Balanced Lives

Abstract

This Essay argues for a reconstruction of workplace structures, public policies, and gender roles that will promote more balanced lives for men and women. The Essay's fundamental premise is that both individuals and society would benefit from a fuller integration of employment, family, and civic commitments than is now possible in most workplaces, including those of the legal profession. Given the linkage between women's unequal responsibilities in the home and their unequal opportunities in the world outside it, support for balanced lives is clearly a women's issue. But it is not only a women's issue; it is an ideal in which both sexes have a common stake.