Work-family justice: its meanings and its implementation

It's an incredibly important moment to focus on work-family scholarship–and to consider research related to ‘just’ work and care in unsettling and challenging times. Against this backdrop, the 2022 WFRN theme was established. The conference gathered members from around the world toward building impactful scholarship for practices and policy. In this Voices piece, we draw upon WFRN presidential panelists' voices. The first plenary, ‘The Meanings of Work-Family Justice’, provided opportunities for panelists to consider different ways to conceptualize and expand this idea as labor markets, workplaces, and many aspects of people's lives are in flux, with new understandings about how to think expansively about creating ‘work-family justice’, The second plenary–‘Work-Family Justice on the Ground’–featured panelists from leading non-profits who discuss how they've met challenges and succeeded in implementing and building policies that create a more just world of work and care. They discuss barriers and some ideas for overcoming difficulties. We conclude by considering the evolving meanings and practices of work-family justice. In all, the voices presented here help us focus on creating more ‘just’ worlds of work and care–a distinct and vital–if sometimes precarious–possibility in this moment.