The first international conference on why workplace flexibility matters is taking place on May 16–18, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. Researchers and policy makers from the U.S. and abroad will examine how the needs of working families conflict with current workplace flexibility policies. The conference will explore the balance between work and family and the need for workplace flexibility.

Topics include:

• Conflicts between working families and the structure of work today
• Different populations of workers who enter, leave, and re-enter the workplace
• Policies for workplace flexibility and their impact on American workers
• Working families and workplaces in India, Australia, Japan, Europe, and the U.S.
• The need for government policies that support workplace flexibility

The meeting is being co-hosted by Barbara Schneider and Linda Waite, Co-Directors of The University of Chicago Sloan Center on Parents, Children, and Work, and Kathleen Christensen, Director of the Workplace, Workforce and Working Families program at The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The meeting will take place at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center. For more information on conference venues and accommodations, click here.

For additional information on the upcoming conference, please contact Demetria Proutsos at dproutso@uchicago.edu.

The Sloan Center on Parents, Children, and Work is co-sponsoring the Abe Fellowship Program — CGP-SSRC Seminar Series, Fertility Decline, Women’s Choices in the Life Course, and Balancing Work and Family Life: Japan, the USA, and other OECD Countries. The meeting will take place at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center on May 16–17, 2006. The event is being organized by a Sloan Affiliate, Kazuo Yamaguchi, who is a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. To view the agenda, click here. For further information on this event, please contact kyamagu@uchicago.edu.