The daily division of professional and family labour between men and women is the beating heart of societal life. Reforming and improving the division of labour therefore requires changes and improvements in many societal fields. The central hypothesis in this book says that the Complete Combination Model is the most suitable long-term orientation for future policy in all welfare states that want to develop a full democratic division of labour between men and women, within families and organisations. We emphasise again that everyone can choose and defend another future model of the division of labour.

The realisation of the Complete Combination Model needs an integrated policy, both in the short and long run. ‘Integrated’ means that the main components are dealt with together in an interactive framework, on all levels and for all relevant actors of society. Realising such a long-term model implies realising a sequence of short-term models with a time perspective of, for example, 10 years, starting from the actual situation in every country. Given the actual stage, all countries have to realise a feasible next stage of the moderate combination model, taking some steps forward in the direction of the Complete Combination Model. Of course, it remains an open question to what extent and how fast the different countries can realise the Complete Combination Model.

In each policy stage, a set of feasible goals has to be formulated with respect to the daily division of labour and means, as the basis for a coherent policy plan covering different societal fields. To facilitate a positive long-term result, the instruments and measures of that plan must be mutually supportive. By the end of each stage, the results must be evaluated to adjust the policy process during the next stage.

It is impossible to elaborate a full policy programme for all countries separately. Therefore, we present a number of possible policy perspectives with respect to the relevant societal fields. On the one hand, these policy perspectives are derived from the Complete Combination Model as a long-term policy orientation; on the other hand, they are the essential instruments to realise the model. These perspectives can be compared with those presented by Schmid and Gazier (2002) and by Gornick and Meyers (2003), following from their normative model.