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Abstract
Childcare arrangements may act as a deterrent for mothers with young children who want to secure employment. The study aims to explore how childcare arrangements affects labor force participation of mothers with young children. Safe, reliable, and affordable childcare is a necessary social service that is not always available to lower-income women. Interviews were conducted with 15 Black African women between the ages of 21 to 35 in Durban, South Africa. Most women were unable to complete their education and could not secure employment because motherhood interrupted their plans. Those who were able to secure employment faced a difficult compromise between childcare and employment. Some of the women subjected their children to unsafe conditions by leaving them home-alone when they need to go out and search for work. Their children were often left unsupervised in a community riddled with high rates of violence and crime. The study finds that there is an urgent need for reliable childcare services for mothers in a low-income community to enhance female labor force participation. Future research should quantify the extent to which childcare, and other factors, affect mothers’ employment to promote timely and effective social services which are geared toward providing support for families.
Disclosure Statement
The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Ethical Clearance References
This research was granted full ethical approval to conduct research with human participants by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (protocol reference number: HSS/0455/018)