Towards a multi-active society: daring to imagine a new work–life regime

Despite equal opportunity and work/life balance policies, no modern labour societies have solved the structural work/family conflict in a gender equal way. These societies continue to struggle with reconciling working life and family life and to overcome persistent inequalities between men and women. It is possible to talk about an improvement in women’s condition at the same time as an increase in gender inequalities, because though the situation of women has improved in modern societies, that of mothers has been, and today remains, quite worrisome. To be transformative, legislative choices must deconstruct the foundations of the work/family regime in these societies. This chapter analyses these foundations in order to build an alternative ‘reconciliation’ scenario, with the creation of a ‘multi-active society’ as the central goal and whose structuring principle of societal organisation is no longer ‘employment’ but rather ‘contribution’.