or 2004.

MEQ implementation has proven most efficient and least problematic in Austria and
Germany. This indicates that its Central Europe origins have had a cultural effect on the basic
approach of the project, facilitating dissemination in the German speaking market. This market is
far from being homogenous. Germany (i.e. the so called “old federal states” – alte Bundesländer –
in the west) has a long tradition of influential women’s affairs and equal opportunities officers in
private enterprise. This has enabled the German partner to more easily access large corporations in
21
the dynamic and highly innovative fields of communications and transportation. The situation in the
states of the eastern part of Germany, on the other hand, is similar to the Hungary. In Austria, the
public sector has led the way in mainstreaming the gender issue over the years. Thus, federal, state
and municipal employers, as well as the recently privatised sectors (including job referral and
labour market development), have been particularly accessible. Although the TTT phase in 1998-
1999 did attract a number of independent trainers and private training organisations, the
overwhelming majority of all Austrian participants were either from the public (City of Vienna),
formerly state owned sectors (e.g. Telekom Austria, Austrian Labour Market Development Service
AMS), or heavily government subsidised (Vienna Labour Market Development Foundation WAFF)
sectors. In both Austria and Germany the attempt was made to overcome the limitations of the
traditional equal opportunities market. This outreach effort was successful, but required marketing
outlays that far surpassed the funds budgeted for the second phase of the MEQ project. In Austria, a
part-time staff member worked on the marketing of the TTT side of MEQ almost exclusively for
several months. Currently, negotiations are underway in both countries with a wide variety of
clients including various federal, state and city governments or ministries, television and newspaper
corporations and firms in the IT and household electronics branches. The train the trainer
programme is ongoing.

The project’s French partner chose not to participate in the TTT phase of MEQ because of
the difficulties it has experienced during the initial management training programme. The region in
France in which MEQ was introduced had no major cities and was dominated by traditional small
and medium size enterprises. This rural/SME mix, coupled with the purported French animosity
toward self-awareness training, undermined MEQ’s chances considerably. The new British national
project partner, mbA Training Research and Development (London/Liverpool), introduced a wealth
of experience in the fields of anti-discrimination, positive action and regeneration, as well as an
extensive network of business contacts to the transnational project team. GenderLink carried out a
train the trainer kick-off course for mbA’s in-house trainers early in 1999 in order to bring the UK
partner up to date. mbA lacked the experience in project implementation gathered by the other
partners during the first year. This made the TTT marketing in the urban centres of London and
Liverpool extremely difficult, despite the introduction of new legislation by the Labour government
that adopted existing EU social policy and championed the work/life balance issue for the first time.
Judging by the self-evaluation of MEQ (phase II), the main causes for the difficulties experienced in
the UK were more cultural and political than economic or structural in nature. Over the years,
British employers have become used to introducing gender and minority measures to pre-empt
complaints and ensuing fines because of hiring and career advancement discrimination. Pre-
Thatcher equality legislation is indeed highly effective, when compared to other EU countries.
Company representatives normally claim that they have their hands full obeying the law and have
neither the resources nor energy to implement good practice schemes. This “wait and see” attitude
has negatively affected the government’s work/life initiatives, made necessary after the adoption of
the European Parental and Family Leave Directive (96/34/EC). The “policy filter through,” which is
expected to take effect during the coming few years, is also being slowed down by the lack of
influential trade unions and shop steward organisations in most of private industry. As opposed to
the experience in Germany and Austria, mbA had no powerful labour representatives as in-house
partners in the organisations with which they could cooperate.

Looking into the future, MEQ is faced with a mixed set of variables in the newly opening
markets to the east. The Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have now – along with the
so called new federal states of eastern Germany – completed their transition from “real socialism”
to a market economy. The rapid introduction of EU standards in this region was documented and
substantiated during the World Economic Forum’s annual Salzburg Summits, in which GenderLink
staff members have been involved over the last four years (WEF 1998-2000). However, the CEE
states are currently under the sway of two divergent sets of influences. This issue was discussed
both by the Hungarian participants at the Vienna conference as well as by Werner Sauerborn in his
22
keynote speech on the situation in both parts of Germany. On the one hand, the former “real
socialist” societies have taken great strides toward living up to the tradition of gender equality in the
European Union. On the other, the generation now raising children grew up in a society in which
the government followed a policy of full employment and equal opportunities for women and men.
The work/life measures in the German Democratic Republic and communist Hungary were
comparatively successful in eliminating the female double burden. This was not achieved through
the introduction of reconciliation schemes for men, but rather via the “socialisation of the
reproduction of labour,” i.e. state subsidised, professionalised childcare, eldercare, and household
services along Marxist lines. Thus working fathers were not enabled to “get a life” under the
communist regime. The MEQ III in-house implementation (“Walk Through”) project (1999-2000)
and ongoing MEQ courses and dissemination programme in Hungary and eastern Germany are
currently faced with this EU “accession dialectic.”

5. Managing E-Quality as a European Project

MEQ has successfully incorporated various aspects of European social policy. The awareness
raising and educational aspects of the project are business oriented and aimed at senior
management; they thus help to mainstream the gender issue within the public and commercial
sectors. The missing link approach helps trainers and consultants combine two key EU targets:
equal opportunities and work/life reconciliation for women and men. Using their experience within
the well established Central European system of social partnership as a point of departure, the MEQ
project directors tested (and continue to test) the “missing link,” “top-down” and “self-awareness”
approaches in such disparate markets as France, the UK, Italy, eastern Germany and Hungary. This
has led to the development of a truly generic European core concept that can be customised to fit
the needs of each respective market, despite starkly varying social and gender policy traditions.
MEQ has retained its “self-awareness” and personalised approach, despite a degree of difficulty
with this tradition in the Francophone countries. “The private is political” has been a guiding
concept throughout the first three years of Managing E-Quality. By tapping the individual time,
family and career needs of trainers and participants alike, MEQ has remained open to new
challenges. Thus both the training and implementation phases of the project have proven applicable
to the changing environment in the UK as well as the new market economies of Central and Eastern
Europe. In retrospect, MEQ has also thrived during the somewhat turbulent months in early 2000,
as Austria experienced a short phase of European ostracism.

As a project, MEQ targets each employer’s bottom line. This facilitates a synergistic
interaction between gender equality and work/life policies, integrates “the private and the political,”
and affectively confronts the down side of many traditional positive action and family friendly
policies. The mixed results of Managing E-Quality, now in its third year, seem to demonstrate that
this project has indeed produced a truly generic European product. MEQ is both commercially
viable and socially affective. It takes the various contradictions and crosscurrents, briefly sketched
at the outset of this article, into account. By working with the enlightened self-interest of all parties
involved, Managing E-Quality has provided management and labour, women and men, with a win-
win combination.

23
Werner Sauerborn (Berlin)
Aspects of a New Gender Policy Approach

Debate on equal opportunities policy is currently going nowhere. If this situation does not improve
significantly, gender relations could soon disappear from the screen altogether. In following, I
propose placing the men’s issue squarely at the centre of gender discourse.

1. The Stagnation of Gender Relations

When measuring progress in gender relations, the division of household labour and employment is
generally taken as a yardstick. A closer look at the various aspects of this issue will reveal that
things have hardly improved over the years. On average, only 2% of Germany’s male workforce
takes advantage of Germany’s paid family leave programme. In 1998, only 13% of all male
employees were working part-time. This means reciprocally that women make up 98% of those
employees leaving the labour market on a temporary or permanent basis in order to care for their
children and families. Their rate of return has improved over the years, but normally includes a
period of part-time or unregulated employment while their children are still young. And while the
number of individual women now working outside the home has increased, the total volume of
female employment has most likely not increased significantly.

2. No Satisfaction
The fact that gender relations have remained more or less the same should not be taken as an
indication that women and men are satisfied with the position they are currently in. Women are
quick to express their dissatisfaction with the barriers that undermine their ability to reconcile career
and family. Women are expected to concentrate either on furthering their career at the expense of
their families, or to put their families at the centre of their lives and thus sacrifice career
advancement. Generally, men are not willing to go public about their level of work/life satisfaction.
Behind the scenes, however, an increasing number of men are beginning to talk openly about their
inability to invest enough time and energy in their families. The German men’s magazine, PAPs, has
attempted to highlight this situation. “I regret that I was not able to do things with my kids, so it is
really hard for me to watch my son. These days he is able to spend so much time with his children,
but I missed that part of life completely …” reports a grandfather in a recent issue (1998). Lifelong
career orientation, targeting solely work, productivity and success, is now seen as being clearly one-
sided.
An accelerating rate of family break-up is also an indication that many men and women are
not satisfied with the present state of gender relations. The main cause of separations and divorces
appears be most couples’ inability to agree on a common approach to life, including a set of
mutually acceptable gender roles. Women are now placing new demands on their male partners—
demands which men have not been able to live up to. Thus, men will most likely continue to
frustrate their partner’s expectation, mainly because they have not yet sincerely dealt with their own
gender roles in the way many women have. Despite current frustrations, attempts must be made to
improve this situation for the simple reason that family break-up has such a negative effect on
children. Satisfaction is also a children’s issue. Most children can hardly be satisfied with the fact
that they must make do without a father. Their dissatisfaction must be seen in light of the fact that
most children – until they reach the age of 10 - already spend up to 90% of their time exclusively
with women, e.g. their mother, babysitters, childcare workers and teachers. Men only begin to play
a major role in children’s lives when they start attending vocational schools or schools of higher
education. This does not mean that the female role in nurturing, training and educating children is
not essential. It does mean, however, that until children reach the age of ten they suffer from an
24
obvious male deficit – a “father morgana” so to speak. Their socialisation is almost exclusively
feminine during these early, formative years.
Children need their fathers. They need both parents equally, but fathers are normally absent.
This is not exclusively the result of separation and divorce, however. The absent father, or the
fatherless family, is a daily reality for many children. Children are lacking those things that only
their fathers can give them. They do not have a male role model with which they can constantly
interact. This is a problem for both boys and girls. For young boys, growing up without the presence
of their fathers, this can be particularly problematic. They desperately need an adult male role as a
point of orientation. Boys who are forced to grow up without directly experiencing masculinity and
a male role models, are forced to look for a point of orientation elsewhere. In many cases they fall
back on images offered them by the commercial media, ranging from Rambo and the Terminator to
less extreme variations on the same theme.
A propensity towards violence can be seen as a direct result of this male socialisation gone
astray. If boys were able to spend more of their time with positive male role models – especially if
this nurturing male was their father – this would go a long way to reducing violent male tendencies
later in life, and thus facilitate the recovery of our violent culture. Improving gender relations will
benefit children, families and – in the end – society as a whole.
A further issue, which is closely related to our dysfunctional society, is the issue of
employment, unemployment and the distribution of paid and unpaid labour. The fact that the trade
unions have not made much progress in their campaign for shorter working hours is closely related
to the gender issue. When dealing with time and money, or with the relation between paid and
unpaid labour, men and women see things differently. The growing lack of interest in the campaign
to reduce the workweek is mainly a male phenomenon. Men are not inclined to want to work less;
maybe they are unable to. If we want to escape this dead end situation, with respect to the
reallocation of work inside and outside the home, we will need to rethink gender our relations. Men
will a new approach to the time versus money trade-off. They will have to be convinced that a
change in gender relations can genuinely improve their quality of life.
As a rule of thumb, a new policy debate – or merely the re-introduction of a traditional one –
must be based on a comprehensive understanding of the social value of the suggested changes. The
effects this change will have on individual companies and the economy as a whole must be taken
into consideration. In the end, we are dealing with the redistribution of social resources. Within this
context, the climbing divorce rate and increase in violence can be seen in a new light. The ongoing
waste of female skills and career potential should also be included in this equation. Women have
already reached or surpassed male skill and qualification levels in many areas. Their training and
experience may go to waste, however, unless women are no longer prevented from achieving their
full potential. Currently, women are still responsible for the majority of all housework in most
families. Following the traditional Central European family break, i.e. a phase of extended parental
leave, they return to the workplace in increasing numbers. The jobs they get are usually below their
level of qualification. This waste of social resources has a negative impact on the competitiveness
of national and regional labour markets.
Within Europe, approaches to career and family vary. In Central Europe, the three-year
parental leave model predominates. This approach can lead to a competitive disadvantage. When
workers drop out of the labour market for up to three years after the birth of each child this can have
a detrimental effect on an economy vis-à-vis neighbouring countries in which work and family are
so distinctly separated. Women still remain responsible for children, especially during the crucial
first months of the family break, following the birth of a child. If men shouldered their fair share of
household work this would positively impact female career chances. If men began to play an active
role during the first months of the family break they would acquire many social and emotional skills
which they could well use on the labour market. If employers would recognise that parenthood can
25
be a company asset rather than a career deficit, this might change many of their future decisions.
This chance should not go unused.

3. The Patriarchal Social Welfare State

Stagnating gender relations have social and structural ramifications. The ensuing problems are the
direct result of the social and structural policy traditions. Decisions made by individual men and
women can make things better or worse. However, the government largely determines the
environment in which individuals interact. The German state still holds on to an antiquated
approach to gender roles, based on the male breadwinner and female child bearer model. The
foundations of these policies - affecting the extensive welfare and social services sector - were laid
in the 1950’s. Since then, however, all attempts to overcome this political tradition have failed,
because the administrative system that thrives on the current division of gender roles has proven
very effective in defending its own interests. Recipients of social services are rewarded and
penalised according to their willingness to submit to this patriarchal model. The German
“patriarchal social welfare state” has taken on a life of its own. The national system of taxes and
revenues is a good example of this. Married couples are taxed as an economic unit. This approach
provides an enormous advantage for families in which one partner – usually the male – earns
significantly more than the other – normally the female. A significant disparity between the higher
and lower income ensures a hefty tax write-off. Men, with a full-time, well paying job, benefit most
if their wives stay at home. Tax incentives are social incentives and influence behaviour in one
direction or another. This social-economic link can be used as a means of emancipation or –as is
currently the case - to defend the gender status quo. This complex network of interdependencies
must be understood before it can be changed.

4. Traditional Gender Policy Limitations

Until now, gender equality and women’s rights have been synonymous. Part of the reason for this
was that gender issues had been championed by women for women. Of equal importance is the fact
that social disparities between men and women were seen as a problem which only negatively
affected women. Hence, the government departments dealing with gender issues are usually called
ministries of women’s affairs. Furthermore, the laws introduced to achieve gender democracy are
normally called “women friendly” legislation. Finally, positive action measures are – even when
this is not explicitly stated - aimed exclusively at women. The new, leftist Red-Green federal
coalition titled the plank of its government platform dealing with gender equality and work/life
balance: “Women and Work”. This long awaited policy package was the result of extensive
preparation, yet the results to date have not met expectations. Criticism of Germany’s new gender
policy is not directed at the provisions it makes for women’s rights. Changing gender policy to
include new issues is not a step backwards by any means. A genuinely emancipatory approach must
consider the needs of the entire population. Only then can gender policy escape the current dead-
end situation in which it finds itself.
The traditional explanations for the stagnation of gender policy are closely tied to the
traditional approaches to gender equality, and are part and parcel of the impasse at which we now
find ourselves. Historically, women were prevented from acquiring the same qualifications as men.
This is no longer the case. Traditionally male professions, such as steelworker or coal miner, are on
their way out. Now, provisions exist to help women enter those traditionally male occupations.
“Equal pay for equal work” is one of the classic slogans of the European labour and women’s
movements. Income disparities are no longer based on wage discrimination, but rather on career
stereotypes and barriers, which direct women into low-income sectors of the economy. Generous
use of the extended parental leave policy has also undermined female seniority. Finally, cronyism
and nepotism amongst men has traditionally enabled male networks to discriminate against women
26
through the use of informal exclusionary methods. Today male supervisors who openly and
admittedly block female career advancement are few and far between.

