SUMMARY

The transformation of families in Spain
INÉS ALBERDI

Of all the profound changes that Spanish society has experienced in the last thirty years, it is perhaps those related to the family which best reflect the overall transformation; individual freedom and equality between men and women are the new family values while traditional intergenerational solidarity remains strong. This article considers the diverse problems which
affect Spanish families, especially from a woman’s perspective - from low birth rates to the difficulties in balancing work and family commitments - in order to argue the case for public and private institutions to support new family conventions and eliminate inequality amongst men and women.

At the heart of equality. notes on the family, reproduction and democracy
ROSA COBO BEDÍA

This text looks at some of the key points related to the difficulty of balancing work, family and politics for women. The active participation of women in political life demands not only the transformation of family life, and the joint responsibility for care of the two birth parents at home, but also the transformation of the whole social system. In effect, we need to identify, both objectively and politically, the screens and obstacles which prevent women establishing themselves in all fields of public and political life under conditions equal to those afforded to men. The distribution of duties by gender in the family and in other institutions is biased towards males and reduces the rights and means of women.

Family, old age and gender: the changing circumstances in the relationship between grandfathers, grandmothers, grandsons and granddaughters
RITA RADL PHILIPP

This exposition tries the theme of the transformation on gender elationship in aging. It starts from a recently research about family relationships between grandmothers, grandfathers and young boys and girls. The research data seems changing process in the traditional tasks and functions of nursing assumed by grandfathers.

Ethics and aesthetics. Nothing is innocent
AMELIA VALCÁRCEL

We have to tackle issues concerning women’s new standing and current challenges also from an aesthetic viewpoint. Aesthetics relate to an underlying ethic: the issue of female clothing is ethically and aesthetically loaded. It has been thus ever since the feminist movement managed to pull women away from their traditional , inherited role, of being moulded and inert. For this reason, many of the battles for women’s liberty are still played out in the field of aesthetics.

Guatemala: balancing work and family life
Mª ELISA CAMINO PASCUAL

This article tackles the conciliation between the labour life and the familiar one in Guatemala. It focuses on the existing
perspective, on the state politics and on the business field. It emphasizes on the reverberation of women’s situation in their
families and in the labour market.

Social rights, health and reconciliation: the situation in Peru
ELENA ALVITES Y MAYDA RAMOS

The present article, from a general perspective, examines the content of social rights and the right to reproductive health care. This examination allows the authors to verify the implementation of said rights and attach special importance to freedom of choice and developments in family planning for women. Under such a premise, the present work acknowledges irregularities in family planning policies put into being by the Peruvian State between the years 1996 and 2005. By means of example, one could cite the policy which promoted surgical sterilisation as a mass contraceptive, along with another which reflected the disarming lack of state interest in encouraging the use of temporary contraceptive methods, the refusal to administer the morning-after pill.

The implied social contract between carers and the cared for
MARÍA-ÁNGELES DURÁN

Flaws are exposed relating to the way that health care is provided to those that need it, both on a personal and institutional level. In the old social contract, providing care for the ill and dependent was a female responsibility. Even today, the vast majority of time dedicated to health and sickness care continues to be proportioned to women. However, changes in work habits, demographics and family set-ups in Spanish society make it impossible to maintain the old model for tackling sickness and dependency situations. Public administrations and businesses both have to adopt new measures, because illness and dependency are not uniquely individual concerns but rather social conditions which affect everyone.

The clash between the principal of equal opportunity and the rights of female carers
MARÍA ASUNCIÓN MARTÍNEZ ROMÁN

In Spain, caring is a matter for the female and women pay a high cost for assuming this role. Neither female family members nor families themselves wish to ignore the needs of its dependent members, but one must reassign responsibilities; it is a social problem and not just a private issue. In the same way that attention to dependent people has evolved to become
a question of human rights, in promoting equal opportunity we must reconsider the distribution of responsibility to likewise ensure the rights of the people doing the caring. Public politicians should promote, as the United Nations calls for, a change in mentality in order to socially redistribute the cost of the burden of caring equally between men and women, the State, family, community and businesses.

Strategies for female fulfilment
NATIVIDAD BRIONES Y CARLOS PEREDA

The circumstances of the female in Spain have evolved at a dizzying rate in the recent decades, which has impacted in a variety of ways upon what it means to be a woman and fulfill oneself as such in family, work and social spheres generally. From various empirical investigations, the article offers some key strategies which women can apply to their daily lives, highlighting
the interactions which they are likely to produce as well as the possible conflicts and physchological confusion typical of each position.

Reconciliation of the demands of work and family life
OFELIA VILA HERNÁNDEZ

The text is a reflection on the problems of reconciling work life and personal life from which we women have always suffered and continue to suffer. It analyses the causes of discrimination and marks the lines which need to be overcome to improve this situation, while at the same time acknowledging the limited legislation that currently helps with this reconciliation. The
article is a written denouncement of the present discriminatory situation and at the same time a message of hope that these discriminations can be overcome.

The work-business relationship
MARTA MAGADÁN DÍAZ

The article tackles, from a general perspective, the creation of businesses as an alternative to working for someone else. In such cases, work is valued by the individual, not solely so that a woman can find an outlet for her professional aspirations but also as a means to reconciling family and work life. Women think of such businesses as made-to-measure suits in which, in
contrast to a succession of temporary jobs, the key factor is female self-employment.

Live by equality, share life: the politics of positive action and the means of reconciliation
CAPITOLINA DÍAZ MARTÍNEZ Y SANDRA DEMA MORENO

This article analyses positive action as a strategy used increasingly in public policies addressed to reach equality. It also analyses the difference between positive action and equal opportunities. Moreover, the paper questions the current policies of “reconciliation of work and family” as a conceptual and political downsizing from the feminist proposal of “sharing family responsibilities between men and women”. This shift implies moving from a perspective of change in gender relationships to the facilitation of flexible forms of employment.

Reconciliation and social cohesion: an analysis of European policies
JUDITH ASTELARRA

The article analyzes the difficulties that have been found in the implementation of conciliation policies that lead to the double presence of women instead of dealing with gender inequality. It revisits the concepts of the division of the modern gender system in the public and private spheres. Then it proposes to look for a new paradigm that can provide the basis for social change and gender contract: to give a gender dimension to the notion of social cohesion.

Balancing work and family life for working mothers
ESPERANZA OCHAÍTA ALDERETE Y MARÍA ÁNGELES ESPINOSA BAYAL

This article attempts to present a brief reflection on some of the measures which should be adopted in order to help women workers balance their family and working lives. In order to achieve this objective, it sets out an analysis of the different needs of a child and adolescent and the main ways in which such needs can be satisfied in each stage of development. Based on such an evaluation, a series of measures are proposed which should be adopted by the relevant organisations and administrations in order to steer them all towards ensuring that women workers reach their maximum levels of professional development and, at the same time, are able to dedicate themselves – if that is what they want – to the care and attention of their sons and daughters. In summary, what are established are but brief brush-strokes from the point of view of childhood and adolescent development which should form part of an overall reconciliation proposal for family and work life in which the distribution of responsibilities between men and women is more balanced, thus helping to construct a relationship model based on compromise and cooperation.

What reconciliation? A proposal for a whole model
JUAN ANTONIO FERNÁNDEZ CORDÓN Y CONSTANZA TOBÍO

The article presents and discusses the principal aspects which make up the problematic family-work balance in Spain, with special attention paid to the particularities which cause conflict in the relationship between these two worlds, as well as the means by which families in which both birth parents work can make their circumstances and the balance compatible. It also
puts forward proposals for an integrated approach from public politicy makers to the reconciliation of family and work life for women as well as men. The model proposed includes as active agents in the system of reconciliation the State (as a driver and promoter), individuals and families (as direct protagonists), and the market in a dual role: as both a crux of the problem with regard to its role as principal employer in the world and as a means to offer private services of reconciliation.

The Reconciliation Project
JORDI SEVILLA

Since early 2006, the Reconciliation Project has been in place, the objective of which it is, on the one hand, to improve the area of general State administration concerning the working life of public sector employees and, on the other, favouring the reconciliation of a life and work balance. The Project, along with the law of Dependency, has strived to stimulate debate with regard to the need to rationalise and humanise the ways we work and live.

Reconciling personal and family life in Asturias
BEGOÑA FERNÁNDEZ

In Asturias, independent and municipal institutions have been investing considerable energy into improving their responses to
problems of reconciliation with regard to the demands of work and family life, programmes such as the Project for Planning
at Infant Schools in the First Cycle of Infant Education and special services for the elderly and incapacitated. The problem of
balancing work and family life, more than just being a problem concerning public care services or the simple adoption of new
work practises, is a problem related to actual active practise amongst female and male citizens generally.

Social resources relating to the Personal Independence and Protection from Dependency law
ALMUDENA FONTECHA

Despite the fact that the population of Spain is aging as a whole and the overall weakness of the network of care which families require, In Spain there has never been an integrated policy to protect the rights of elderly and those in a dependency situation which puts forward a unified set of coordinated measures between the distinct administrations involved and guarantees the social and economic wellbeing of such people. With the development and application of the law of Protection for People in
Situations of Dependency, there is an aim to alleviate these deficiencies as well as develop a fundamental part of the system specifically for social protection, in a way that increases coverage and equal access to this system.

From formal equality to actual equality
MARIVÍ MONTESERÍN

The article makes a positive assessment of the organic law of actual Equality Between Men and Women, explaining the breakdown of the process of first forming the law and then seeing it become widely accepted as a most decisive step in our democractic aim of actually achieving equality.