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This paper seeks to explore discourses on the possibilities and limitations identified by relevant actors in the sphere of paid work to set up a national agenda on labor-family policies that are compatible with gender equality in Chile. The study is based on in-depth interviews with managers of organizations in different productive sectors, workers' representatives, legislators and officers of the Chilean government. The interviews sought to establish their perceptions on the importance of labor-family balance and policies aimed to promote it, the place of such policies in the political agenda and the conditions necessary to successfully implement them. Two main obstacles to set a national gender-friendly agenda on work-family policies were identified: first, the persistent identification of carework as a female responsibility, thereby, a situation that only affects female workers. Second, the discursive tension between the ideas of productivity and worker's welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]