Flexible working has been widely advocated as a social panacea, capable of resolving unemployment, maintaining economic competitiveness, and enhancing equal opportunities between women and men.
Flexibility has neutral or even positive connotations for both employers and employees.
These meanings are differentiated, and empirically explored, by reference to the British component of a qualitative, comparative six-country European study of flexible working in the retail sector. It is concluded that the introduction of flexible working has opened up a whole range of possibilities for differential engagement in the workplace. However, these arrangements need to apply to all levels of the occupational hierarchy and similar arrangements need to be introduced in relation to caring if the officially stated objectives for greater equality of opportunity are to be realised.