Employment and social policies continue to be based upon a gender template
that assumes women, especially mothers, are or should be natural carers. In
variably, policies that seek to promote women's entry to paid work do so by
facilitating their management and conduct of caring work, thus reinforcing
the gender template. In addition, contemporary debates around concepts of
citizenship emphasise the obligation to paid employment but fail to tackle
the gendered division of caring activities and organisation of care. Enhanc
ed access to childcare merely recreates the gender template by promoting lo
w paid jobs for women as paid carers who are predominantly providing care s
ervices for other women. The provision of unpaid paternity leave is unlikel
y to challenge the strong association between femininity, mothering and car
e work. In this article we explore notions of caring, home and employment.
It is argued that ambivalence exists amongst policy makers, employers, and
society more generally, towards the gendered nature of caring and the impli
cations of this for women, and men who wish to care, who are in paid employ
ment. These are old issues and the authors consider why change in social an
d public policies is so slow. The authors argue that a consideration of gen
der and equality principles, currently largely absent from welfare and empl
oyment policies, and debates on notions of citizenship, should form the bas
is for the development of future strategies to support parents and children
.