IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v18y2004i3p551-572.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Work and Family Life Balance

Author

Listed:
  • Jeanne Fagnani

    (CNRS/Matisse, Université de Paris 1, Paris, Francefagnani@univ-paris1.fr)

  • Marie-Thérèse Letablier

    (CNRS/Centre d’Etudes de l’Emploi, Paris, Franceletablie@mail.enpc.fr)

Abstract

Is it sufficient to reduce working time to improve the work and family balance? This article attempts to answer this question by analyzing the impact of the French law reducing the working week to 35 hours on the daily life, as perceived by parents with a young child under six years old. Six out of ten respondents reported a positive impact of the reduction on their work/family balance. Their judgment is dependent on the organization of work, whether it is regular and based on standard working hours or irregular schedules. It is also correlated to the negotiation process in the workplace. Inequalities between workers are revealed: between those employed in sheltered economic sectors and ‘family-friendly’ companies, and those who have to accept unsocial or flexible hours of work in exchange of a reduction of their working time.The article concludes that the 35-hours law has widened the gap between these two groups of workers irrespective of gender and professional status.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeanne Fagnani & Marie-Thérèse Letablier, 2004. "Work and Family Life Balance," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 18(3), pages 551-572, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:18:y:2004:i:3:p:551-572
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017004045550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017004045550
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017004045550?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre Boisard & Jean-David Fermanian, 1999. "Les rythmes de travail hors norme," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 321(1), pages 111-131.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre Béret, 2000. "Les transformations de l'espace qualification des chercheurs des entreprises," Working Papers halshs-00005807, HAL.
    2. Olivia Sautory & Sandra Zilloniz, 2015. "De l'organisation des journées à l'organisation de la semaine : des rythmes de travail socialement différenciés," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 478(1), pages 155-188.
    3. Jacques Bouteiller, 2001. "Durée du travail et déclin. De la norme du temps de travail : le sens de la mesure," Working Papers halshs-03732517, HAL.
    4. Marie Cottrell & Patrick Letremy & Simon Macaire & Christèle Meilland & François Michon, 2002. "Le temps de travail des formes particulières d'emploi," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 352(1), pages 169-189.
    5. Lionel Prouteau & François-Charles Wolff, 2002. "La participation associative au regard des temps sociaux," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 352(1), pages 57-80.
    6. Cédric Afsa & Pierre Biscourp, 2004. "L'évolution des rythmes de travail entre 1995 et 2001 : quel impact des 35 heures ?," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 376(1), pages 173-198.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:18:y:2004:i:3:p:551-572. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.