5. Female Career Biographies

One of the many traditional gender barriers has not lost its negative impact. Career biographies are
still determined by an antiquated understanding of male and female family roles. These disparities
are not immediately evident, however. As a rule, women and men enter the workplace on an equal
footing. Men remain a part of the workforce during their entire professional careers. Women, on the
other hand, generally take at least one extended family break. Increasingly women – and in some
cases men – are not conforming to this gendered rule of thumb. Their numbers are still too small to
significantly affect employer expectations. The foundations for career and family are normally laid
simultaneously. This means that most women drop out of the labour market for between three and
five years, on average. Many women never find their way back to career track employment. Those
who do are hampered by their family responsibilities. For this reason, many women choose part-
time employment until their children are of school age. Thus, the female seniority deficit is
perpetuated and rarely overcome. This is one of the main causes of lower female incomes and, at
the end of their careers, a much smaller pension following retirement.
If the barriers limiting female careers and income are to be overcome, changing the
traditional patterns during the first years of a woman’s work life is essential. It is at this time that the
discrepancies between the role of father and mother have their largest impact. Women begin two
careers at once, that of employee and mother. Men also become fathers at this time; however,
fatherhood has much less influence on their professional biographies.

6. Public Childcare
Improvements in public childcare services can go a long way to eliminating gendered career
disparities. Childcare deficits abound throughout the EU, particularly with respect to children under
the age of three and services that cover the entire working day. Investments in this area would,
however, not release working mothers from their overall responsibility for the home. An increase in
publicly funded care services would only re-institute the admittedly effective, (though one-sided)
system, prevalent in the eastern part of Germany prior to 1989. 40 years of “real socialism” were
unable to substantially alter the division of labour between the sexes. The communist government
introduced generous childcare and household services. However, this merely relieved women of
their responsibility for the family, leaving men largely unaffected. With the collapse of the “real
socialist” welfare state, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, traditional gender clichés were re-
established. Central and Eastern Europe’s gender policy track record demonstrates that government
support for professional housework policies, especially infant and childcare services, only deals
with symptoms. While these services have an undeniable support function for working mothers,
they are not enough to overcome the traditional unequal division of labour within the family.

7. Men
Gender equality can only be achieved if men shoulder their fair share of family responsibilities, thus
giving women more time and energy to concentrate on their careers. Women who are able to
concentrate on their occupational responsibilities can reach their full job potential. In the long run,
this can lead to parity in the home and the workplace.
In the past, gender policy focused mainly on occupational and income equality. Today the
home is the key to further progress. This paradigm shift was long overdue. Past efforts to achieve
equality between women and men in the workplace were accompanied by largely theoretical
27
debates on the family and the home. Feminist discourse on family issues now highlights practical
measures. One of the key issues in this respect is the following. Which steps will be necessary in
order to convince men that altering their traditional attitudes and behaviour is actually in their own
interest? The answer to this essential question can be found in two distinct areas. On the one hand,
structural changes must be introduced in order to facilitate this understanding. This requires
government support, especially with respect to changes in the workplace. Increased job flexibility
will enable men to better care for their families. But this is not enough. As a rule, men will most
likely not respond to improvements in their environment. Many will prefer to work 50 hours or
more in order to avoid their responsibilities in the home. Awareness training, workplace seminars
and gender equality campaigns can play a significant role in awakening male interest for the joys of
childcare and family life. A combination of both factors – workplace environment and gender
awareness - can lay the groundwork for change, but even this will not suffice. In many cases
couples are more than willing to share family responsibilities equally. Disparities in male and
female incomes can prevent this from happening. How many families really have the extra €10,000
in cash that would permit the husband to work part-time instead of his wife?

7.1. Structural issues

Real change will depend on a variety of innovations. One idea whose time has come is “paternal
leave” for new fathers. This policy has already been introduced in Scandinavia. Based on the
maternal leave model, men could initially be encouraged to spend a few days or weeks at home with
their newborn child. The effect of this measure would be mainly of a psychological nature, helping
fathers to realise that their lives have indeed changed for good and that if they do not plan on totally
neglecting mother and child they must do something about it. Working fathers should realise: “I
cannot just act as if nothing has happened, I’ve got a baby and my partner is now a mother, and they
both need me.” If this change in attitude is accomplished immediately after childbirth, men will be
better prepared for the up and coming long term responsibilities of raising a family.
Another essential structural change is the re-orientation of paid parental leave. Until now,
two models have enjoyed popularity in Europe. Lump sum monthly reimbursements of
approximately €300 to 400 are common in Central Europe. Continued income payments, based on a
percentage of the average salary earned before childbirth, are standard in Scandinavia. The lump
sum approach can only be considered symbolic because of the minimal compensation involved. It
discourages men from participating because, on the whole, they earn an average of one third more
than women. In absolute terms, their drop in income is thus drastically higher than that of their
female partners. The Scandinavian countries offer 70% to 80% of average income to fathers and
mothers on parental leave and the effect is impressive: ten times as many men take parental leave in
Scandinavia as do those in Germany and Austria, where male participation is considered a luxury
few families can afford. The Scandinavian model also enables the government to tie part of the
parental leave period to the father’s participation in the programme, without being unfair to low
income families. However, the 20 to 30% drop in income is still significant. In the future, the social
services system should attempt to link parental leave to an additional funding plan which could
make up for income reduction and thus encourage even more men to take advantage of it.
Fathers and mothers enjoy the legally guaranteed right to return to a “job of equal value”
after completion of parental leave. Many companies only live up to the letter of the law; others,
especially small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in the eastern part of Germany, have
discovered ways to get around this law altogether. The right to return should be improved. Both
men and women must be aware, however, that an extended family leave involves a trade-off and
that even the most effective regulations cannot eliminate a certain degree of career sacrifice.
The previously mentioned tax penalties placed on work/life balance must also be eliminated.
Currently, families are placed in a much higher tax bracket if the husband and wife have similar
28
annual incomes. The laws governing pensions also tend to discriminate against two income
families. The spouse with the smaller income is penalised by the survivor’s pension system if he or
she averages more than €650 per month. Many women therefore prefer part-time work in order to
prevent the family unit from being forced into a higher tax bracket or to avoid the additional income
being eaten up by the social insurance system.
Finally, the laws governing working hours discourage the reconciling of work and family
needs. Working fathers - as individuals - as well as most male trade unionists – in their position as
social partners - still see a man’s job as his main source of gratification. This implies that a decrease
in work also brings with it a drop in personal value. Fathers of newborn children thus experience a
double burden: they are traditionally expected to earn more in order to care for their families; yet
changing gender roles also awaken the desire to spend more time with their newborn child. An
overall reduction in weekly working hours could help alleviate this problem. However, there is a
catch: as long as the lawmakers are only willing to discuss horizontal reductions in working hours,
this policy means a loss in income that not everyone can afford. A vertical redistribution of
resources – from profits and higher wage brackets to the lower income groups – would permit men
on all levels to better afford work/life balance.

7.2 The Role of the Employer

Most companies now realise that a supportive and nurturing family life improves employees’
attitudes toward their job and productivity at work. Very few employers are willing, however, to do
anything to support and help families to survive, especially when the causes of a family crisis are
rooted in a lack of work/life balance caused by stress, long hours away from home and
overexertion. Reconciliation measures are often seen as being controversial. They meet with
resistance when they are applied to working mothers. In most companies, the needs of working
fathers aren’t even “on the radar screen,” so to speak. If parenthood were re-evaluated, this would
reduce threats to endangered families. Employees whose responsibilities as mothers and fathers are
taken seriously by their employer are less likely to suffer home-related stress during the workday.
This would mean a resulting drop in absenteeism—something which is good for all involved.
Employers who not only accept fatherhood as a fact of nature, but also attempt to work with
the grain of changing gender roles, have found a variety of ways to encourage their male employees
to shoulder their responsibilities as fathers, and bring them into balance with their work schedules.
One of the best examples of this is the previously mentioned paternal leave plan. Fathers-to-be are
confronted with their superior’s obvious support for work/life balance. Taking a few weeks off from
work after the birth of a child means more than a few extra days of paid vacation. The introduction
of a paternal leave plan publicly documents a company’s mission statement; superiors now
recognise that their organisation means business. Fathers who participate in such a programme are
forced to rethink their male roles and the meaning that time and money have played in their lives
until then. The ensuing benefits for employers and employees are then of both a social and
economic nature. A cost-benefit analysis can convincingly demonstrate that, even in cases where the
financial return may not be immediate, work/life balance serves an organisation’s bottom line.
Fathers who are able to reconcile their responsibilities towards their families with those of
their workplace spend, as a rule, less time in the workplace. This reduction in “face-time” is not
necessarily linked to a reduction in output or productivity. Seen negatively, nothing harms a
company more than the unexpected, long-term absence of a full-time, round-the-clock manager
whose has just had a heart attack. Put in a positive light, family-oriented male managers are able to
develop social and organisational skills which they might otherwise lack. Men will benefit by
mastering these newly acquired skills, traditionally attributed to women; especially at the
management level, e.g. team work, the ability to listen, negotiating skills, the willingness to
compromise and, finally, the ability to lead in a constructive manner.
29
 It is not always easy for men to recognise how important it is that their children have
continuous access to their fathers. Once they understand this important fact of life, it is often even
more difficult to convince their employers to cooperate. Fathers who have successfully established
their right to spend quality time with their children tend to be very grateful employees. Staff loyalty
is an important competitive advantage, especially in sectors facing a crisis in worker retention, e.g.
the IT branch. Finally, those companies who are lucky enough to employ the wife of a work/life dad
will indirectly reap the benefits of these measures. Women whose partners have accepted their fair
share at home will have much more time and energy for their own workplace responsibilities.
All the aforementioned measures can be introduced in-house. Employers will profit directly
from them on a long-term or even medium term basis. Should, however, the immediate outlays for
work/life balance significantly burden a company’s short-term bottom line, then even the most well-
intentioned proposals will seldom be accepted. Overarching agreements (including collective
bargaining, national laws and EU incentives, recommendations and directives) can help level the
playing field. A short-term loss of competitiveness can be avoided if everyone is required to
introduce similar work/life measures, or if the expenditures are offset by government subsidies and
rebates.

7.3 Changing attitudes

Assuming that all of the above could be introduced overnight, how many men would really take
advantage of their newfound opportunities? Most men are used to measuring their self-worth on the
basis of their career success, the amount of money they earn and the material things they can buy
with it. Less tangible yardsticks such as job satisfaction, personal fulfilment, and generally meeting
their employer’s expectations can also be a measure of success. But reaching these relatively
idealistic goals means that men must invest a large amount of their daily time and energy resources
in their jobs, instead of their families. A reduction in working hours and an increase in flexibility
could theoretically threaten any or all of them.
Men are now faced with a trade-off. Traditionally, affluence was measured by access to
material goods and social prestige. More recently, control over one’s one time has also increased in
value. Personal wealth can additionally be measured by the emotional warmth of one experiences
with one’s own children. Spending several hours daily with one’s own family is indeed a luxury that
an increasing number of men would like to be able to afford.
There is one aspect of this equation that is non-negotiable. An increasing number of men are
accepting a reduction in working hours and the resulting drop in income and career opportunities in
order to have more time for their private interests. This men’s prerogative is not problematic as long
as the well being of others is not involved. We are all aware that children change lives. Couples
often find experimenting with workplace flexibility risky after the birth of their first child.
However, the time-money trade-off should not be seen as a one-to-one equation. Men who have
more time on their hands can also more easily save money. Here are a few examples: If you work
50 hours or more a week you will have not the time to fix your own leaky drain; plumbers are
notoriously expensive. Men with more time on their hands suffer less from stress and overexertion.
They are also better budgeters, shoppers and housekeepers. Finally, depending on one’s wages or
income, a reduction in working hours can have a very beneficial effect on taxes and social insurance
premiums. In this respect at least, the progressive tax system can be family friendly.
In a media society, changes in attitudes must be encouraged and supported through the use
of public discourse and information campaigns. In Scandinavia and the Netherlands a variety of
methods have been tried, many with a large degree of success. All of these programmes had one key
aspect in common; they avoided the temptation to give men a guilty conscious. Public nagging is
counter-productive. Media campaigns often combine information on the improvement living
standards with an indirect consumer message. Men are made aware of the fact that they are missing
30
out on something special. Fathers are offered a better life; the tools necessary to build a better world
through work/life balance are dangled before them. These can prove to be highly convincing
arguments. My labour organisation, the Union of Public Transit and Transport Workers, is taking its
own first, modest steps in this direction. However, trade union men’s seminars are something new.
We therefore have had to be very careful not to ignore the opposition which still exists within our
own ranks.

8. Gender Policy Makers

In conclusion, one last issue has to be resolved, namely: “Who is going to do all this?” Historically,
the women’s liberation movement was based on the assumption that progress could only be made
against men by overcoming their stubborn opposition. This very well might continue to be the case
in certain areas and vis-à-vis certain individuals. A second, more recent approach has been to ignore
men altogether: “Not against them but without them--they won’t change anyway” has been the
motto. A third, seemingly more productive alternative has been to neither oppose nor ignore men,
but rather to take care of things for them. Women seem to be telling men that if we want things done
we should let them take over for us. They appear to be to be telling men: “We now recognise that
men’s problems are part of the women’s issue, so let’s talk things over and then we’ll take care this
for you.”
I’m afraid that all three approaches are just variations on the same theme and that ultimately,
none of them are attractive to men. We must attempt to find a totally new model. Until now,
emancipation has followed a general pattern. The victims of discrimination rallied around a
movement or organisation, attempting to find strength in numbers. Their goal was to change society
as a whole, thereby freeing themselves from oppression. This will not work with the gender issue.
Most men are far too involved in games of prestige and materialism to pay attention. And those who
are not too distracted to pay attention are not likely to form a mass movement and follow the lead of
women’s liberation.
Gender politics will only move forward if the majority of all women, along with a small but
growing male minority, recognise that their emancipation is interrelated with society as a whole.
There are already areas in which men and women can work together. These potential links are
increasing, despite an unfortunate lack of support – not to mention open opposition – which these
initiatives face from most men. Interestingly enough, many women are also very conservative when
it comes to forming links and coalitions. Others find it difficult to give up their traditional female
family roles. Instead of dwelling on those areas which separate men and women, activists of both
sexes should combine resources and work for change in those areas where consensus can be found
and where benefits are mutual. A new gender alliance will need to deal openly with conservatism in
camps. However, the common goal of gender democracy does have the potential to lead us out of
the dead-end situation in which we now find ourselves.
In conclusion, I suggest that gender policy must make significant progress in two areas in
the coming years. To start with, a new gender alliance will need to find new and additional areas of
activity. But it will also need a significantly different approach. Traditional equal rights for women
in the workplace can no longer remain the main focus of this coalition. Family and household
related issues are currently taking centre stage, and with them men’s politics. This new emphasis on
work/life balance will not only prove challenging to most men, it will also offer women a new
perspective. In the end, this paradigm shift will help the issue of women and work overcome its
current impasse and find new strategies for the future of gender relations.

31
Peter Buijs (Amsterdam)
Men Don’t Know What They Are Missing

Somewhere in the Alps lies a small Austrian village, tucked snugly into a mountain valley. For years
now, I have looked forward each year to spending a wonderful week of winter fun there, together
with my two children. My wife’s busy schedule prevents her from taking off at this time of the year,
and she doesn’t really like winter sports anyway. Starting in 1992, I spent almost every evening
--after I had put the kids to bed--working there on my book, “Men Don’t Know What They Are
Missing.” I subtitled it “Fatherhood Combined with a Part-time Job.” This paperback reveals the
mainly positive experience I have had combining the raising of two children with a 24 hour a week
part-time job. It begins with the birth of my son Pieter in 1981, and ends in 1991 as my daughter
Marieke - who was born in 1986 - started her first year of school.

