This article draws on a repeat of a 1994 survey, carried out in 2002, in three contrasting countries: Britain, Norway and the Czech Republic.The 1994 survey demonstrated that there was a significant association between more 'liberal' gender role attitudes and a less traditional division of domestic labour in all three countries. In 2002, this association was no longer significant for Britain and Norway. Gender role attitudes had become less traditional in all three countries, although women's attitudes had changed more than men's. There had been little change in the gendered allocation of household tasks, suggesting a slowing down of the increase of men's involvement in domestic work. It is suggested that work intensification may be making increased participation in domestic work by men more difficult. Although national governments are becoming more aware and supportive of the problems of work-life 'balance', an increase in competitiveness and intensification at workplaces may be working against more 'positive' policy supports.

Drawing on British data from two annual sweeps of the ISSP eight years apart in 1994 and 2002, for modules focusing on 'Family and Changing Gender Roles', this paper examines the extent to which changes in women's labour market participation, changing ideologies/discourses of gender and changing forms of intimate relationships are affecting the ways in which couples organize household money, and the implications of such changes for recent theories of intimate relationships. The analysis indicates that by 2002, the type of relationship respondents had established, together with their social class position, were both independently related to the ways in which they managed money, after controlling for socio-economic and cultural or discursive factors. Our findings also provide a degree of support for the thesis of a partial decline in the male breadwinner model of gender, as indicated by small declines in the use of the relatively inegalitarian female whole wage and housekeeping allowance systems which were most likely to be used by married couples and cohabiting fathers, expressing relatively traditional ideologies/discourses of breadwinning - and a slight increase in the use of the partial pool, which was most likely to be used by childless cohabiting couples in which male partners expressed less traditional ideologies of breadwinning and women were in middle-class jobs with incomes high enough to facilitate partially separate finances. We also suggest, however, that in so far as cohabiting couples earning different amounts define equality as contributing equally to household expenditure, it is possible that rather than being associated with shifts to greater equality in access to money for personal spending and saving, the partial pool may be associated with marked inequalities, because it may enable gender inequalities generated in the labour market to be more directly transposed into inequalities within households, despite the decline of traditional discourses of male breadwinning and the increasing importance of egalitarian ideologies of co-provisioning.

Oxford Review of Education 0305-4985 (print)/1465-3915 (online) Original Article 2007 Taylor & Francis 00 0 0000002007 MichaelaBrockmann M.Brockmann@wmin.ac.ukPolicy debates on employability, lifelong learning and competence-based approaches suggest a convergence of VET approaches across European countries. Against the background of the creation of a European Qualifications Framework, this paper compares the VET systems of England, Germany and The Netherlands. The analysis reveals the distinct understandings and meanings of outwardly similar terms. These meanings are deeply rooted in the countries' institutional structures and labour processes and still inform national debates and policies today. The paper identifies a major distinction between a 'knowledge-based' VET model in Germany and The Netherlands and a 'skills-based' model in England. There is a need to develop trans-national categories that take into account the social construction of terms such as 'skills' and 'qualifications'.

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This paper examines the notion of 'competence' in the VET systems of France and England. While both countries have developed 'competence-based' approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the countries' institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified between a knowledge-based model in France and a skills-based model in England. Competence in the French sense is multi-dimensional and relies on the integration of practical and theoretical knowledge, as well as personal and social qualities within a broadly defined occupational field. By contrast, in England, competence refers to the performance of fragmented and narrowly defined tasks, with minimal underpinning knowledge. Thus, whereas 'competence' in the English VET system usually denotes functional employability for what may be relatively low-skilled employment, in France, it encapsulates the multi-dimensional development of the individual as a citizen as well as an employee.