Within the frame of this meeting and his speech at the Congress, Romain Wolff highlighted four points that represent, according to CESI, important barriers to a proper balance between work and family life: rigid working time, children’s care, family members’ care and an the difficult shift from full time to part-time work.

“While a general increased flexibility is welcomed and may be positively influenced by new technologies, this cannot happen at the expenses of the employees´ availability, working time and, last but not least, safety and health”, Romain Wolff underlined. “However, the most fundamental obstacle to be overcome is the one in our heads, telling us us that women should be the ones carrying most of the family and household loads. As long as we cannot achieve a shift of paradigm in this regard, the concepts of work-life balance and gender equality will remain empty slogans!”