Mothers and work–life balance: exploring the contradictions and complexities involved in work–family negotiation

Abstract

This article presents data from a project exploring women's experiences of work and care. It focuses primarily on work–life balance as a problematic concept. Social and economic transformations across advanced post-industrial economies have resulted in concerns about how individuals manage their lives across the two spheres of work and family and achieve a work–life balance. Governments across the European Union have introduced various measures to address how families effectively combine care with paid work. Research within this area has tended to focus on work–life balance as an objective concept, which implies a static and fixed state fulfilled by particular criteria and measured quantitatively. Qualitative research on women's experiences reveals work–life balance as a fluctuating and intangible process. This article highlights the subjective and variable nature of work–life balance and questions taken-for-granted assumptions, exploring problems of definition and the differential coping strategies which women employ when negotiating the boundaries between work and family.

Cet article présente des données venant d'un projet d'exploration des expériences des femmes concernant de travail et des responsabilités familiales. Il se concentre principalement sur l’équilibre entre le travail et la vie privée, comme concept problématique. Les transformations sociales et économiques aux pays possèdent des économies avancés et post-industrielles ont suscité des préoccupations sur la façon dont les individus gèrent leur vie à travers les deux sphères du travail et la famille, et comment elles atteindront un vrai équilibre travail-vie personnelle. Les gouvernements à travers l'Union européenne ont mis en place diverses mesures pour résoudre la façon dont les familles peuvent combiner efficacement les soins familiaux avec un travail rémunéré. Les recherches dans ce domaine ont tendance à se concentrer sur l’équilibre travail - vie privée comme une notion objective qui implique un état statique et fixe, remplies par des critères particuliers qui peuvent être mesurée quantitativement. La recherche qualitative sur les expériences des femmes révèle que l’équilibre travail-vie est un processus fluctuant et immatériel. Cet article met en évidence la nature subjective et variable de conciliation travail-vie et remet en question les suppositions qui ont été préalablement acceptées, en explorant les problèmes de définition et la variabilité en stratégies d'adaptation utilisés par les femmes lorsqu'elles négocient les frontières entre travail et famille.

Keywords:

• work–life balance
• women
• paid work
• care
• gender

Mots-clés:

• Les femmes
• l'equilibre travail vie
• le travail
• la famille
• egalite entre les sexes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank to Liz James for reading and contributing to initial drafts of the article and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. The research also focuses on the Netherlands as a potential model of good practice due to the standardisation of part-time employment as a means of achieving work–life balance. For a critical analysis of the Dutch model of part-time work (see Yerkes, 2009). For a more detailed discussion of these findings see Wattis et al. (2006).

2. Establishing part-time work in terms of hours is problematic. The European Framework Agreement on part-time work defines a ‘part-time worker’ as an employee who works less hours than someone defined as a full-time employee. However, there were women within this sample who worked less hours in comparative terms but viewed themselves as full-time employees. Defining what constitutes part-time work can be problematic and can vary when this is based on number of hours worked. This study adopts the Eurostat (2005) definition which categorises full-time working as 30 hours or more.

3. Despite rhetorical compromises such as reformulating leave arrangements (Watt, 2011); the ideological and policy stance of the current coalition government in the UK manifest in cutting public sector jobs and the shrinking of the state is likely to reverse the idea that the state has a role to play in the reconciliation of work and care (Lewis et al., 2008), and will leave women with fewer ‘choices’ in how they manage dual roles (Fawcett Society, 2010).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mara A. Yerkes

Current affiliation: Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia