What does ‘development’ mean? How does ‘progress’ happen? What drives civilisational change, from the first urban settlements in Mesopotamia to the creation of the first green smart cities? From the first agricultural exploitations to the knowledge economy? How did we, as a human community, build the world as we know it and what will define the next steps of our journey on earth? Asking fundamental questions has long been out of fashion for individuals in general, let alone for policymakers. But, fundamental ‘why’ questions play with the boundaries and define them. Crises offer a window of opportunity, a small time-bubble during which people are collectively drawn to understanding what went wrong, asking what is it that brought us here. If there ever was a time to initiate this long overdue process of asking and reflecting on the questions that matter, today, in the middle of an unprecedented crisis, is it. We call for the adoption of a citizen-centric networked approach to development that meaningfully incorporates individual needs and wellbeing while shifting the focus away from economic growth as the only relevant parameter.

Covering employment and wage gender gaps, participation of women, fertility, and the welfare of children, this insightful volume discusses how the trend towards greater participation of women in labour markets interacts with gender differences in pay. It focusses on the scope for increasing the number of women in the labour force without negatively affecting the development of their children. The need for this volume has become self evident. At the Spring 2000 Lisbon meeting of the European Council the Heads of Governments of the EU agreed to accelerate the greater participation of women in the labour market. However, neither in Lisbon nor in the subsequent Spring European Councils of the EU was it discussed how to achieve this target - and the trade-offs that would be involved in increasing the participation of women in paid employment. Policies for increasing participation must involve some losers, or they would already have been implemented everywhere.