1. Men and Work/Life Balance

“Unanswered Questions”
I started gathering practical experience with the reconciliation of work and childcare almost twenty
years ago. I would like to briefly describe why I find this activity so enjoyable. But before I begin,
please allow me to congratulate the hosts of this conference for their choice of topics. “Father
Friendly Policy – The Road Ahead?” is certainly a timely subject. I don’t know of any other
conference to date that has dealt directly and exclusively with this issue.
I would like to contribute to this conference by suggesting a theme song. Years ago, before father-
friendliness was even dreamed of, the American composure, Charles Ives, wrote a little known
piece titled: “Unanswered Questions”. I wish to pick up on this theme by asking an unanswered
question of my own. “How can we convince men to voluntarily reduce their work week in order to
have more time for their families, and especially their children?” This question is the Achilles heal
of all work/life balance debate.
Recently, the Dutch quality daily, NRC Handelsblad, dedicated an entire page to the crisis
currently facing working mothers in the Netherlands. Many of these women are torn between career
ambitions and feelings of guilt. One would expect the coordinator of the Dutch Family Council to
have something to say about all this. In an interview given to the NRC Handelsblad in connection
with this article, he emphasised that men are the way out of this crisis. “They harbour a huge
potential for nurturing which until now has gone untapped.” But this is only half the answer, and so
I return to my original question: how can we convince men to change their approach to the
work/life imbalance?
Even the participants of the Fourth International Women’s Conference in Beijing in 1995
were unable to answer this question. The conference was able to locate the problem - i.e. that men
still overwhelmingly believe that women are responsible for the home, including taking care of their
husbands – but not the solution. Back in the Netherlands, public debate was recently dominated for
almost a year by this issue. Various concepts on gender emancipation were proposed, but still no
one was able to answer the question. In the end, most people agreed that only when men and
women share housework equally will gender equilibrium be achieved. But nobody knew how to get
men to cooperate.
During the Austrian EU presidency in 1998 – and especially at the informal meeting of the
ministers of social and women’s affairs in Innsbruck – the issue of work/life balance had a
prominent place on the agenda. The Austrians hosts, Ministers Eleonora Hostasch and Barbara
Prammer, focused on the need to get men involved in the family, but nobody could say where to go
from there. That same year, the EU Commission presented a report on Female Employment, Gender
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and Working Hours. Summing up the problem at hand, this document reiterated that men are able to
spend large amounts of time at work, thus ignoring their responsibilities in the home. Women, one
the other hand, are expected to sacrifice their careers in order to meet the needs of their families.
The problem is obvious; a suggested way out of this impasse however, is still not forthcoming. A
year later, a European Round Table was held in the European capital. I was asked to speak in
Brussels in April 1999. The round table participants wanted me to sum up the basic tenets of my
book. These representatives of government, the social partners and the scientific community, were
also able to locate the problem, but not answer THE question. They proposed, for example, that the
European governments should get involved in motivating men to change. By helping employers
guarantee working fathers more workplace flexibility, they hope to encourage men spend more time
with their families. The women’s representatives participating in this meeting suggested that men
should be pressured into finally taking childcare seriously. The Belgian government representative,
in particular, supported the idea that only when men’s – and especially fathers’ – awareness of the
issues was enhanced would they be willing to do anything. But nobody could answer the question,
HOW?
In 1999 the EU co-sponsored (4th Action Programme) the international conference “Fathers
between Cash and Care” in Utrecht. This meeting highlighted the work/life issue. It too, was also
unable to answer THE question. There was a general consensus amongst the participants at this
meeting that inequality between men and women was the result of both the financial dependence of
women and the unequal division of household labour. The conference report emphasised the large
number of government and NGO research projects, which were dealing with the current lack of
work/life balance throughout Europe, but--again--practical solutions were not offered. It now
appears obvious that we have indeed reached an impasse. We will be unable to move forward until
men are willing and able to carry their fair load in the home. Norway recently passed a law forcing
men to take family leave after childbirth. Immediately after the introduction of this legislation, male
participation skyrocketed, from a low of five percent to an all time high of 70%. On the down side,
the divorce rate also shot up by 300%. On a more positive note, Dutch consultancy firms in the
gender field have reported that a serious lack of employees in many sectors has caused companies
to find new ways of attracting workers. Recently, a job ad in a Dutch newspaper stated the
following: “By starting your part-time career in the IT sector today, you will have plenty of time for
your family.”

2. A Personal Decision to Balance Work and Family

One of the few positive spots on the work/life horizon is the Austrian directed EU project,
Managing E-Quality. In the MEQ trainers’ manual, “Executive Training for Equality Oriented
Management,” the authors emphasise the fact that employers must do more to encourage fathers to
reconcile their work and private responsibilities. But convincing answers to THE question are
lacking. I reiterate, in order to seriously deal with this issue we must answer the following: What
can each individual do to make the reconciliation of career and family happen?
In preparing for this conference, GenderLink also asked me a few questions, five in all.
Maybe by answering them today we will be able to get to the bottom of this problem. The first
question they asked me was: “What was your personal motivation for balancing work and family?”
To put this question on a more personal level: Why did I say goodbye to a project, namely the
development of a comprehensive health centre, that was the culmination of my all professional
aspirations? Why did I let go of something into which my colleagues and I had poured four years of
our lives and a tremendous amount of energy? This question really hits home, and is not very easy
to answer. To start with, I want to point out that I have always loved kids. I noticed this at an early
age when dealing with my brothers and sisters, who are much younger than I. In medical school, I
always felt attracted to children. My love of children has also certainly had something to do with
my childhood and the huge amount of time I spent with my father. He was a fun-loving, easygoing,
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hugging, child loving and open hearted husband and father. My parents were very traditional and
my dad was clearly the head of the household, but he worked at home so he was always present. He
was there when we needed him.
Another reason for my decision to re-orient my life was the fact that my partner and I had
always divided the housework 50-50. It would have seemed strange to me to expect her all of a
sudden take all the responsibility for the children. At the time, we had finished medical school,
including a postgraduate year of further specialisation. We were both working on establishing the
medical centre. It had become clear to us that two full-time doctors in one household meant more
stress than we were prepared for. Having children on top of that was out of the question. So we
were already looking for a way to diversify our careers. I wanted to have children and she wanted to
open a practice as a general practitioner. During her 17 years of career experience, she had already
reduced her workload from 100 to 60%. So it seemed obvious that it was now my turn. I started
looking for a part-time job.
In 1979 I seemed to have found the perfect job. I was working with four other men: the
director, a colleague who was responsible for organisational and personnel issues, a doctor who was
about to leave, and a fourth medical colleague. Following an initial trial period they asked me when
I intended to start working full-time. I told them that my partner and I were planning on having
children and that I preferred to work part-time. I’ll never forget the expressions on their faces. This
whole affair was both surprising and unpleasant for all those involved. The director countered that
he wanted me to work “four days, or at least three.” So we agreed on a three day week, and in 1980
I was given a position at the Institute for Occupational Medicine, where I have remained to this very
day because this job is both professionally challenging and flexible.

3. Environmental Factors
The second question that I was asked to answer was: “How did the people around you react to your
decision?” I have already indicated how they responded at work. On the whole the reactions were
not very positive. The most negative remarks came from those colleagues with whom I had
intended to start the medical centre, but surprisingly also from my parents. My mother was
disappointed and told me: “And you could have become such a wonderful paediatrician!” My father
was somewhat more understanding. My in-laws--and especially my father-in-law, who is a doctor
himself--reacted in a very unusual manner, considering that my decision benefited their daughter’s
career and that she had worked very hard to get where she was. He told me: “And I had always
assumed that you would become a very talented general practitioner.” Actually, a lot of my male
friends at the time had also wanted to try working part-time, but back then it was very difficult and
their employers had not gone along, so it was very lonely at the beginning. I was very lucky though,
in that many of my fellow workers were very open and interested in what I was trying to do, and I
have to admit that support came from both women and men.

4. Was There Any Support?

GenderLink asked me if any public or other institutional support was available when I started. At
the outset, there were no regulations permitting men to take family leave. We were only allowed
two days off annually to care for legal matters and other business. At the time both my children
were born, a father had to find an individual solution. I chose to sacrifice four weeks of my
vacation. Things have of course improved since then, and much of what we dreamed for is now
taken for granted. Today you can take off a total of six months during the first four years of a child’s
life. Moreover, public sector employees have full access to paid family leave. In private industry
however, family leave remains unpaid. Thus, male participation is high in the public and low in the
private sector. And of course, as in most countries, there are not enough day care centres. Yes, there
is still great room for improvement.
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5. Is Father-friendliness a Topic of Debate?
The fourth question I was asked was: “Has father friendly policy entered public discourse?” Here,
for a change, I have reason to be optimistic. However, one should not forget that the Dutch tend to
talk a lot, in a very progressive manner, and then not practice what they preach. A recent survey
revealed this discrepancy between lip service and action. Whereas 88% of all Dutch participants
questioned stated that they believe men and women should share household responsibilities equally,
a miniscule fraction – only three percent – of those men who claimed they supported this approach
had actually discussed work/life balance with their employers. This very low rate of interest in
reconciliation is clearly the result of income disparities. Gender inequality leads to huge differences
in male and female incomes, and this is no better in the Netherlands than anywhere else in Europe.
On top of this, men are afraid -- justifiably -- that they will suffer career-wise.
The Dutch feminist magazine “Opzij” recently published excerpts from interviews with
celebrities and other well know individuals and who were asked to comment on their roles as
fathers or family members. Many of these responses accentuated the problem facing us today. The
Minister for Development Aid, Jan Pronk, stated that his children constantly complain that he is
never at home. His fellow cabinet member, Minister of Justice, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, reported:
“Many men do feel that they should improve their behaviour as fathers, but the flesh is weak. And
to tell you the truth, how many people can remain true to their ideals for a lifetime?” Minister of
Education, Jo Ritzen, claimed that he was forced to take on a number of household chores in order
not to become a stranger in his own home. He also admitted that while he was unable to work part-
time in his profession, he nonetheless hoped his son would one day be able to enjoy a more flexible
form of employment.
The most telling example from the Opzij article was at statement by Jacques Wallage, a
leading staff member in the Dutch ministry of social affairs and emancipation, who quoted his own
daughter. Her appraisal of official work/life policy in the Netherlands went as follows: “Daddy,
maybe your government work will help other kids, but you don’t help your own children. That isn’t
nice.” Wallage stated that, because they tend to suppress their feelings, men are the true losers
when they don’t take time for their families. He elaborated by saying: “They can only continue to
see their entire lives as a competitive cycle if they successfully ignore certain feelings towards their
children and wife. Yet men are willing to pay this emotional price, and their lives are thereby
impoverished.” The head of the Dutch employers federation, Alexander Rinnooy Kann got it right
when he said: “Busy managers discover between the ages of 40 and 55 that they have sacrificed a
lot of time for their careers that they could have better invested in their children. They ask
themselves if they really made the right decision.” Wallage and I are not the only ones worried
about this problem. Ad Melkert, Minister of Social Affairs and Emancipation, also supports this
position. “For me and my generation the issue of work/life balance is a top priority. We must find
out how men and women can structure their lives so that they can grow and develop along with
their children.”

6. Why Do I Consider Work/Life Balance To Be Something Positive?

And now I hope to be able to answer the central question that I placed at the outset of this speech:
How can we motivate men to reconcile work and family? Again, I will try to answer this final
question in a personal manner. “Why do I find a life in which work and family are in balance so
positive?” For me it was a privilege to share my children’s most valuable and exciting years with
them. It was wonderful to have access to their most intimate secrets, to share their joys as well as
their pain and disappointments. I was able to help when they needed me most. For me it was a
valuable experience to not always have to get everything right, or know everything best. It was
quite the opposite, in fact. When they tried to solve a problem I tried to suppress my helpful
35
instincts, in order to allow them to figure it out on their own -- but I was still there in order to avoid
dangerous situations, if need be. Reconciling career and family can be an unexpected privilege. It is
often nice, for example, to be able to sit in the yard and play with the kids while everybody else is
sweating away at work. I am also glad that my children were able to help me keep my most intimate
feelings alive--feelings like gentleness, amazement, consolation and imagination -- which might
have been smothered by career responsibilities. My life has been enriched; it is more complete, and
it is more balanced. If I had sacrificed myself to normal career demands I would have developed
harsher feelings, feelings more suited to surviving in a life of competition, stress and overwork.
My wife and I share a common understanding of what work/life balance should be and this
has had a positive effect on our relationship. To be honest with you, I have developed my own
approach to housework, which can get on my wife’s nerves. But, on the other hand, I have learned
to appreciate the millions of unsung working mothers who have been able to successfully balance a
career and a family without neglecting the needs of either. And I discovered something that most
women already know; housework does have its limitations. I was always glad, after a wonderful
day with the kids to get back to my job. It is important to have a family and a career.
I am indeed privileged to be able to combine the best of both worlds and am convinced that
many men would love to do the same. According to various Dutch surveys, one in three men have
expressed a willingness to shoulder household and family responsibilities. But do these men really
know what they are getting themselves into when their partner asks them to follow through, to truly
reconcile career and family? On the other hand, are they also aware of the unexpected and
wonderful things they will gain?
This is why I wrote a book about my experiences during ten years of work/life
reconciliation. I hope I have been able to chronicle my personal attempt to answer THE
“unanswered question.” I would like to convince working fathers – actually, I would like to seduce
them - to participate directly in the first few years of their children’s lives. The right to a flexible
workplace is definitely worth fighting for. And this is indeed a win-win situation. Employers get
highly motivated employees; female partners are able to spend more time and energy furthering
their own careers; children get to see their dads during the week and not only on weekends; and the
dads themselves get a life. A child’s early formative years don’t last long, and they are irreplaceable.
They lay the foundation for emotional ties during the rest of each individual’s life. As we know,
every job is a limited affair, but fatherhood is forever.

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Ken Frew (Leeds)
Parents at Work in the Benefits Agency Project - Balancing Work and Family Life

In October 1997, Harriet Harman asked the new UK Secretary of State for Social Security and
Minister for Women as well as the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, Peter Mathison, to
undertake a review of family friendly and childcare policies within the Benefits Agency. The
Benefits Agency is the largest of the Department of Social Security agencies and, in fact, the largest
UK Government Agency. We are responsible for the administration of all state welfare benefits and
for the payment of £ 88 billion in benefits annually. Almost every household in the UK will at some
time have contact with the Benefits Agency as a customer, so we have a very large, diverse
customer base. In total there are 78,000 permanent staff working in over 600 sites across England,
Scotland and Wales. Some of the sites have 3,500 staff while others only having 5 staff. The
Benefits Agency has always regarded itself as a progressive employee with good family friendly
and childcare policies. The new Secretary of State wanted the Agency to survey staff to find out
what they thought about our family friendly and childcare policies, and if they felt these policies
were being administered equitably across the Benefits Agency. The Chief Executive, Peter
Mathison, commissioned the Benefits Agency Equality, based in the Headquarters in Leeds, to
undertake a research project to find out what staff thought of the Benefits Agency as an employer in
its application of family friendly and childcare policies. He also commissioned the Equality Team to
produce proposals to take the Agency forward in accordance with the embryo Government’s
National Childcare Strategy and strategy on family friendly policies. Having had responsibility for
the Agency policy for gender and for childcare for a number of years, I was asked to take forward
this project, together with my colleague, Samina Saddique.

1. External Research

We began by consulting two of the main charities working in the family friendly and childcare field.
The first port of call was the London-based UK registered charity, Parents at Work, whose aim is "to
help parents balance their responsibilities to both work and home." This charity, with a large parent
membership base and over 300 corporate members, has worked in the field of balancing work and
family life for a number of years with a considerable amount of research available on the subject.
Incidentally, since 1998 I have become a Director on the Board of Trustees of the Parents at Work
charity on a voluntary basis and am helping them to take forward their national agenda. The second
UK registered charity from which we sought advice was Kids' Club Network. Kids’ Clubs Network
is the foremost authority in out-of-school care and has been working closely with the Government
in developing the National Childcare Strategy. Ann Longfield was of enormous assistance in
helping us undertake our research. Before asking staff their views, we first decided to find out what
was happening in the labour market to see how the Benefits Agency needed to adapt.

In the past, many jobs in the UK have been created on the traditional assumption that an
employee's first commitment is to HIS job. Traditionally, the standard employee was seen as a male
whose career was perceived as being free of interruptions. He was assumed to be at the complete
disposal of the employer. Men were expected to dedicate their lives completely to their career.
Supporting activities such as running the home, childcare, and the care of elderly relatives were the
responsibility of their female spouse who traditionally was not working outside the home.

