Moulding Parents’ Childcare? A Comparative Analysis of Paid Work and Time with Children in Different Family Policy Contexts

Abstract

A major line of conflict cuts across the successful combination of paid work and family life in modern societies. Women are increasingly supposed to be in employment while carrying out the lion’s share of childcare in the home, but men’s behaviour in relation to paid and unpaid work has not changed to the same extent. These social processes are often held to increase the shortage of parental time with children and generate tensions between paid work and family life, in particular for mothers. Such tensions are likely to be particularly manifest in households with young children, who have the greatest care needs.