This course examines demographic and labor market trends together with policies relating to work and family life, focusing on the Scandinavian experience in international perspective. During the twentieth century, the relationship between work and family changed fundamentally in most industrialized countries. The movement of women, especially mothers, into the labor market not only impacted the economy and the labor market but also families as they were. The Scandinavian countries have been forerunners in the transition to new family forms and combinations of work and family, which has changed the lives of men, women, and children. These changes, i.e. dual-earner families, cohabitation, divorce, out-of-wedlock childbearing, new divisions of labor, and involved fatherhood, are now under way in most other Western countries as well. This course provides an overview and analysis of the long term development of men’s and women’s work, careers, education and their interactions with family life. The course deals with fundamental issues regarding union formation, childbearing, gender equality, time-use, labor force participation and earnings. The course also deals with policies relating to work and family issues, their efficiency and effectiveness, and to what extent other contexts may learn from the Scandinavian experience.