During the years of the Second World War, the role of women in the workplace changed
considerably. They moved from the traditional roles of childcare and running the home, to positions
in industry and the services, where they were needed to replace men who had joined the forces.
After 1945, when the men moved back into the labour market, women once again returned to the
37
responsibility of running the home and being the primary care givers. Examination of the Labour
Force Service of 1997 revealed that there had been a changing role for women in the workforce. It
showed that women comprise 43% of the UK workforce and 11 million in total. It is anticipated that
in the next 10 years the UK workforce will increase by 1.5 million and that 85% of this increase
will be women, mostly women returners. It is these women which the Benefits Agency will look to
for its staff. The Labour Force Survey also revealed some interesting statistics about employees
working outside the home. 51% of all mothers of children from 0-4 years old, now work outside
the home, with 78% of all women with school age children between 5 and 16 working outside the
home.

Whilst the traditional role of women was seen as the home maker and primary care giver and
the traditional image was that the man was free to further his career without the hindrance of family
responsibilities, the tide has changed. There are now many dual income families sharing the family
responsibilities. 72% of all married men have wives who are in employment outside the home, and
half of all children under 5 living with both parents, have both parents working. A new emphasis for
the roles of both father and mother is required in childcare and the running of the home.

Family responsibilities do not stop with childcare. With an ageing population and a policy of
Care in the Community, more and more employees will have other caring responsibilities, either for
ill or disabled partners, parents, relatives or close friends. The Labour Force Survey revealed some
startling statistics about caring responsibilities of the working population. One in six employees in
the UK is a care giver for people other than able bodied children. There are 6 million care givers in
employment in the UK, and many of them are in the 36-55 age bracket. With more people marrying
in later life and having their children in later life, many in this age bracket are 'Twin Carers,' with
caring responsibilities for both children and parents. As the elderly population grows, 22% of all
workers expect to have elder care responsibilities in the next 5 years. In order to meet their elder
care responsibilities, 16% of employees in the UK estimate that they may have to go part-time or
give up work altogether at some time in the future to care for relatives.

An examination of external studies enabled us to find out what is important to working

parents now and what will be in the future. The survey ‘Business Benefits Family Friendly and
Practices’ by Parents at Work in 1996, revealed that the majority of both sexes said that their home
life was equally as important as their work life, with nearly 50% of both sexes wanting more access
to flexible working employment to give them more time to spend with their children. They also
wanted more family friendly working practices and good quality, affordable and accessible
childcare. The need to spend more time with the children was an overwhelming need, especially for
male employees. An Institute of Personnel and Development Survey showed that 2/3rds of those
working 48 hours or more a week don't talk to their children at all during the week. This has been
backed up by a recent report by Lynn Jamieson of Edinburgh University, who found that the
stressed out high-flyer was spending as little as 15 minutes with his children on an average day. The
US-Americans seemed to be doing a little better, as a report by the Michigan University's Institute
of Social Research showed that the American male spends 2.5 hours a day with his children.

The Parents at Work 1996 survey also revealed that employees wanted freedom from excess
working hours and from work related stress. The UK has the longest working hours in Europe, with
1 in 4 employees working more than 50 hours a week. An earlier survey by Parents at Work called
‘Time, Work and the Family,’ revealed in November 1995 that the long hours culture was endemic
in many employment sectors and causing problems for working parents. 64% of those surveyed
didn't see enough of their children and 2/3rds reported that their partners also worked long hours,
making it hard for them to spend time together. Pressure at work was cited by 96% as the reason for
working long jours. With leaner and meaner organisations staff were required to do more with less.
55% said that the reason for working long hours was the work culture, where you were expected to

38
be at your desk from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, with the emphasis on attendance rather than
output. 33% listed direct pressure from line management as the reason for working long hours.

Following a June, 1998 management survey which revealed some interesting findings,
Management Today issued a 'Top Ten Wish List' for managers.
1. Work fewer hours;
2. Change in company culture;
3. Work flexible hours;
4. Reduce/avoid commuting;
5. Work from home;
6. Change job/relocate;
7. More staff;
8. Earn more;
9. Retire;
10. Reduce stress.

In the UK the largest percentage of managers are male, so this 'Top Ten Wish List' would
predominantly represent the views of male managers. It is interesting that the desire for increased
salary only came eighth on the list.

As an employer, it is important for us to know the type of working conditions that new
employees entering into the labour market want. In 1996, Coopers and Lybrand undertook a survey
of 1,200 business students in 30 universities. It showed that students wanted a different work/life
balance than managers of 20 years ago. 45% of the students said that the top priority was "achieving
a balanced lifestyle and having a rewarding life outside work." Only 18% said that "my career is
more important than personal relationships."

2. Research within the Benefits Agency

After examining external factors, we then looked at the demographics within our own organisation.
Of the 73,000 staff employed in 1997, 51,000 were female, representing 69% of the workforce, and
22,000 were male, representing 31% of the workforce. Part-time staff accounted for 16,269, which
was 22% of the workforce. The large bulk --15,536 -- of part-time staff were female, with only 733
– just 1% of the total workforce -- being male part-time employees. The vast majority of part-time
workers were concentrated in a junior management and clerical grades. There were only 175 staff
working part-time above junior management level, and only 10 of these were males. To fully
appreciate the family responsibilities, we examined the age profiles of our staff and have found that
77% of the workforce -- 34,000 staff -- were in the age bracket of 20-44. This is the age group in
which staff would mainly have childcare responsibilities. At a later date, when the full survey of
staff was completed, we were able to establish how many of our staff would have childcare
responsibilities. We discovered that 20,400 – or 28% of total staff -- had children under 5; that
26,000 – or 48% of total staff -- had school-age children 5-14; and that 11,000 – or 21% -- had
children in both age brackets.

Based upon the information in the 1997 Labour Force Survey (1997) that 1 in 6 of the
working population had caring responsibilities other than childcare, we were able to calculate that
approximately 12,000 of Benefit Agency staff will have some form of caring responsibility. When
we started the research we were sure, like many other Government departments, that we had very
good family friendly policies. For example, we had the following.

On becoming a parent:

39
-· paid time off for ante-natal care, relaxation classes, parent craft, and a baby package that was
given to all members of staff who sent on maternity leave;
-· maternity pay for 16 weeks;
-· unpaid maternity leave up to 52 weeks, including the paid maternity leave;
-· paid paternity leave for fathers;
-· adoptive leave for new parents adopting a child.

When a child arrives:

-· career breaks;
-· flexible working patterns;
-· homeworking;
-· special leave with/without pay for illness or domestic distress.

As the child grows:

-· flexible working patterns;
-· flexible working hours;
-· volunteer working;
-· subsidised holiday play schemes;
-· subsidised nurseries;
-· information on availability of childcare;
-· additional childcare expenses;
-· reinstatement;
-· special paid/unpaid leave for illness or domestic distress.

Care of a relative or partner:

-· flexible working hours/working patterns/homeworking etc.
- career breaks;
-· additional caring expenses, training/additional hours;
-· special leave/unpaid leave for illness or domestic distress.

3. The Review of the Benefits Agency Childcare and Family Friendly Policies

With the changing labour market it is important that the Benefits Agency be a family friendly
employer with good family friendly and childcare policies, so that we are able to attract good
calibre staff who will stay with the organisation. It is important that managers realised that staff
with alternative working patterns should not be seen as an obstacle to efficient working or as less
than fully committed to the job. In fact, alternative working patterns will increasingly be seen as a
positive help towards achieving the Benefits Agency's organisational goals in the future. Despite the
fact that we regarded ourselves as a good family friendly employer with excellent family friendly
personnel policies, and in many respects ahead of other larger employers against whom we were
benchmarked, we really needed to seek staff’s opinion of how good a family friendly employer we
were. The next step was to undertake a research study to listen to the views of staff about existing
BA family friendly and childcare policies, and staff’s wider needs and expectations for the future.
You will appreciate the difficulty in undertaking such a survey with such a large number of staff
throughout the UK in over 600 sites. Geographically, the Benefit Agency is split into 17
management areas, each managed by an area director, and the headquarters, mostly based in Leeds.

In consultation with the statisticians we decided to issue a questionnaire to a representative

sample of 3,000 male and female staff within the 20-44 years age group. This age group was
already identified as representing 77% of the workforce, as well as those most likely to have
childcare responsibilities for pre-school and school age children. It was decided to issue an equal
40
number of the questionnaires to each area, based on a 70/30 split to represent female/male split of
the Benefits Agency staff. The survey took place over a two-week period. Advance notification of
the survey was given to all 74,000 staff to ask them to co-operate and complete the questionnaires.
In addition, 30 seminars were held where the Human Resources Directors throughout the UK
listened to the views of staff. A further opportunity was given for staff to write directly to the project
team and give us details of their thoughts.

The report of the findings of the review showed that the Benefit Agency was not necessarily
as good a family friendly employer as we thought we were. Many staff did regard the Benefits
Agency as being a good family friendly employer, and in fact we had benchmarked very well
against other major employers. It also showed that many managers were very innovative in the use
of existing policies and childcare provision. However, many staff were not aware of the full range
of family friendly/childcare policies. In fact, in answer to the question 'Do BA’s childcare and
family friendly policies offer working parents all they want?', 59% answered ‘No’ to the provision
of childcare and 41% answered ‘No’ to the provision of family friendly policies. Many staff stated
that flexible family friendly policies were not available universally or applied equitably across the
BA and to them in their offices. It was evident from the report that the availability of family friendly
policies and childcare support depended upon geographical location and the attitude of local
management.

The most pressing problem identified was that of working parents, both male and female,
trying to achieve a balance between work and family life when children started school. The Benefits
Agency had a return rate of nearly 90% following maternity leave. This indicated that apart from
those 35% of staff who used the extended family or their partner to care for the child when they
return to work, that 55% were able to find some form of commercial childcare for their pre-school
age children. When children started school, the British school day of 9am -3.30pm didn't fit in with
the British working day. Many staff had to, out of necessity, work part-time. An increasing number
were having to work term-time because of the lack of availability of good quality, affordable
childcare before and after school or during the school holidays. 27% of part-time staff surveyed
stated that they would work longer hours if better childcare facilities were made available. Another
difficulty identified was obtaining information about childcare on return from maternity leave or
career breaks. We had undertaken a survey of a number of local authorities and the services they
provided for childcare information. The service provided by the local authorities varied
considerably from excellent to not very good at all. There were many improvements that staff
wanted to see within the Agency. Staff did recognise that the Agency already had a good family
friendly and childcare policy but they needed to be communicated better to the staff. Also, senior
management needed to show commitment to family friendly and childcare policies, and encourage
managers to apply them equitably throughout the United Kingdom. Family Friendly policies should
be available to all staff no matter where they worked and no matter what the local management's
attitudes.

Staff also wanted help with subsidised holiday play schemes, as this was the main problem
for staff who wanted to balance work and family life. The additional financial assistance would
make it easier for them to work during the holiday periods. They also requested some information
about the availability of childcare as it was identified that the service provided by local authorities
throughout the UK varied greatly. In order to get a balanced view we sought the views of managers
and human resources professionals throughout the organisation. Whilst wanting to operate family
friendly policies, it was seen as often difficult to operate them in small units with very few staff.
Although the Benefits Agency is a big organisation, in small units, we had the same problems as
small and medium sized employers. One person in an office with 10 staff wanting to go on a term-
time contract has the same impact if 20 in an office of 200 made the same request.

41
 Managers also reported that full-time staff, especially those with no childcare
responsibilities, often felt that they carried the burden for having to work with part-time staff. They
had to staff the organisation during the early morning hours before school started and after school
when staff had left to care for the children. They also had their annual leave restricted during
holiday period because preference was given to staff with childcare commitments.

4. The Benefits Agency Nine Point Plan

Taking all of the internal and external research into account, we worked with the two UK registered
charities, Parents at Work and Kids’ Club Network, to develop proposals to become a more family
friendly employer than we already were.

i) to help redress the balance,

ii) make our policies more available to all staff no matter what their domestic
responsibilities
iii) make the Benefits Agency an exemplar among employers.

The proposals of the project teams were accepted by the Benefits Agency Board of
Management and by the Secretary of State. In May 1998, the Secretary of State subsequently
launched what was to become the Parents at Work in the Benefits Agency Nine Point Plan -
balancing work and family life.

The Benefits Agency Nine Point Plan aims were to:

i) provide a good range of good quality, affordable, accessible childcare, especially during holidays,
ii) ensure that staff had access to information about childcare,
iii) ensure that the full range of family friendly employment policy was available to all staff, and
that they knew about them
iv) make managers fully aware of the business benefits of family friendly policies, maximising the
full business benefits of being a family friendly employer.

A bigger project team was set up under my leadership with 5 staff, rather than just myself
and Samina Saddique, to help us take the project forward. The Benefits Agency Board of
Management gave us a budget of £2.1million over the next 3 years until March 2001 to complete
the project. This £2.1million was in addition to the £600,000 that we had already spent in
subsidising the existing 357 nursery places and 1,350 holiday play scheme places.

The biggest innovation in a new strategy was the employment of 17 Childcare Champions at
the area level. These were middle management field staff whose job was to assist the project team
in launching and implementing the plan, and help business units in setting up holiday play scheme
partnerships. As staff had identified the lack of good quality, affordable holiday play schemes as a
hindrance to working during the holiday periods, we set a target of setting up 50 new holiday play
scheme partnerships with other employers and the public, private and voluntary sector by March,
2001. To encourage managers to have a holiday play scheme attached to the business unit, a start up
fund of up to £3000 per scheme was to be awarded. When the Nine Point Plan was developed we
were aware that the local authorities would be setting up early years childcare and development
partnerships. As a major employer in many parts of the country, the Childcare Champions would
encourage local business units to take an active part in local childcare planning by the local
authorities.

Although staff had identified before and after school care as also being an important issue, it
was impossible for us to set up before and after school clubs. This was due to the fact that many
business units attract staff from such wide areas and their children go to a large number of different
42
schools. We did however offer new paid leave provisions so that staff could sit on development
committees on out-of-school clubs in their own local schools. This coincided with the Government's
launch of a multi-million pound programme to develop over 1 million out-of-school places in
schools throughout the UK.

On the family friendly side, the main emphasis was to ensure that all staff members (of staff)
were fully aware of all family friendly and childcare policies on offer. It was also imperative that
managers knew about all the family friendly and childcare policies and were that they were fully
aware of the business benefits of being a family friendly employer. To do this we planned a booklet
for all staff telling them about family friendly policies, and a booklet to all managers advising them
of the business benefits of childcare and family friendly policies. To reinforce this we planned a
series of conferences for Benefits Agency senior managers to reinforce that message.

5. Progress in the first year of the project

As I am writing this, we are now 12 months down the line from when the childcare champions took
up post. So what have we achieved? As many of you who have run projects will know, it takes a
while to get things off the ground, and all has not run as smoothly as we anticipated. Following the
launch in May 1998, I had to start recruiting members of the project team with the appropriate skills
to help us take the project forward. It was August of that year before the full project team was
assembled, as those with the appropriate skills could not be released from their other jobs, meaning
that Samina and I were definitely not able to work family friendly hours.

In the meantime we set about recruiting the 17 Childcare Champions who eventually took
up post between October and December 1998. They were all recruited from middle managers
within the Benefits Agency across the UK. It was important that we got the right people. As the
project was meeting their salary, not local management, we developed the person specification and
advertised the vacancies nationally. The Childcare Champions, many of whom had no previous
experience in the childcare of family friendly field, went through an intensive training course at the
end of October. They were required to hit the ground running due to the ambitious target we had of
setting up 10 new holiday play scheme partnerships by the summer of 1999.

