Research on balancing men and women rights, duties, and opportunities in the family and at work

In Lithuania, issues of balancing family and work are most often solved not paying enough attention to such measures of family friendly policy as flexitime, child care services, gender balance. These are the conclusions from a research on Balancing men and women rights, duties, and opportunities in the family and at work. The research has been carried out by BGI Consulting under the order of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour in implementation of the measures of the Strategy of National Demographic Policy 2005-2007.

Comparing the level of employment of women (percent of employed 15-64yo women against all women in this age group) and the birth rate, it is obvious demographical situation is better in those EU countries, where women employment rate is higher. In France, for example, 57.7% of women workforce is employed and the birth rate is 1.94. In Denmark it is 73.4% and 1.80 respectively, while in Italy, where less than half of women are employed (46.3%), the birth rate is 1.32, in Poland 48.2% and 1.24 respectively.

In many countries of the EU that have legalised favourable part-time employment models for families with children, usually allowing one of the parents work part-time until the child reaches certain age (France, Germany, Denmark, etc.), the best demographical indicators in the EU are recorded. On the other hand, in some of the countries that do not have legislation on part-time employment connected to child care (Italy, Latvia, Poland, etc.), the birth rate are lower. Moreover, the legislation on working hours in Lithuania is strict and creates challenges in (sometimes even prevents) introduction of flexible working hours. According to the research, more flexible organization of work is important not only to employers, but also to employees, since during the survey they indicated that the most attractive means of non-financial motivation would be an opportunity to devote time for family/personal matters during working hours and work for those hours later.

The child care system in Lithuania does not suit everyone’s needs. This is an issue for parents with small children working shifts or irregular working hours. As an alternative to the current child care system in Lithuania, Denmark’s flexible child care model for children up to 3 years of age is presented.

Also, equal liabilities of both partners are important when solving work and family balance problems. Currently in Lithuania only a very small percent of men take child care leave. According to the survey results, only about a fifth of men would agree to take child care leave, while a half of them completely reject this option: