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On April 15, 2009, the Sloan Network convened their 2009 Panel Meeting in Utrecht, the Netherlands on “Intended and Unintended Consequences of Work-Family Policy: Lessons through International Comparison.” Every year, the Network hosts this type of meeting, a small invitation-only event of policy makers, academic researchers and employers on a critical work-family issue. Last year’s panel meeting was on Employed Parents Caring for Children with Disabilities, while the 2007 meeting focused on Older and Younger Workers: How Does Age Matter?

Attendees represented countries from around the globe and included Marian Baird, Ph.D. (Australia); Antoinette Brakel - van der Klei (the Netherlands); Judi Casey, MSW (US); Laura DenDulk, Ph.D. (the Netherlands); Jeanne Fagnani, Ph.D. (France); Linda Haas, Ph.D. (US /Sweden); Suzan Lewis, Ph.D. (UK); Uxio Malvido (Spain); Joya Misra, Ph.D. (US); Birgit Pfau-Effinger, Ph.D. (Germany); Tine Rostgaard, Ph.D. (Denmark); Moshe Semyonov, Ph.D. (Israel/US); Stephen Sweet, Ph.D. (US); Olivier Thevenon, Ph.D. (France); and Monique Valcour, Ph.D. (US).

The goal of the meeting was to identify variations in work-family policies among countries and the forces that shape these variations as well as the extent to which these policies precipitate intended outcomes of supporting working families, their employers, and national economies. In addition, the meeting highlighted some of the unintended consequences of family responsive policies such as the negative impacts on gender equity, career advancement, employer needs, workplace cultures, fertility rates, and international labor flows.

Attendees explored the distinguishing features of the work-family policy framework of various countries and the cultural, economic and political context that facilitated (or erected barriers) to the initiation, structure, and implementation of these family responsive policies. By comparing observations across societies, the attendees considered whether these outcomes are inevitable or can be mediated or resolved through policy reconfiguration.

The meeting concluded with a discussion of the best strategy to move forward with these collective observations as well as the types of products that might be created to share these conversations. An Executive Summary will be released this summer. Please stay tuned for more information!

• Policy , Research , Uncategorized , Workplace