They were introduced to senior management and staff at Business Benefits Conferences held
throughout the UK in November of 1998. At these conferences we launched two booklets, one
entitled ‘Family Friendly Policies For All Staff,’ and the other called ‘Business Benefits of Family
Friendly Policies.’(.) Every member of staff throughout the UK received a personal copy of the
family friendly policies booklet and every junior manager and above received a personal copy of
the business benefits booklet. In order to communicate a cultural change project like this, you need
very good communication strategy. To build on the seminars and the launch of the booklets, we
issued a quarterly newsletter in the autumn of 1998 which informed staff all about the project and
the Nine Point Plan and how it would affect them. At this stage the regional Secretary of State had
changed and the new Secretary of State, Alastair Darling, wrote a piece in the first newsletter giving
his personal backing to the project. We have now issued a further two newsletters. The biggest
achievement has been the fact that rather than opening 10 new holiday partnerships in the summer
of 1999, we actually opened the doors to 38 holiday play scheme partnerships. This is far ahead of
our original target. It hasn't been an easy task, and the Childcare Champions must be congratulated
for the tremendous amount of work they undertook between December 1998 and the summer
holidays in 1999 to establish partnerships with other employers, local authorities and the voluntary
sector.

There has been a certain amount of success in that many managers have a better appreciation
of the business benefits of family friendly policies. They now realise that family friendly and
43
childcare policies can lead to increased retention and training of experienced staff, can reduce
training and equipment costs, improve staff morale, increase productivity and provide a better
service to our customers, and reduce staff absences due to sickness/ill health/stress. Above all, they
realise that being seen as an exemplary family friendly employer establishes the Benefits Agency as
an attractive employer who is responsive to the family needs of staff.

6. Future long term aim of the project

There is still 18 months to go under this project and still a lot of work to do. As the project
develops, so does the Government's policy on childcare and family friendly policies. We are now
looking at the possibility of subsidising before and after school care, doing some research into the
possibility of there being a long hours culture within the organisation, and producing a booklet to
make managers more aware of other staff caring needs than childcare. The eventual aim of the
project is to look at the whole work/life balance of every member of staff employed within the
Benefits Agency. Work/life balance is all about striking a balance. Everybody needs a life outside of
work. However, in a competitive market of changing customer expectations it can be hard to strike
this balance.

We need to develop strategies that meet the needs of both business and individuals and
ensure these are put in place. Adopting a professional and co-operative approach to flexible working
arrangements will pay dividends when the heat is on. Employees are more likely to go the extra
mile and be flexible to the needs of the organisation if they know that the organisation will do the
same for them. Employers with care giving responsibilities will be able to keep more focused at
work if they are happy about their childcare arrangements.

7. What other organisations need to do to achieve the same

So, what messages can we give for other organisations who want to implement family friendly
policies?(.)

-· identify the employer, business needs and priorities

-· gain executive commitment
-· make sure that middle management buys in, because that can be a blockage
-· identify the obstacles and develop solutions
-· consult and communicate - it is important to consult with the Trade Unions, with your staff, and
with the management
-· demonstrate the benefits to both staff and management
-· work on the culture - many of the policies may be in place, but the culture may not allow them to
be used, as we found in the Benefits Agency
- pilot, adapt, review, measure, evaluate and spread the message to others
-· celebrate your successes and encourage other employers to do the same

Developing a new culture in which both male and female staff are able to balance work and
life is not an easy task and you will meet resistance along the way. It is not something that will
happen quickly and you must not waver in your task. The benefits for staff and the organisation are
too important not to succeed.

8. The Benefits Agency Nine Point Plan

1. The creation of 17 'Childcare Champions', recruited from Benefits Agency staff to:

44
· find out from local childcare providers and Local Authorities the availability of childcare for
Benefits Agency staff;
· launch and implement the plan;
· help business units set up play scheme partnerships.
2. Set up 50 new holiday play schemes with 1,500 places by March 2001. Start-up funds of up to
£3,000 per scheme will be awarded.
3. Encourage other employers from the public and private sectors to join with the Benefits Agency
in play scheme partnerships.
4. Maintain a network of existing nursery schemes, as well as holiday play schemes.
5. Local BA business units will be asked to take an active part in local childcare planning by LEAs
and TECs/LECs.
6. Paid leave will be offered to staff interested in sitting on local out-of-school development
committees.
7. A new booklet will tell staff about all the family friendly and childcare policies on offer in the
Agency.
8. New guidance will be issued to make 'Keeping in Touch Schemes' more effective, so that staff on
career breaks are kept informed of developments at work.
9. To make sure all staff understand all the benefits of these proposals, the policy team is planning:

-· to hold a series of conferences for Benefits Agency senior managers;

-· to publish 'The Business Benefits of Childcare and Family Friendly Policies' booklet, which
contains examples of good practice;
-· a review of all management training courses to emphasise the business advantage of the policies;
-· to forge closer relationships with charities such as Parents at Work and the Kids' Club Network.

45
Susanne Loudon (Vienna) & Hilde Stockhammer (Vienna)
Implementing Managing E-Quality in the Austrian Labour Market Development Service (AMS)

Introductory Comments
The 1998 Managing E-Quality course was an important milestone en route to mainstreaming
positive action, equal opportunities and work/life reconciliation at AMS. In-house debate has
increased and cooperation between HR, the training department and equal opportunities officers has
clearly improved. Work/life and gender equality are no longer seen as “women’s issues”. Both men
and women within the organisation are now taking them seriously.

1. What Happened at AMS?

In 1995 AMS was placed on a new legal footing. It was removed from the federal administrative
system and established as a statutory service enterprise, based on Austrian federal law. Traditionally,
equal opportunities policy has been well established. It is anchored in our mission statement.
Gender policy targets both clients and employees of AMS, and both groups are indeed linked to
each other. In-house gender equality measures motivate our employees and encourage them, in turn,
to work harder for the equal opportunities of our clients. Thus, measures which benefit our entire
staff also help the organisation reach its business goals. This approach enjoys the full support of
senior management.
Equal Opportunities
Following the shift in our legal status, federal equal opportunities legislation no longer applied to
the entire staff at AMS. However, the equal opportunities officers were able to ensure that the role
model Federal Equal Treatment Act would remain in effect within the entire organisation. This law
stipulates that until each department has reached a 50% quota for women on all levels of
qualification, female employment and promotion applicants must continue to be treated
preferentially. This policy also applies to top management positions. In order to facilitate the
increase in women in leadership posts, AMS will be implementing a MEQ Walk Through, which is
aimed at implementing a programme to create part-time positions for upper mid-level and senior
management. Despite the under-representation of women in higher echelons, in absolute terms,
AMS has actually surpassed the federal 50% goal as currently over half of all staff are female.
Positive Action Measures
Working Hours
Work/life balance targets men and women. Measures in this area include flexible working
arrangements for both parents, time management (e.g. advance notice before all meetings, so that
parents can better coordinate childcare) and a universal right to work part-time -- including the right
to move freely between part-time and full-time. Flexible working hours are also available to
managers, including senior executives. The re-organisation necessary to make the later possible
helped lay the groundwork for the full implementation of Managing E-Quality at AMS over the last
few years.
Parental Leave
AMS supports a positive approach to parental leave for working fathers. Although paternity leave is
certainly not a mass movement, a rethinking of this issue is currently in progress. Expectant fathers
are encouraged talk with their supervisors or the equal opportunities officer. One positive sign that
things are indeed changing is the fact that 37% of annual emergency leave taken by AMS
employees to care for sick children and dependent adults in 1998 was allotted to men. Parents on
parental leave are encouraged to participate in career advancement programmes during their
absences from work. Childcare facilities are provided during training seminars.

46
Equal Opportunities and Basic Training
A good example of the mainstreaming of gender equality at AMS is the introduction of teletraining
as an integral part of our introductory basic training programme for new employees. Basic training
is offered exclusively at the AMS central training institute, which had previously made it very
difficult for parents – especially women - with small children to attend. The equal opportunities
officer saw this as an indirect form of discrimination, claiming that this imbalance between career
and family responsibilities would weed out parents who were unable to spend long periods of time
away from home. As a preliminary equality measure, the central training institute offered childcare
facilities during class time. Moving one step further, AMS then introduced and piloted a teletraining
project, in order to establish a truly level playing field for working mothers and fathers. This
initiative targets part-timers especially. Teletraining enables parents to study from home or their job
and to thereby complete basic training at the same pace as other participants.
Specific Career Advancement Measures
AMS has reserved 50% of all career track and senior management courses for its female staff. To
make sure there are enough women in the pipeline, a package of “Career Design Seminars” has
been tailored to the needs of female employees. Career track women – as well as all female staff
looking for an opportunity to advance within the organisation - are offered additional days off for
training purposes. Positive action guarantees a long-term increase in qualified female applicants at
on all levels.
Shattering the Glass Ceiling
Our extensive goals for work/life and gender equality led us to Managing E-Quality. It proved to be
the best method for building on an already solid foundation. The future of equal opportunities is
closely tied to the reconciliation of career and family - in the home and in the workplace. The MEQ
project convincingly links the work/life and gender equality agendas. We saw participation in this
programme as a means to accelerate the impact of measures we had already introduced in our own
organisation over the years.
Managing E-Quality implementation ran parallel to the introduction of a new policy
initiative on senior management development at AMS. We were in a phase of rapid organisational
development and restructuring. Our goal was to become a genuinely customer oriented service
sector enterprise. If senior management was to play a leading role in this process, the concept of
“leadership” had to be placed on a new footing. Staff qualification was newly defined and directly
linked to guidelines based on personal ability and achievement. One of the key skills introduced
into the new management qualification guidelines was the ability to facilitate female career
advancement. The guidelines not only describe the skills managers must now master, but they also
set clearly defined goals which the top executives at AMS must gradually realise. This goal-centred
approach had been linked to pro-active measures, flanking each step of the development process. A
comprehensive network of workshops was designed and customised to fit each part of the
guidelines. Managers throughout the country were invited to participate in this initiative. Top
management was provided with a specialised seminar programme, which highlighted their key role
in reaching the guidelines’ goals.
Managing E-Quality dovetails with developments at AMS. On the one hand, MEQ is the
missing link between equal opportunities and the reconciliation of career and family. On the other
hand, MEQ’s top-down approach fits well with the recently developed AMS guidelines. By
targeting the awareness of managers in mid-level and senior positions, a key group can be won over
for both the work/life and gender equality agendas. For this reason AMS has chosen to focus its
upcoming MEQ Walk Through on the scheduling needs of top-level management.
3. Seminar Organisation, Curriculum and Results
Initial in-house advertising for the Managing E-Quality seminars was based on written invitations
and specialised informational material. We followed up this first step by directly contacting
47
department heads and HR directors, personally asking them to participate. Parallel to this, we
obtained the direct support of the directors of the state level AMS subsidiaries. There was
immediate interest for the MEQ project and we were soon able to fill up the first manager training
course. We successfully recruited our target group – i.e. HR and department managers – and also
achieved a good gender mix. Seven – or just under half - of the 16 total participants were women.
The seminar curriculum was divided into two parts. During the first segment the trainers
concentrated on general gender and work/life issues. The participants discussed theoretical and day-
to-day approaches to individual and gender issues as well as to society as a whole. Highlighted
topics included: personal career development, the gendered division of labour and the level of
work/life balance at AMS. Personal input was encouraged and workshops played an important role
in facilitating the group awareness process. The second segment was of a more practical nature.
Trainers and participants concentrated on those measures necessary to make work/life reconciliation
succeed at AMS. This phase of the seminar resulted in several very productive and concrete
suggestions for future projects. Many participants supported the proposal to develop a new
programme for employees returning from extended parental leave. During the final part of the
seminar specific proposals were made to improve the re-integration of those returning. Suggestions
were made to improve scheduling and provide flexible working hours. The AMS mentoring
programme can also be traced back to this seminar. The idea was the initiative of several seminar
participants who saw it as a way of improving female networking. A wide variety of other ideas
were discussed and documented for use in future AMS training programmes. The changes, which
were initiated at AMS through the Managing E-Quality seminar, went a long way to improving the
general innovative potential of the organisation as a whole.
4. Which Ideas From the MEQ Seminar Have Been Realised at AMS?
Support for Returning Staff
AMS is keenly interested in encouraging the return of staff members on extended parental leave.
The active career support now available for those who are returning should not be seen exclusively
as a form of positive action for women. By improving the general career chances for workers on
family leave, AMS hopes to convince men that they, too, can take advantage of this programme
without sacrificing their future. Parental leave is seen as an important means of enhancing an
employees overall qualification. The experience that an individual gathers at home is considered an
asset for the entire organisation. The support programme for expectant mothers and fathers
includes:
- A strategy session, scheduled far in advance of parental leave, sets the framework for the
coming months or years. The expectant parents decide, with the company counsellor, on an
adequate means of maintaining contact during the entire period of absence;
- AMS remains in constant contact with the employees on leave, in order to supply them with
important information;
- Three months prior to return, a return strategy session is scheduled in order to facilitate an
easier transition back into the workplace. At this meeting important issues can be dealt with,
including: which jobs of equal value are available, which position(s) would be preferred,
and technical advances during absence. Following this initial appraisal, a retraining and
reintegration strategy is designed. This strategy is a contractual agreement binding both the
returning employee and her or his supervisor. This guarantees that both parties honour the
time spans arranged for retraining.
Flexible Time Management
Work/life balance depends on a flexible approach to daily scheduling and over all working hours.
12% of the employees at AMS work part-time; One fifth of all female staff are part-time workers.
Initially, part-time was misunderstood as being limited to the 8 to 12, half-day model. More
48
recently, employees have begun to take advantage of the broad range of part-time options, including
a flexible reduction or restructuring of hours. The increasing flexibility of part-time employment
has improved its image within the organisation. The fact that employees now have a contractual
right to work part-time is an important cultural signal. As more and more workers on various levels
begin to reduce their hours, part-time is slowly joining the mainstream.
Part-time Managers
Currently, four members of senior management – two of them men – are working part-time. Two
years ago this topic was still taboo; today many executives even consider applying for an opening in
tandem. This development is directly linked to Managing E-Quality implementation, through which
the willingness of senior management to support part-time for everyone – even themselves – has
become well documented. Part-time managers automatically delegate responsibility, in many cases
to younger or less experienced subordinates, who in turn have the opportunity to gain new skills and
advance their own careers. Part-time managers are a key factor in reconciling career and family.
(NB: 43% of the male and 34% of the female senior managers at AMS have children under the age
of 15.) The Managing E-Quality seminar also helped establish that work/life balance is also
becoming a men’s issue. Male executives realised during MEQ awareness training that the quality
of their own lives could improve if they helped implement this project at AMS. One participant
commented: “If managers can work part-time, then I can get something out of all this too!” Thus,
the part-time issue is no longer seen as an additional organisational burden for male managers
which benefits exclusively women. The mainstreaming of the work/life issue has unlocked an
incredible amount of creativity and imagination within the upper echelons at AMS.
Mentoring
Finally, positive action for women is a vital aspect of the equal opportunities policy in its own right.
The introduction of women’s networks is one of the ways which AMS has been able to further the
interests of female employees in general and managers in particular. Workshops and focus group
meetings were initiated in order to locate career track women and to help them articulate their hopes
and plans for the future. These meetings brought female executives together with potential mentees.
Participants were able to discuss those barriers and opportunities for women at AMS that affect the
career chances of women in the organisation. A national women’s roundtable kicked off the AMS
mentoring and networking programme. Successful female executives were invited to present their
life and career experiences, following which they interacted with a well-known journalist who
“interviewed” them and summed up their experience. These results were then used in a workshop
on career strategies for women. Following this first, federal-level workshop, similar meetings were
held on the regional level for the AMS state subsidiaries. A final national event is planed for Vienna.
The workshops were an important first step in getting the mentoring programme off the
ground, and many mentor/mentee contacts were set up spontaneously during these events. The
mentoring programme is linked to the workshops; participation in the networking project is,
however, by no means a precondition. Many mentor/mentee relationships have been set up using
traditional means. The mentoring programme is aimed at career track women, but the programme is
open to all women at AMS who in any way are involved in the national career advancement
scheme.
5. The Effects of Managing E-Quality
In following we wish to sum up some of the most important changes that MEQ has brought about:
- By mainstreaming the needs shared by both men and women, worker satisfaction has
improved and overall productivity has increased;
- By highlighting the gender specific differences between male and female staff, the special
needs of both sexes are taken seriously, thus improving cooperation and morale, and thus the
quality of goods and services;
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 - Equal opportunities policies improve team spirit and staff cooperation. In practical terms, a
more transparent personnel policy can result in improved communication and an enhanced
sense of responsibility. Staff members are more motivated to serve, resulting in higher
customer satisfaction.
- Work/life measures - such as the childcare services offered during training seminars –
Increased staff access to career advancement schemes for all, leading to a higher level of
overall employee qualification;
- Positive action measures instil an innovative spirit and help promote improvements that
benefit staff at varying levels, e.g. teletraining, flexible working hours, mentoring and
networking;
But let the managers at AMS speak for themselves. This is what participants in the work/life and
gender equality programmes have to say about improvements in organisational culture:
“If you can’t balance work and family, both will suffer. If supervisors take the time to help
employees with their personal needs, worker satisfaction will improve and so will the quality of the
things they do. But we don’t just want to help others balance work and family, we want to have the
chance to prove that these innovations work in our own lives, too.” (AMS department head)
“I’m especially proud of the fact that we have been able to put part-time on a solid footing and
thereby improve working conditions for part-timers at AMS.” (member of the board of directors)
“If we can convince everybody that part-time is not only good for staff, but also for managers, the
whole organisation will benefit.” (director of state subsidiary)

