Working people everywhere feel the conflicting demands on their time when continuing with a career while juggling family responsibilities. This is felt particularly strongly by women who are expected, and often expect themselves, to take the main burden of caring for a family. Policy bodies at national and European level are now beginning to recognise the difficulty that parents, particularly mothers face when struggling to fulfill their career ambitions. This section aims to disseminate news on policy developments, articles and links concerning work - life balance.

Chairlady of the Committee for Gender Equality of the Slovak Academy of sciences dr. Elena Gramatová submitted a proposal of establishing small “kindergarten” in place Patronka at the Slovak Academy to Presidium.

When analysing employment rates by the number of children there is a clear pattern, with employment rates for women decreasing when the number of children increases. In the EU25 in 2003, the employment rates for women aged 20 to 49 fell from 65% with one child under 12, to 58% with two, and to 41% with three children or more. For men in the EU25 the employment rates were 91%, 92% and 86% respectively.