Family-friendly policies and equal opportunities: a contradiction in terms?

This paper presents the findings from a research study of one large public sector organisation's strategy to promote gender equality and family friendliness. An examination was made of the organisation's policy documentation in this area and a questionnaire survey containing both closed and open-ended questions was undertaken across all staff in the organisation: women and men, professional, technical, administrative, secretarial, cleaning, catering and security staff. This paper reports the findings from this investigation. It analyses the informants’ knowledge of, and views on, the impact of the equal opportunities strategy, and any suggestions they had for its development. Also, their views on gender equality more generally within society were interrogated to explore any interconnection between these views and resistance to change within their organisation. By exposing the complex nature of this equal opportunities/family-friendly (EO/FF) project in one organisation, the findings have potentially interesting implications for gender equality, which could benefit from further investigation.