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Martina Rost (Frankfurt/Main)
Positive Action for Women and Families at the Frankfurt Airport (FAG)

With a staff of over 12,000, the Frankfurt Airport AG (FAG) is Germany’s largest employer. As a
market leader, the FAG takes its position as role model seriously. Since 1993 I have had the
privilege of focusing my main responsibilities with respect to equal opportunity officer on the
fulfilment of the airport’s employment agreement. The gender related provisions in this general
contract, which covers all employees equally, were initiated by the shop stewards’ works council
and the HR director. Its key elements include:
- a commitment to employ more women in all areas and on all levels;
- a programme to open new career advancement opportunities for women;
- improvements in those fields in which women typically work;
- introduction of a comprehensive work/life balance scheme.
FAG has been part of Managing E-Quality from the very beginning, supporting its unique
approach to equal opportunities since 1997. This was also the year in which FAG was awarded the
German Total E-Quality Certificate for Equal Opportunities in HR Management. Employers can
receive this award once every three years. In connection with each new application they must
demonstrate that they have made significant progress in realising their work/life and gender equality
goals over the last award period. This approach motivates the business community to mainstream
gender, despite the fact that modern management policies currently encourage organisations to
squeeze an ever-increasing amount of work out of an ever-decreasing number of workers.
Management must realise that human resources should be treated with the utmost respect.
The FAG work/life agenda is leading the way in the field of family friendly policy and has
taken the rapid transition of gender roles and household set-ups into consideration. The effects of
these changes in the workplace have led us to embrace a step-by-step policy. Although a set of new
guidelines is now in place, real change will, however be difficult because we are now interfering in
the private lives of men in high places. These last bastions of patriarchal camaraderie have had a
hard time adjusting to equal opportunities and family friendly policy for women. For many, father-
friendliness may be just going too far, too fast. We attempted to win these male colleagues over by
directly dealing with their quality of life, e.g. through a kick-off roundtable titled: “Careers and
Men’s Lives – Human Resources and Equality;” however, the event drew only 20 male participants.
We are in this for the duration, however. Thus, we attempted a less direct approach,
including:
- seminars for women in the fields of gender roles, leadership, public speaking and dealing
with competition;
- special training programmes for women returning from extended family leave, as well as for
semi-skilled personnel in the fields of maintenance and administration;
- career track advancement programmes, which attempted to increase the number of female
and part-time participants, in order to place more women in the pipeline.

A work/life balance programme was introduced:

51
 - FAG contracted the “Familien-Service”, a consulting and referral agency, to help our staff
better coordinate childcare needs;
- Family-friendly scheduling and employment plans were introduced. These have been hard
to implement, however, because of the 24/7, round-the-clock shifts inherent in an airport
career.
- A family benefits scheme assists parents with loans, housing and recreational needs.

Organisational culture and Communication

- The FAG in-house magazine reports regularly on gender issues, highlighting in particular
working conditions for women;
- The airport bulletin boards highlight women’s issues;
- The equal opportunities officers have begun to encourage the introduction of female
networking programmes, including support for this effort in their counselling activities;
- FAG focuses on issues that either effect women directly (e.g. safe and convenient parking),
are controversial (e.g. women and substance abuse), or encourage exchange (e.g. the
women’s affairs fair Frauenmesse TOP 97).
The E-Quality agenda is still facing an uphill struggle. The highly competitive global market
has made profitability its number one priority. Managers are not willing to consider a policy (which
is perceived merely to deliver an improved PR image. To convince the mainly male upper echelons
to continue supporting gender equality and work/life balance, the bottom line will become
increasingly important. Currently, traditional gender issues are supported by a limited number of
male managers at FAG. Something as new as Father-friendliness, however, enjoys even less
support. To turn this around, we must convince top management that E-Quality will give them with
a jump on the competition. Airports in North America and Scandinavia are leading the way
worldwide in this respect. We hope that this internationalisation of the travel industry will provide
the gender leveraging needed to speed up the implementation of E-Quality at FAG.

52
Elvira Biroga (Bamberg) & Gisela Boywitt (Frankfurt/Main)
E-Quality Teams at Deutsche Telekom AG

The Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG) has been accredited by the European Foundation for Quality
Management (EFQM) as an organisation based on the principles of “Business Excellence.” To meet
these criteria, organisations must achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction, innovation,
time management and cost effectiveness. The EFQM award is based on the “Total Quality
Management” (TQM) model. Award winning companies must demonstrate that their entire staff,
irrespective of gender considerations, is involved in reaching these quality related goals.
In order to guarantee that DTAG realised its equal opportunities targets, the board of
directors met with labour representatives in 1992 to develop a positive action plan for women. This
policy is directly linked to both the activities of the HR department and the activities of the newly
installed female equal opportunities officers. The positive action plan at Deutsche Telekom targeted
the special needs of female employees, including:
- an increase in the number of women in the technical fields;
- easier access for women to leadership positions;
- better career planning and advancement services for women;
- improved part-time positions and flexible working hours;
- comprehensive support for employees during and after maternity leave;
-more general cooperation between women and men.
Initially, implementation of these policy directives proved to be very difficult. Finally, as of
1997, regional E-Quality teams were set up in cooperation with the regional equal opportunities
officers. Together, they have attempted to organise support for the positive action plan by offering
customised advisory and consultancy services to the entire organisation. The membership in these
teams normally includes the director of the respective regional subsidiary, a department director, a
member of the board of directors, an elected shop steward, a local equal opportunities officer, and
further members of the board, as well as experts and local female activists. Currently, 45 E-Quality
teams are in place. Deutsche Telekom hopes to soon have a team in each of its subsidiaries.
Management has also announced that it is willing to include the E-Quality teams in its collar labour
agreement, thus protecting workers on all levels.
The first step, when introducing a positive action plan, is to survey the level of gender
equality. Subsidiaries can do this through the use of data collection, interviews with focus groups,
open forums or employee questionnaires. Following this first survey phase, the results are analysed
and a plan of action is developed, highlighting specific targets. The implementation of each local
positive action plan is linked to the individual targets set by the national gender equality agenda;
this is then customised to fit the needs of the respective subsidiary and is monitored on an annual
basis.
Measures introduced on the local level in recent years include: - seminars and mentoring
programmes for women, in order to help shatter the glass ceiling;
- continuous training and career advancement coaching, to enable women to climb the career
ladder more quickly;
- - family friendly scheduling, flex-time, and childcare services during holidays, targeting
reconciliation of career and family.
These measures were introduced in order to enable women and men to reach their full
potential in a job that is right for them. This attempt to promote equality, irrespective of gender or
status, helped the initial three E-Quality teams win yet another award for Deutsche Telekom. In
53
1997, the German telecommunications corporations carried out an internal industry-wide IT gender
equality audit. The prize for the most innovative project was award to the E-Quality teams, at a
special positive action ceremony, by the acting president of the German parliament, Rita Süßmuth.
Along with the Frankfurt Airport, Deutsche Telekom has been part of Managing E-Quality
in Germany from the very beginning. DTAG participated in the initial managers awareness course
in 1997 as well as the following year’s train the trainer seminar. Despite the progress we have made
over the years, however, much remains to be done, especially with respect to human resources
development and access to decision making. The male leadership of our organisation has proven to
be particularly resistant. For this reason the top-down approach inherent in Managing E-Quality,
and its emphasis on father-friendly policy, are significant. Highlighting men’s issues during the
upcoming MEQ implementation phase, which was designed to move from awareness to
organisational development, may go a long way towards finally opening the (male) minds in our
organisation. MEQ has been able to assist DTAG in raising general gender awareness and
sensitising our staff. The top down MEQ approach has dovetailed with the organisational cultural of
our organisation and thus played a key role in promoting the E-Quality agenda.

54
Brigitta Kreß (Frankfurt/Main)
Does Father Friendly Policy Contradict Positive Action for Women?

Gender policy in general -- and positive action in particular -- has been traditionally seen as a
women’s prerogative. This culminated in 1994, with the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment to
the German constitution. Starting in the year 2000, the centre-left coalition government linked all
forms of government support for private enterprise to positive action for women and the family-
friendliness agenda. Employers must now prove that they have acted in good faith in both policy
fields. Pressure from Berlin does indeed seem necessary with respect to equal opportunities policy.
Positive action has until now not been binding in the private sector, and few companies have
realised that gender equality is in their long and medium term economic interests. To date, only 100
German companies have introduced voluntary positive action plans for women. Family friendly
policies, on the other hand, have mainly been limited to part-time and flex-time for those mothers
returning from extended parental leave. Over the years the work/life agenda has tended to entrench
existing gender roles. Male bread-winners are expected to adhere to the 24/7 expectations of their
employers. The careers of part-time working mothers almost invariably reach an impasse
somewhere below the glass ceiling.
Recent developments in the field of work/life reconciliation, however, do seem to
demonstrate that gender policy is moving away from its traditional emphasis on positive action and
equal treatment for women only. A new federal law now guarantees both fathers and mothers equal
access to part-time employment. Moreover, as of next year, the EU parental leave directive will also
be implemented in Germany. For the first time, fathers will enjoy full access to parental leave,
irrespective of the status of their child’s mother. These changes are long overdue. Although overall
progress in the area gender equality has been less than impressive, policy makers can no longer
concentrate solely on the career and family needs of women.
Male employers and employees have also changed. Men have gradually become aware that
the work/life balance is not solely a women’s. Masculinity and men’s issues have stepped forward
and overcome their – often ridiculed – men’s group image. Two years into the Managing E-Quality
project, we have demonstrated that many working fathers now realise that there is something in
“gender” for them. Work/life balance not only offers men an opportunity to reduce the
psychological and social stress involved in a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week career; many fathers also now
realise they have been neglecting their families. Children need both a female and male role model,
especially during their early formative years. Thus, reconciliation is a win-win situation for
everyone involved.
Nevertheless, many men - and not exclusively male managers – are still putting up
considerable resistance. To date, only five percent of all men work part-time. Moreover, there are no
conclusive studies on how much of their free time men really spend on either their families, further
education, or charitable and social activities. According to a study recently completed by the
Volkswagen Foundation, only two percent of the men surveyed nation-wide were on family leave.
Income disparities between men and women also prevent fathers from taking off work, even for a
few months of nominally-paid family leave, because their drop in income would place a huge
burden on the total family income. Therefore -- sadly-- work/life for fathers is justifiably seen by
many families as an unaffordable luxury.
Here lays one of the keys to true gender equality. As long as governmental and private sector
approaches to overall family income are based on vast discrepancies in income, work/life balance
will remain out of reach for a large segment of middle and lower class families. A reallocation of
social resources, one which is based on state funding or voluntary business community initiatives,
could lay the groundwork for a redistribution of labour in the family.

55
 There is no contradiction between positive action for women and father friendliness.
Employers must be encouraged to combine both approaches. Government agencies must link their
policy targets and remind the private sector that gender equality and work/life balance must now
consider the interests of both men and women. Managing E-Quality’s top down approach is aimed
at business leaders. It can assist them in demonstrating good faith with respect to the gender
mainstreaming guidelines and directives of the EU and the federal government. The German
ministry for family affairs recently introduced a programme titled “Men and Families.” One of its
main goals is to locate the barriers blocking work/life balance and to help employers develop new
approaches to gender flexibility. As mentioned previously, the mainstreaming of men’s issues has
apparently now enabled the government – along with a vocal minority within the business
community – to champion the father-friendly agenda.
Traditional feminist and women’ studies have recently been joined by research on men and
masculinity. The ivory tower’s innovative approach to gender has now found more practical
applications. The EU gender mainstreaming directives have transferred gender from the academy to
the workplace and marketplace. Gender democracy is now an integral part of political and media
discourse throughout the country. Apprehension that the mainstreaming of gender policy and the
inclusion of father-friendliness into the gender equality agenda might downgrade positive action for
women, now seems unfounded. On the contrary, locating the missing link between equal
opportunities and family friendly policy will finally lay a foundation which can help women
eventually overcome their double and triple burden. Thus, everybody wins.

56
Seána Roberts (Liverpool) & Jane Dawson (London)
British Equal Opportunities Policy and Managing E-Quality (synopsis)

The UK has long standing track record in Equal Opportunities legislation, spanning over 30 years.
The variation in the range and level of legislation and positive action is markedly different across
the EU, and whereas many nations have not progressed legislation beyond gender discrimination,
the UK has targeted its legislation to cover gender (including gender reassignment), pay/earnings
(Sex Discrimination Act, 1975, 1986; Equal Pay Act, 1970); discrimination based on
“race”/ethnicity (“Race Relations Act”, 1976); and disabilities (Disability Discrimination Act,
1995). All these aspects relate to wider employment related legislation and go beyond any existing
EU level directives. The introduction in 2000 of the UN Human Rights convention will require an
in-depth review of current practice and legislation to ensure compliance.

In spite of the UK equal opportunities legislation, there is no overt process of enforcement

and therefore the legislation is usually applied in a retrospective manner in instances where an
individual makes a complaint, e.g. an industrial/work related tribunal. It is on this premise that the
promotion of good practice is vital to support such a legislative framework.

Given the great variation in equal opportunities legislation and good practice between
member states, it has been important to review such differences in the development of the
Managing E-Quality products, services and training materials.

The differences between the equal opportunities tradition in the UK, on the one hand, and
Germany and Austria, on the other, greatly impacted the implementation of MEQ in the respective
countries. Just one example of the difficulties faced when customising this project for the British
market was the reaction we were confronted with while introducing MEQ to potential participants.
One individual commented that Managing E-Quality did not reflect the diversity of British society
because it was only concerned with gender based issues, rather than reflecting the additional issues
of culture/ethnicity/“race”, disability and sexual orientation. It was perceived that the emphasis of
the Managing E-Quality principles of addressing the "reconciliation of home, work and career
progression" were skewed towards the traditional family unit, and that indirectly this implied a
target audience of "white, middle class and heterosexual" groups.

As the national project manager for the UK, mbA reviewed these issues, identifying that
they could be readily addressed with some alteration to the Managing E-Quality training products
and general approach. In fact, the end result included a comprehensive review of all UK equal
opportunities legislation within the customised elements of the UK Managing E-Quality
programme, which was found to be very effective. Moreover, this was an important starting point
from which to review the recent UK social policy changes in respect of family friendly practices
and the emergent work/life agenda.

Whereas equal opportunities policy in the UK is highly developed, policy on the family
friendly and work/life balance agenda policy has only begun to take shape since the Labour
Government came to power in 1997.

Within a year of the general election, the Labour Government had introduced the first ever National
Childcare Strategy. Amongst the many measures to better support the national childcare and early
education system, the government demonstrated its "joined-up thinking" approach by asking both
parents and employers about their needs and issues, including reviewing the business benefits of a
more family friendly approach to work patterns and conditions.

57
 The “Employment Relations Bill”, being introduced in December 1999, will additionally
bring the UK in line with the EU Parental and Family Leave Directive (96/34/EC).

All these changes in policy have provided an important backdrop to the development and
delivery of the Managing E-Quality project in the UK context.

In its initial stages of development it appeared that the UK "market-place" was not ready for
the Managing E-Quality approach and related training packages, mainly due to a lack of awareness
and understanding of the basic principles of family friendly working and the concept of the
work/life balance. However, with a greater level of customisation to the UK political context and
an inclusive approach to consider the needs of all workers and carers alike - the approach has
received a more favourable response.

From this perspective, the proposed third stage of Managing E-Quality is considered to be a
critical link which will aim to provide hands-on support to employers to assist them in the move to a
better work/life balance.

58
Sue Lewitt (Dorset TEC, Bournemouth, UK)
Dovetailing Managing E-Quality with Existing UK Initiative

The “Family Friendly Network” at Dorset TEC is the product of two significant changes in British
society. On the one hand, female employment has increased rapidly in the last decades. This
development went hand in hand with the ageing of the population in general. Currently,
approximately 6 million adults care for dependent adults. As a rule women assume responsibility
for their elderly parents and family members with disabilities, however, over 40% of all men are in
someway affected by elder care needs. On the other hand, the nature of work outside the home has
changed drastically. New technologies and increasing deregulation have taken their toll. We now
live in a market that is open 24 hours a day. Increasingly, men and women report that the
deregulated 24 hour workplace has meant that they often suffer from increasing stress related
problems and ailments. A recent study demonstrated that this rise in stress caused by a lack of
work/life reconciliation now costs the British economy approximately 170 million euros annually.
An improvement in awareness concerning this family/career imbalance has lead 27% of all
employers to introduce some form of work/life policy.

The Dorset Training and Enterprise Council’s Family Friendly Programme is a leading
initiative in the field of reconciling career and family needs. 50 employers in Dorset County alone,
and over 70 employers nationally have become involved. The Dorset TEC work/life reconciliation
programme offers a total of three services: the Family Friendly Standard, the Assessment Process
and the Family Friendly Network. Dorset TEC is thus able to fill the needs of almost any family
friendly enterprise or employer who wishes to join their ranks. A key aspect in this process is the
need for goal setting on the part of each participating organisation. Each enterprise must develop a
plan of action with goals above and beyond that which the law makers require of them. In
following, these measures are implemented in a top-down process. The Family Friendly Network
helps evaluate the results. Measures which Dorset TEC considers family friendly include flexible
working hours, generous family leave for fathers and mothers, company care programmes for
children and dependent adults and a comprehensive plan of action for achieving an equilibrium
between career and family needs for all employees.

The Family Friendly Network thus began the gender mainstreaming process long before this
approach had been co-opted by the political mainstream. Family friendly policy is not considered
merely a women’s issue. An increasingly diverse workforce places high demands on employers to
develop father friendly policies as well. The diversity approach is also in keeping with the British
legal tradition according to which women and minorities can only then become the beneficiaries of
positive action programmes when it can be statistically proven that an employer discriminated
against a certain group of employees for a period of at least 12 months.

The Dorset TEC Assessment Process helps employers reach goals that they themselves have
set. Department heads and floor managers are incorporated into this goal setting process. This has
proven to be particularly beneficial in preventing any group within the organisation from feeling as
if they had been left out. Finally, the Network offers participants a variety of support materials and
seminars as well as an established company mentor system in which experienced employers can
help newcomers achieve their goals. This process includes a specialised benchmarking programme
according to which employers can develop a plan of action based on their respective point of
departure, in order to more exactly measure true progress.

59
Keynote Speeches Reports Workshops Bibliography Speakers

Elena de Graat (Cologne)

Positive Action for Women and Families, Differences and Common Ground

During the last decade gender mainstreaming and family friendliness have moved from a cottage
industry to global big business. What is Managing E-Quality’s market position? Is it just another -
and perhaps superfluous - awareness and equality oriented training programme? Why should
trainers, who were approached during the second phase of MEQ (train the trainer), react positively
if the market is already saturated? Are we rapidly approaching E-Quality overkill?
Positive action measures in the field of gender equality have now been developed for a
variety of target groups. These include women, families and, more recently, fathers. Do these
programmes complement or contradict each other? Have experts and practitioners on the ground
been able to detect the beginnings of long-prophesied positive action synergy? In Germany, family
friendly business strategies have a long tradition. Thus, researchers and experienced trainers can
now evaluate the interaction between both strands of gender training based on actual plant and
industry level strategies. Although the results are not all in, first conclusions can already be drawn.
The German experience is indeed ambivalent; the wisdom of the “missing link” approach,
propagated by Managing E-Quality, could not be conclusively corroborated.
Introduction
The two dominant positive action programmes now on the market in Germany - “Total E-Quality”
(TEQ) and “Audit Beruf und Familie” (ABF Career/Family Audit) - demonstrate the basic
differences in HR strategy with respect to mothers and fathers. In both cases, the concept of family
or household is not restricted to childcare; the entire realm of care giving and private
responsibilities and needs is included. TEQ offers a soft-sell approach and has most often been
chosen by firms with little or no experience in the field. ABF, on the other hand, is more demanding
and assumes that an organisation is willing to permit a external auditing organisation to evaluate its
track record. Both systems do have common drawbacks, however, including an weak
interdisciplinary and cost-benefit analysis approach. This has made marketing quite a challenge.
Discussion
- One of the main points discussed in this workshop was the “definition monopoly,” i.e.
control of the meanings and connotations of certain key terms. The definition of “family”
and “household” determines the approach that will be chosen when companies attempt to
reconcile the needs of “career and family.” Work/life balance was seen as a more positive
concept because it did not limit positive action to the care and raising of children. The term
“life” includes every facet of the private sphere, including a worker’s responsibilities,
interests and recreation choices. It also does not limit reconciliation to an antiquated
definition of family. Work/life is an inclusive concept which has room for non-traditional
households. (It is also in sync with the concept of diversity and the expectations of Article
13 of the EU Amsterdam Treaty.)
- - Experts and practitioners agreed that family friendly policies and positive action for
women not only often cancelled each other out, but in many cases they ran the risk of being
counterproductive. Work/life balance traditionally has been limited to the needs of women,
and thus cements an outdated approach to gender roles. Positive action can pressure women
60
 to adapt to a “male” 24/7 career model. The participants pointed out, however, that in most
cases the results of both programmes has been overwhelmingly positive.
- Total E-Quality is very good at “breaking the ice”. However, work/life and positive action
remain voluntary measures within the German private sector. Most companies still see these
agendas as a financial burden and a sop to political correctness. TEQ is able to “set the
work/life and positive action train in motion.” It focuses on the cost-benefit and awareness
sides of gender equality and is better equipped to motivate reluctant clients. The
Career/Family Audit supplies follow-up services to organisations that are ready or
experienced enough to implement gender equality programmes full force.
- Emphasis was placed on the weaknesses existing in those cost-benefit analysis arguments
usually offered to prospective clients. Several participants pointed out that organisational
culture, soft skills and other issues that are hard to measure with traditional auditing criteria,
are double-edged and should be dealt with using restraint. On the one hand, companies must
realise that the intrinsic value of gender equality and work/life are hard to grasp; on the
other, the costs and liabilities of a hasty reform must also be recognised. Considering that
this field is very difficult for trainers, consultants and clients to deal with, the lack of
preparation and generally sloppy work that has characterised past implementations -albeit a
limited number of them- is indeed inexcusable.
- Finally, several participants found the recent highlighting of the business argument
problematic. Admittedly, clients are interested first and foremost in the bottom line. This
however, should not lead to a reduction in appreciation for the humanity involved in this
process. Families and households also need to be re-emphasised. In the end, work/life
balance must benefit both employers’ and employees’ families.
Results
- There are a large number of training programmes on the market today which run the risk of
bringing work/life and family-friendliness into conflict. Training programmes should then
be considered counterproductive when they either: 1) pressure women to work and live like
men rather than dealing critically with the definition monopoly by which male attitudes and
behaviour are declared to be the generic social norm; 2) use an exclusionary definition of
family -- thus ignoring or overlooking the wide variety of households now prevalent in
Germany, the fact that children are not the only or sole responsibility of women, and the
interests of working fathers altogether.
- In the case of the German positive action programmes, TEQ and ABF, these weaknesses
were not problematic. Both approaches were able to effectively link the work/life and equal
opportunities agendas, creating the gendered synergy needed to overcome worries of
sceptical clients. TEQ and ABF dovetail, with TEQ laying the groundwork and ABF
supplying the follow-up. The external auditing involved in ABF offered the in-house
roundtables and working groups – roundtable and groups often inherited from TEQ – the
support required to go the distance.
- Cost-benefit analysis is the Achilles heal of gender training. Organisations need to know
both exactly how much a lack of gender equality and work/life balance is currently costing
them, and the obvious and hidden costs of future E-Quality implementation. An
interdisciplinary approach to calculating human resources costs and benefits will require an
extensive preparatory phase. This should be geared to the specific needs of the individual
client, and should reflect differences in staff size, industry, region, legal status, etc. A well
designed cost-benefit analysis will require the support of a sociologist, child psychologist
and family therapist. Calculating costs and benefits must be carried out in an extremely
exact manner (the “who, when, where, what, and how” with respect to work/life). It can be a
61
 service in and of itself, or it can be integrated into a gender audit, company E-Quality
diagnosis, or, as in the case of Managing E-Quality, an awareness training course,.
- In conclusion, to answer the question inherent in the workshop title, the common ground
shared by the family-friendly and positive action approaches in Germany far outweighs the
differences between them.
Controversy
- There is no single appropriate way to deal with the current controversy surrounding the
definition of “family,” and thus “family friendly.” However, the antiquated and exclusionary
definition that a family consists solely of a heterosexual couple with one or more children is out
of the question. Unfortunately this concept of family, commonly accepted by many clients, no
longer reflects social reality in German.
- The market is not yet saturated, but it is segmented. The existing courses and consulting
services generally dovetail and build on each other. However, “overkill” does exist with respect
to terminology. Many concepts are poorly defined and their use is often arbitrary. Rarely is a
clear distinction made between equality and positive action with respect to women, families
and/or fathers.

62
The Implementation of Managing E-Quality in the UK (synopsis)
Workshop Leaders: Seána Roberts & Jane Dawson

During its initial phase Managing E-Quality was conceived as a generic European project.
However, it was developed with participants in the German speaking market in mind. This
workshop attempted to answer the following question: are the marketing and implementation
strategies currently in place applicable to participant countries with a significantly different social
and political background? How much customising is necessary to make the MEQ tools and
services, including the bilingual manual and toolbox, compatible with the needs of the British
market? Considering the fact that mbA was not a participant in the formative first year of Managing
E-Quality, the question was also raised as to how the mbA trainers were able to deal with the
additional challenges of introducing MEQ as a Train the trainer project in a totally new market.

Introduction

Although the UK enjoys both a highly developed level of equality legislation and a longstanding
tradition of legal discourse and social debate on anti-discrimination and positive action for women
and minorities, work/life reconciliation and family friendly policy were on the back burner until the
election of the current Labour government in 1997. Moreover, the position is likely to have been
influenced by the demise of trade union activity during the previous 2 decades of Conservative
Government; hence, there has been little comparable influence through "collective bargaining" in
the workplace with regard to women's/family issues, as in Germany or Austria for example.

Managing E-Quality assumes the willingness of employers to introduce work/life and family
friendly strategies that go beyond standard contractual or legislative requirements. Are these
preconditions actually necessary and, if so, are they attainable in the UK?

Discussion

- Debate on the issue of diversity in the workplace and its effect on work/life reconciliation is
much more advanced in the UK than it is in Germany or Austria. Families are seen as diverse
entities; their needs are determined by a wide variety of factors, including ethnicity,
immigration, religion, world view and sexual orientation - to name but a few. Participants
pointed out that the current work/life debate almost completely ignores the diversity issue with
respect to families. Managing E-Quality should attempt to integrate diversity into its work/life
modules.

- A large percentage of all employers, both in the private and pubic sectors, still see positive
action for women and family friendly policies in general as a financial burden. There is also a
perception (real or imagined) that these pre-conceived ideas are more widespread within the
SME (small and medium size enterprises) sector than amongst large corporations. The legal
system can do very little to correct this situation and the policy changes must aim to embrace
employers' involvement through good practice rather than imposing legislative hurdles.
Managing E-Quality should concentrate on the business argument and especially on cost-benefit
analysis in order to convince employers that achieving an equilibrium between career and
family needs should be seen as an asset. The bottom line is that MEQ is a profitable approach to
personnel development.

- Work/life reconciliation is a particularly interesting sector of gender policy because both men
and women suffer from the glass ceiling when they attempt to achieve equilibrium. Men are told
that they are still the main bread-winners and should behave accordingly, women are often

63
 unable or unwilling to transfer responsibility for the home to their male partners. Many
employers still see the family as a “woman’s problem”.

- Steps should also be taken outside the business sector to support the work/life agenda,
including: child and elder care, recreation and education, supplying household services as well
as the issue of violence in the family.

- Equal opportunities and work/life policies should not only benefit the full-time core staff, but
should also cover part-time, temporary and other atypical forms of employment. Work/life
reconciliation should be “in your face” because currently many employees are still worried
about bringing up the issue.

Results

- The generic, standardised modules of the Managing E-Quality Toolbox and MEQ Manual
appeared to be generally applicable to the British market. It did, however, prove necessary to
rework various aspects of the package in order to take the advanced level of diversity discourse
and the underdeveloped nature of work/life debate into consideration. The need to customise
was initially underestimated. Thus, when introducing MEQ to other European markets, more
attention should be paid to a balance between the generic and customised aspects of the project.

- At the beginning of the project in the UK, GenderLink carried out a Train the trainer course for
mbA’s MEQ trainers. This was vital for the success of the second phase of the project. The
Austrian and British partners were able to mutually evaluate the introductory phase and speed
up the catch-up process in the UK. These lessons can be applied to the dissemination of MEQ in
other countries.

- It was also pointed out that the requirements for introducing a new project in a large country
like the UK are different than in smaller countries like Austria. In larger markets the training and
consulting materials should be developed and distributed regionally. A centrally organised
national approach can be a deficit.

- The cooperation between the German and English speaking partners was seen as being
particularly successful. Misunderstandings resulting from language, socio-political tradition and
culture were easily overcome.

Controversy

Common sense issues in the areas of choice of terms and marketing strategy were not always in
sync. The concept “father friendly policy” (Väterförderung) was considered inappropriate at the
time of market introduction in the UK (1998) because the issue had just been put on the political
agenda and employers appeared unready for this “state-of-the-art” term.

