“Familism” has always been a core component of the Greek social structure, as it has in other European Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain and Portugal). It implies strong family ties, an increased sense of intergenerational obligation and family as the primary locus of social solidarity (provision of care and support) and productivity (economic activity within family businesses). Characteristics that distinguish countries in the Mediterranean cluster from those in the other two include:• the male breadwinner enjoying higher employment protection and job stability than other labour-force groups, such as women and migrants;• residual social assistance schemes;• child care and care for older people being provided mainly by family; and• relatively underdeveloped unemployment compensation and vocational training systems and welfare institutions (2).Greece has moved from an agrarian to a late-modern society over 50 years–a much shorter period than other western countries. This has had important influences on the norms, values and ideals structuring family life and on political rhetoric and policy-making (3). The three phases of traditional, modern and late-modern family are not clearly distinct: characteristics of one phase spill over to the next. Typically, however, norms and values were clear-cut in the traditional, patriarchal family of the 1950s. Extended households were common and kin group and community were interdependent, reinforcing collective living. The driving force for marriage was reproduction rather than emotional closeness or sexual satisfaction. Men’s and women’s roles were well defined, separate yet complementary, each one striving, from his or her position in the public or private sphere, to ensure the survival of the family group. Child care was provided not only by natural mothers but also by multiple “mother figures” either in the household or community.