Our History
Celebrating 40 years
In 2019, Working Families celebrated 40 years of support for working parents and campaigning for flexible working for all.
In 1979, what was then the Job Share Project and later New Ways to Work (NWW) employed its first paid worker – Adrienne Boyle – to produce three guides to job-sharing for employees, employers and trade unions. Soon after – in 1980 – a group of mothers met in Clapham to discuss the problems of going back to work and childcare and formed what was to become the Working Mothers Association (WMA). In those days working mothers and those working flexibly felt sufficiently unusual and isolated enough to need their own support organisations but, as the 80s wore on, employers increasingly recognised that they needed to offer more to recruit and retain the female workforce.
WMA changed its name to Parents at Work (PaW) in 1994 to reflect the needs of both parents to spend time with their families. Both NWW and PaW published a number of ground-breaking publications during the 90s, while continuing to support working parents, collaborating with sympathetic employers and successfully lobbying policy-makers for change.
In 2003, PaW and NWW decided to combine forces to “change the way we live and work” and merged to form Working Families. Today, we hope parents and grandparents and all those who care for family members or friends will join our campaign for a working world which works better for all of us.
Working Families 40th Anniversary Brochure
Working Families 35th Anniversary Brochure
Working Families 30th Anniversary Brochure
Past patrons
Lucy Daniels
Lucy Daniels is the founding director of the Working Mothers Association (WMA), a precursor to Working Families. From running a help line for mothers returning to work in the early 80s, she grew the WMA into an influential national charity, campaigning for childcare and promoting family friendly policies via initiatives such as the Employer of the Year awards.
In the early 90s Lucy led the organisation through its first name change to Parents At Work (PAW). Under its new name, the organisation launched workshops for new fathers and mothers, held the first ‘Go Home on Time Day’ and created a support network for working parents of children with special needs and disabilities.
On departing from Parents at Work, Lucy was instrumental in the launch of the Work Life Research Centre, bringing together academics and practitioners, which led the publication of the first UK Work-Life Manual in 2000 in collaboration with the Work Foundation and the TUC.
As a researcher and trainer, Lucy continued to support Parents At Work after its merger in the ‘noughties’ with New Ways to Work to become Working Families. Since then, she has worked with numerous organisations in the private and public sectors on work-life initiatives for parents and other carers. She is now an independent coach and a volunteer mediator, specialising in inter-generational issues.
Lucy has two adult daughters and two grandchildren. It is their future, plus her own experience of working – initially as a cleaning lady on leaving school and then juggling caring whilst running a small business, that have been key drivers for her activism in helping disadvantaged families.