Mothers' management of their combined workloads: clerical work and household needs

In: Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, Band 30, Heft 1, S. 37-63

Abstract

Le nombre de femmes — et surtout de mères — qui sont présentes sur le marché du travail est en augmentation rapide. Comme la responsabilité de ces femmes à l'égard des travaux domestiques demeure généralement inchangée, elle font face à une charge de travail lourde et complexe dont les tǎches sont souvent difficiles à concilier. Quand on est à la fois mère et employée de bureau, on doit organiser ses journées de travail de manière à répondre aux besoins de la famille et à ceux de l'employeur. Ces travailleuses y parviennent en modifiant leur emploi du temps, notamment du temps qu'elles consacrent aux travaux domestiques, en formant un réseau de soutien ménager composé de membres de la famille étendue et d'autres fournisseurs de soins, et en adaptant leur travail de bureau aux besoins du ménage. De telles mesures permettent aux femmes de satisfaire aux exigences d'un emploi à temps plein et d'atténuer les effets de leur absence de la maison tout en assumant le gros de la responsabilité des travaux ménagers.The rapid increase in women's, and especially mothers', labour force participation, coupled with their continuing responsibility for domestic work, has resulted in an extensive, complex, and often conflicting workload. Women who are both mothers and clerical workers must organize their workdays so as to meet the demands of families as well as offices. They do this through the adaptation of their use of time, especially in household work, the active integration of a household support network which includes extended family members and other caregivers, and the accommodation of their office employment to meet household needs. These efforts enable women to fulfill the demands of full‐time paid employment, mitigating their absence from the household, while continuing to absorb the primary responsibility for the performance of domestic work.I'm 35 … I put off having a child to this point because I couldn't quite imagine myself juggling the role of worker, wife, mother, and I could never understand how women could do that. I always wanted children, but I wanted to be a mother and be able to spend some time at home, and I kept putting off having children, waiting for the right time when I would be home with my children for a couple of years before I'd have to return to the workforce. That time has never come. Economically, it's not possible to stay home, and I'm getting old, as far as childbearing years, so finally my husband and I have come to the decision that there never was going to be a right time, and to have a child. (Lorraine, 6 months pregnant, Student Services Clerk, Pacific Technical College.)