Fitting it all in: how mothers' employment shapes their school engagement

Abstract

Although incompatibilities between work and home life are well studied, less is known about the implications of employment for another key life role, particularly for working mothers: being a ‘school-engaged parent’. Using data from in-depth interviews with 17 employed mothers in a mid-size Midwestern city, recruited from a diverse sample of 95 survey-taking parents, we examined the mechanics of how mothers' employment conditions shaped their involvement in their children's schools. We observed patterns between occupational status – professional and low-wage jobs, particularly – and when and how mothers engaged. Some with job schedule flexibility and paid time off were more often and easily able to participate in school activities, while others faced barriers to or negative consequences from using such supports. Several mothers lacked any time-related accommodations from their jobs. Yet all mothers pushed themselves to be involved, even as they had to make hard calculations about their work lives to do so. The findings extend research on the ‘life’ side of work–life research and point to the limits of U.S. education reform's emphasis on family engagement, suggesting that varied bundles of employment conditions stratify parents' school participation in ways that may be difficult for schools to accommodate.

Las incompatibilidades entre el trabajo y la vida familiar han sido ampliamente estudiadas. Existe menos evidencia sobre la forma como el empleo afecta la participación de los padres en la vida escolar de sus hijos. A partir de datos recolectados en entrevistas en profundidad a 17 mujeres que viven en la región central de los Estados Unidos, en una ciudad de tamaño medio, examinamos las condiciones del empleo de estas mujeres y las implicaciones de ese contexto laboral sobre su participación en las actividades del colegio de sus hijos. Analizamos las experiencias de madres que se desempeñan en dos tipos de posiciones ocupacionales: profesional y empleado con salario bajo. Entre las madres con un horario flexible y tiempo libre remunerado observamos que algunas participaron con mayor frecuencia y facilidad en las actividades del colegio mientras otras enfrentaron obstáculos o penalidades por utilizar este tipo de beneficios laborales. Varias madres no tuvieron acceso a un horario de trabajo flexible aunque todas se esforzaron en involucrarse, incluso cuando se enfrentaron a decisiones difíciles con respecto a su trabajo. Estos resultados constituyen un avance en la literatura sobre el balance entre trabajo y familia al tiempo que muestran evidencia sobre los límites de las reformas educativas que se han adelantado en los Estados Unidos y enfatizan la participación de los padres. Considerar la variación en las condiciones laborales a la hora de planear las actividades escolares que involucran a los padres puede ser difícil para los colegios.

Keywords:

• work–family conflict
• maternal employment
• occupations
• workplace flexibility
• parent school engagement
• qualitative research

Palabras claves:

• ajuste familia-trabajo
• participación comunitaria
• planificación del trabajo
• flexibilidad laboral
• niños en edad escolar

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge feedback from Roberta Iversen, Jane Collins, and Julia Henly and excellent research assistance from Christina Rye, Peter Kinsley, Leah Walker, Selena Jaramillo, Alexandra Ensch, and Nichole Carlisle.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anna Haley-Lock is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work. Her research focuses on the conditions and contexts of low-wage, low-skill employment, including how private employer behavior and public policy shape the quality of jobs, and in turn the implications of jobs for worker and family well-being and firm performance. She has used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in her past studies of work in human service organizations, restaurants, and ‘big box’ retail chains.

Linn Posey-Maddox is an Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research is focused on urban education, education and urban policy, families and schools, and qualitative research methods. In her research, she explores how changing social, economic, and demographic contexts in cities and metropolitan regions shape family–school relations in local school settings. She is the author of When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools: Class, Race, and the Challenge of Equity in Public Education (University of Chicago).

Notes

1. Due to irregularities in the camps' distribution methods, we were unable to determine with certainty that the original 174 surveys were received (versus left in folders untouched). As a result, our response rate calculations are likely conservative (i.e., understated).

2. All school and interviewee names used in this paper are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.