I wish I lived in Sweden. You hear so much about the social benefits, especially for women. I am originally from Europe (Austria) but my parents emigrated a looong time ago and I always lived in English-speaking countries. I tried to down-size my current job into a part-time or job-share scenario. You'd think I suggested we all fly to Mars. There certainly is not a lot of forward-thinking going on in terms of "work-life balance". The more we hear about "work-life balance", the less of it there seems to be. I think there are many jobs that could be part-time and shared by more than one person giving more people the opportunity to work and that "work-life balance". However, here in Canada, we're not there yet. At least in my field, they think if you take a day off, the world will end. Everyone is on 24/7--cell/blackberry/e-mail... It is crazy.
SM