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Barbara Wagner(Frankfurt/Main) & Erika Pircher
The Marketing of Managing E-Quality – Reflecting on Past Experiences and Strategy
Development

Managing E-Quality was designed from the very beginning as a training programme to be sold for
profit. But does the European market really need yet another gender training programme? How can
trainers who wish to expand their training services actually profit from Managing E-Quality? Is the
current economic situation conducive to the marketing of gender training products? This workshop
emphasised the personal impact that gender has on the trainer (supplier) - management (client)
relationship. The feasibility of establishing a truly generic European product that can then be
customised and piloted in the various regional markets and industries was also debated.
Introduction
As a warm-up exercise, the workshop leaders discussed the personal impact issue, i.e. “Why do I
want to reconcile career and family?” The results of this introduction were then used as a basis for
discussing the need to integrate the personal and the “marketable,” i.e. “How do I implement my
own experience with work/life and gender awareness in order to sell MEQ to sceptical clients?” The
introduction to this workshop ended with the portraying of various means of awakening employer
and public interest for the work/life and equality agendas. Participants discussed their experience
with marketing strategies, practical lessons learned from selling MEQ over the past 24 months, and
the experience MEQ clients have had as recipients of this marketing campaign. Finally, the
overlapping and particular needs of the various groups of trainers were discussed; these included
independent trainers, training organisations, and in-house training departments. The participants
overwhelmingly agreed that the marketing of Managing E-Quality will remain a challenge for the
foreseeable future.
Discussion
- Although their reasons varied, all participants were in complete agreement that the personal
impact of gender equality and work/life balance plays a key role in awakening interest in this
issue. Various types of personal experience were considered, including personal difficulties in
reconciling career and family (e.g. single parents), work on the gender issues during their
studies or in the workplace, political activism in the women’s movement, or simply the desire to
improve personal time and energy management. Trainers also emphasised that they considered
gender training to be an attractive future market.
- The management representatives who participated in the workshop corroborated the
aforementioned items and added that personal impact should also play a role when awakening
customer interest. Alumni of past MEQ management courses and train the trainer seminars
mentioned that they had been involved with MEQ from the outset. They emphasised that their
organisations – both public and private sector – were more open to considering a gender training
course if the decision makers were taken seriously as individuals with gender and work/life
needs. The threshold that must be crossed in order to consider gender training – with all its
unsettling consequences – is considerable. It can be better dealt with if individual members of
management understand from the beginning that this project will actually improve their personal
quality of life.
- When trying to finalise a deal, the argument that – according to international studies –
successful corporations mainstream gender can be of much help. In plain terms, this means that
if the staff of an organisation reflects the make-up of its community, it will tend to be more
successful with both product design and marketing. Gender mainstreaming also means that the
day-to-day needs and interests of men and women should be taken seriously. For example: a
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 department in which men speak openly about their work/life needs is more “normal” and in the
end more open to the concerns of potential clients.
Results
- The same rule applies to training as it does to marketing MEQ: the trainer or sales personnel
will only succeed if the client actually begins to “want” (or even better, “need”) it. If
management does not realise that they can use this programme to improve their own quality of
life, they simply will not be interested.
- Some of the following sales arguments can be particularly effective: Even in industries or
regions with high unemployment, loyal and qualified staff are always hard to find. MEQ helps
organisations retain employees and reduce absenteeism.
A further argument: The much celebrated “bottom line,” i.e. “Happy parents are better workers.”
However, the cost-benefit analysis which proves this must be taken seriously. An investment in
this preliminary survey phase pays dividends during the MEQ course and later follow-up.
- A final argument: Public relations and image gains, i.e. MEQ helps demonstrate concern for the
community. Implementing MEQ shows that an organisation not only cares for the personal
needs of suppliers, distributors and staff, but that individual executives actually practice what
they preach.
- However, even the best marketing approach and sales arguments may not be enough. In many
cases personal contacts “from the inside” will be necessary, either through the shop
stewards/members of the works councils, contacts to the equal opportunities officers, or even
via personal acquaintances – ranging from the parent-teacher organisations to friends or
relatives of members of management. In rare cases, leveraging through political channels or the
media might prove effective.
- Good practice examples chosen for a MEQ sales meeting or MEQ seminar should fit the client’s
needs. Use only examples of role model companies which in some way relate to the client’s
industry, size, location, market, etc. Make these references visible.
- Finally, the threat of impending danger can be used, particularly if a client has an admittedly
poor track record and is thus worried about being fined for violation of EU, national, state or
local laws, directives or ordinances.
Controversy
- The question of whether equal treatment legislation is a clear asset or hidden liability was
discussed but not definitively answered. However, in many countries (e.g. Germany, Austria,
Hungary), the fact that equal opportunities is not mandatory in the private sector has made
marketing very difficult.
- Merely marketing a gender awareness programme - dealing with only with working mothers -
can be very expensive for some trainers. The difficulties one faces when selling a father-
friendliness training programme might very well prove prohibitive. Independent trainers and
small training organisations will rarely have the resources to open a market for a product for
which demand does not yet exist.
- Cooperation with large organisations that can help prepare the market, e.g. chamber of
commerce, government ministries, labour organisations, can lead to dependency.
The costs of opening a market should be shared. The MEQ Network concept, designed to share
this burden, has not yet got off the ground. Few trainers have shown real interest in
participating.

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Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, Peter Buijs, Christof Rossbacher (Graz)
Working Fathers: Practical Experience with Work/Life Reconciliation

Men are altering their approach to work/life balance. Changes in attitude are also slowly leading to
changes in behaviour. International studies show that whereas in the 1960’s the domestic division of
labour between women and men was 8 to 1, women today only do 2.5 times more housework then
their male partners. However, as a rule, women still remain responsible for leadership in household
matters. In many cases men and women share the same good intentions. Both want to delegate
career and life responsibilities 50/50. Genuine equality however, is frequently frustrated by
entrenched and often subconscious gender patterns which are acquired during childhood. On the
other hand, few employers are really open to the work/life agenda, especially when it applies to
their male staff. This workshop was in the unique position to compare the personal experience of
participants who themselves came from a wide variety of backgrounds. How do working fathers
experience reconciliation in Austria and other EU countries? Considering the impact of upcoming
EU enlargement, what can we learn from the past 10 years of integration of formerly communist
East Germany into the European Union? Finally, can the experience of fathers whose partnerships
overlap traditional social or cultural boundaries help us achieve an authentically European (i.e.
generic) approach to work/life balance?
Introduction
The groundwork for this workshop was laid by a general overview of the work/life debate in
Europe. The workshop leaders reported on their own experience with this issue in Austria and the
Netherlands. They emphasised the personal impact which work/life balance had on their lives and
the the manner in which it influenced their respective approaches to this topic. They asked the
participants to consider whether this also held true for them. Discussion was divided into four sets
of structured questions along the following lines:
1) What was/is my personal experience with work/life balance (as a child and an adult)?
2) Have I benefited from reconciliation or gender equality measures during my personal career?
3) Which concrete changes are necessary in order to achieve true reconciliation in my organisation?
4) What is preventing work/life balance from succeeding, and how can this resistance be overcome?
Discussion
The discussion highlighted the concrete experience gathered over the last ten to 15 years in the
Netherlands and Austria.
- In the Netherlands, part-time work for women has traditionally been widespread.
Increasingly, men are also considering this option, but are often prevented because of
financial considerations (income disparities between men and women). Both men and
women have realised that a full working week – often accompanied with a 24/7 approach to
overtime – radically undermines a family’s quality of life. The government is doing next-to-
nothing to help men reconcile career and family. Men who try to reduce their working hours
in order to spend more time with their families are often confronted with ridicule, or even
mobbing , at work and are not taken seriously by their friends. To make matters worse, these
men often receive little support from their female partners, who have difficulty “letting go”,
i.e. handing over part of the responsibility for home and childcare to their husband or
partner.

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 - The social partners, and especially the trade unions, are slowly coming around. Employers
in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands have incorporated work/life issues into their
gender audits. Labour organisations in seven EU countries will be starting a “Gender
Mainstreaming in the Trade Unions” project next year. Individual labour organisations, such
as the Dutch Metalworkers, have included reconciliation in their collective bargaining
strategy.
- The gap between good intentions and implementation was touched on by Peter Buijs in his
keynote speech. Christof Rossbacher corroborated that this is a general trend all over
Europe. The Styrian Initiative for Men (Steirische Initiative für Männer) has attempted to
support father friendliness in Austria’s third largest state by dealing mainly with young men
who are in the process of starting a family. Between 70% and 80% of the participants in the
work/life project stated categorically that they intended do more for their families than their
fathers had. Following their first few career years, however, interest in reconciliation
dropped dramatically. The main reason for this was an almost complete lack of
understanding on the part of superiors.
- The overwhelming majority of all participants reported that they had grown up in very
traditional families. In only a few cases had a mother or father raised their child in a non-
traditional manner.
- With the exception of the participants from AMS – which has been part of MEQ from the
very beginning – nobody had any direct experience with father-friendliness in their
organisation. Work/life measures, especially part-time, were aimed exclusively at working
mothers.
- Resistance to father-friendly policies appeared to be universal; employers, staff and partners
all seemed to be against it. The arguments and resistance reported in this workshop followed
well-known lines, familiar from research in Europe and North America: i.e. work/life fathers
were called “softies” or wimps; most women still take it for granted that men earn more than
they do and therefore oppose a reduction in male income for childcare purposes; employers
claim that men are traditionally employed in positions in which flexibility and part-time
hours are “impossible”; finally, father-friendliness generally is considered a liability which
cannot be afforded.
- The situation in former East German and communist Hungary was discussed in detail.
Several participants had personal access to the situation there prior to 1989. It was pointed
out that in these countries the now defunct communists regimes did supply families with
extensive work/life measures, but, here again, these were aimed mainly at working mothers.
The needs of fathers from the eastern Mediterranean are even more divergent, and the needs
of so-called second-generation immigrant boys and men must be taken into special
consideration.
Results
- As a rule, father-friendly policies exist now only in large corporations and in the public
sector – regions where employers have traditionally been open to social reform and cutting
edge initiatives.
- Most men are still not interested in reconciling career and family. However, even in those
cases where men actually take the initiative, they face rejection and ridicule from superiors
and colleagues.
- Traditional family-friendly policies not only ignore the interests of working fathers, but they
also cancel out the progress made through equal opportunities measures. As long as

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 work/life balance is seen as a woman’s prerogative, men will not be able to “get a life” and
women will end their careers somewhere below the glass ceiling.
- It is a well known fact that media attention on those few “super-moms” who have “made it,”
tends to de-motivate working mothers in the real world. The same holds true for “super-
dads.” Most men will need to reduce their working hours – at least for a limited period of
time – if they do not intend to neglect their families.
- The workshop developed a totally new approach (at least for Central Europe) to mentoring,
i.e. “Father-Mentoring.” This concept foresees a mentor-mentee relationship based on the
female role model. Young men entering an organisation should be offered direct support in
planning both career and family. Experienced and successful staff members – currently
mainly women – who have mastered the art of reconciliation should take these fathers-to-be
under their wing.
- One of the main arguments used against father-friendliness is the fact that the initial costs
will weaken organisations vis-à-vis their competition. This argument can be turned around.
Leading North American corporations – as well as several huge public sector employers –
now recognise that their policies for working fathers give them a competitive edge. The
European Union should also level the playing field within Europe by including father-
friendliness in its gender mainstreaming and social policy directives and guidelines.
Controversy
- Political parties and movements (even those considered to be on the left) have largely
ignored the issue of father-friendliness. A highly critical article by trade unionist Werner
Sauerborn in the German fathers magazine PAPS <www.paps.de> was discussed in the
workshop. It pointed out that the new Social Democrat/Green coalition in Berlin had
completely ignored the needs of working fathers in their governmental social and family
platforms.
- Father-friendliness is currently an EU-centrist project. The experience and needs of fathers
from and/or in the former “real socialist” countries of eastern Central Europe, as well as
Turkey and the Muslim Balkans, must be respected. The inclusion of Hungary in the third
phase of MEQ is expected to widen its approach to work/life balance. MEQ must take the
interests of all fathers living in Europe into account.

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Speakers
Peter Buijs (Amsterdam) is an occupational physician and health consultant at TNO. He has had
practical experience with reconciliation of career and family since 1980, and is the father of two
children (Pieter 1981, Marieke 1986). He conducts research and consulting for various client
groups, including: physicians, labour unions, employers’ organisations and the Dutch Ministry of
Social Affairs and Emancipation. <P.Buijs@arbeid.tno.nl>
Elvira Biroga (Bamberg) is a business economist, and starting in 1987 became the deputy director
of the HR department at Deutsche Telekom AG, where she specialised in occupational and income
legislation. Since 1996 she has been a regional equal opportunities officer. She is a past winner of
the German Bundestag’s Positive Action for Women Award (1996), for her work in DTAG’s E-
Quality Teams project, which emphasised new time management models. She has also worked on a
Shattering the Glass Ceiling initiative and helped to improve overall cooperation between women
and men. <Elvira.Biroga@t-online.de>
Gisela Boywitt (Frankfurt/Main) is a retail accountant who has been employed at Deutsche
Telekom since 1992 in the sales, telegraph and wholesale accounts departments. She is currently
director of the regional office for equal opportunities for Frankfurt, Hanau, Eschborn, Darmstadt.
She is also a member of the national board of the DTAG E-Qualities Teams, and has had numerous
trade union functions, including shop steward and board member of the German Postal Workers
Union.
Ken Frew (Leeds) has held leadership positions in various British governmental agencies, and is a
specialist for HR and equal opportunities. He is currently director of the national initiative “Parents
at Work in the Benefits Agency.” <K.Frew@lee001.nhd.uk>
Elena de Graat (Cologne) is director of “work & life.” She is currently working for the Hertie
Foundation’s work/life project. <e.degraat@nhd.net>
Jane Dawson (London) works in mbA’s training department as an independent gender and diversity
trainer. She is also a certified MEQ trainer, specialised in the fields of regeneration, gender and
ethnic minorities, social marginalisation. <JBinthebush@aol.com>
Brigitta Kreß (Frankfurt/Main) is a sociologist and business consultant, as well as the director of
“balancing consult.” She specialises in the fields of work/life balance and develops corporate
positive action plans for women. She also does coaching for women in leadership position, runs
both in-house and external training services, and is the national head of MEQ
<Brigitta.Kress@balancing-consult.de>
Sue Lewitt (Bournemouth) is a gender equality manager at Dorset Training and Enterprise Council
(TEC). She developed the Dorset Family Friendly Award programme in 1995, and has been the
director of a national Family Friendly Awards scheme since 1999.
Susanne Loudon (Vienna) holds a PhD in pedagogy and sociology, and has been employed at AMS
since 1991, where she is deputy director of the HR department of the national office of the
Arbeitsmarkt Service (Austrian Labour Market Development Service).
<Susanne.Loudon@001.ams.or.at>
Erika Pircher (Salzburg/Brussels) is the director of GenderLink and head of the GL Brussels
office. She conducts research in the fields of equal opportunities, work/life balance, time and career
management, labour and disabilities. She is also the transnational director of MEQ, and editor
(together with Ilse König) of the MEQ trainers Manual “Executive Training for Equality Oriented
Management.” She has also edited the Vienna gender equality handbook, “Seven Steps to Equality.”

71
Currently, she is working in the field of gender mainstreaming in the trade unions.
<gender.link@magnet.at>; genderlink.bxl@worldonline.be>
Seána Roberts (Liverpool) is the deputy director at mbA Training Research Development. She has
extensive research and consultancy experience in the fields of regeneration policy, equal
opportunities, childcare and parental leave. She is also the project manager for public and private
contract partners, and is the national head of MEQ. <mbAnorth@compuserve.com>
Christof Rossbacher (Graz) is co-director of the Styrian Initiative for Men (Steirische Initiative für
Männer). He has worked extensively on the issues of masculinity, fathers’ rights and work/life
balance for women and men.
Martina Rost (Frankfurt/Main) holds a masters degree in education and has been a staff trainer for
the Frankfurt Airport since 1991. As of 1993 she became an equal opportunities officer, and is
member of staff on the board of directors for gender issues. <M.Rost@frankfurt-airport.de>
Werner Sauerborn (Berlin/Stuttgart) is the father of three children, and has been active in the
fathers’ movement for over a decade. He is the founder of the German initiative “Väteraufbruch für
Kinder” (Fathers Offensive for Children), and editor-and-chief of the fathers magazine, PAPS. With
the exception of extended periods of parental leave, he has been a career trade unionist functionary
for the Public Transit and Transport Workers (ÖTV). <Werner.Sauerborn@t-online.de)
Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (Salzburg/Beirut) is a research fellow at the Ludwig Boltzmann
Institute for Social and Cultural History and director of the GenderLink Diversity Centre. He is also
head of the GL Beirut office, and is currently on the teaching staff at Lebanese American University
and Notre Dame Louaize University. He has conducted research in the fields of labour relations,
migration and minorities, and inter-faith dialogue. He is also a trainer in the fields of diversity
management and multiculturalism. <Sensenig@cyberia.net.lb>
Hilde Stockhammer (Vienna) is a sociologist who has been employed at AMS since 1991, where
she is director of the department of labour market gender equality and director of the working group
on equal opportunities. <Hilde.Stockhammer@001.ams.or.at>
Barbara Wagner (Frankfurt/Main) is the director of “women.de GmbH”, a support network for
female networking. She is also the manager of an internet career information and referral service for
businesswomen, self-employed women, gender equality experts, and project directors.
<info.women.de>

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Network for Social Research
Neubauer & Pircher OEG

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