On Wednesday 21st of May, COFACE Families Europe, consortium member of the rEUsilience research project co-organised, together with the Share the Care Foundation, the Conference “Equal at Home – Equal at Work: How to effectively support parents in balancing family and work life?” in Warsaw, Poland. The idea behind this annual “Equal at Home – Equal at Work” campaign is to promote parental and workplace equality as two closely interconnected areas, and this years’ event takes place on the anniversary of the Work-Life Balance Directive’s implementation in Poland, as advocated for by Share the Care. This European expert meeting on Work-Life Balance, under the Patronage of the Polish Presidency of the EU, was attended by a hundred and fifty participants, including employers and employee organisations, policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, and all others interested in building a more equal labour market and society.
Evidence from the rEUsilience project was presented as part of the keynote which gave an overview of the potential of different key European policies and legislations for supporting and fostering family-friendly workplaces across Europe. We were glad to see that the rEUsilience research findings can actively contribute to and feed the discussion regarding the everyday transitions in family lives between work and care and the need for an EU agenda that actively empowers families through strong policies, particularly during these key life transitions. As presented by Elizabeth Gosme, Director of COFACE Families Europe: “Research from the rEUsilience consortium has shown that family resilience centres on the capacity to engage in family-life which involves caregiving and to make the transitions from one stage of family life to the other while engaging in paid work without incurring risk or trade-offs.”
Overall, according to the panel discussions and the participatory break-out sessions, support structures to manage work-life balance effectively are required by families in Europe. Only by having well-defined public social protection policies together with supportive, and inclusive workplace policies, including zero tolerance for discrimination and away from internalised norms and stereotypes (for example gender-related norms), flexible work options, and equal access to family leave for both men and women, family-friendly workplaces can be achieved and will not only benefit families, but valuing care holds the potential to structure society where care is seen as a joy instead of a burden.
Furthermore, we presented the rEUsilience Policy Principles to the member organisations of COFACE Families Europe, receiving valuable feedback and reactions. We are happy to see that the rEUsilience research findings can meaningfully contribute to these key conferences to call for a more inclusive Europe with policies that recognise care – both giving and receiving – as essential to our societies to help promoting the resilience of families. We are pleased to take the insights, connections, and fruitful discussions in this conference also forward in our final conference.