The promotion of equality between working life of genders and the reconciliation of work and family life, are very up to date issues. The pressure for change to improve things play an increasingly important role especially when facing the economic downturn. The aim of this study was to clarify the mandate of the Bachelor of Business Administration Association (TRAL) members working life equality issues. Also the reconciliation of parental leave and working life was essential topic.

The framework is based on legislation and family policy opportunities. The topic has been dealt in depth in a number of different surveys and expert articles. Also the main results of earlier studies of the TRAL and the family policy aspirations, also when facing economic downturn, were included in this framework. In addition the challenges and opportunities of the reconciliation of work and family of today were brought out.

The work in this thesis consisted of two parts. In the first part a quantitative survey concerning the current state of equal opportunities among the members of the TRAL was carried out. In the second part the detailed theme interviews enhanced the connection of the parental leave and the termination of the employment. The qualitative approach provided an opportunity to get detailed information of this phenomenon which would have been impossible to obtain by using only the quantitative survey.

The equality and reconciliation of work and parental leave have still room for improvement according to the results of this study. One of the noticeable findings were that the change experienced by the members of the TRAL of equality matters had gone even for the worse. Obvious defects were found, so the results of this study will hopefully give, not only for the legislators, but also for the work actors a lot to think about.