| Description |
1 online resource (340 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
SOS -- Sweden : "It is easy in Sweden to work and have kids" -- Former East Germany : "I wouldn't know how to handle forty hours ... That's no life" -- Western Germany : " 'You are a career whore, ' they say in Germany" -- Italy : "Nobody helps me. It is very difficult in Italy" -- The United States : "We can't figure out how to do it all at the same time" -- Politicizing mothers' work-family conflict |
| Summary |
A moving, cross-national account of working mothers' daily lives-and the revolution in public policy and culture needed to improve them. The work-family conflict that mothers experience today is a national crisis. Women struggle to balance breadwinning with the bulk of parenting, and stress is constant. Social policies don't help. Of all Western industrialized countries, the United States ranks dead last for supportive work-family policies: No federal paid parental leave. The highest gender wage gap. No minimum standard for vacation and sick days. The highest maternal and child poverty rates. Can American women look to European policies for solutions? Making Motherhood Work draws on interviews that sociologist Caitlyn Collins conducted over five years with 135 middle-class working mothers in Sweden, Germany, Italy, and the United States. She explores how women navigate work and family given the different policy supports available in each country. Taking readers into women's homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces, Collins shows that mothers' desires and expectations depend heavily on context. In Sweden-renowned for its gender-equal policies-mothers assume they will receive support from their partners, employers, and the government. In the former East Germany, with its history of mandated employment, mothers don't feel conflicted about working, but some curtail their work hours and ambitions. Mothers in western Germany and Italy, where maternalist values are strong, are stigmatized for pursuing careers. Meanwhile, American working mothers stand apart for their guilt and worry. Policies alone, Collins discovers, cannot solve women's struggles. Easing them will require a deeper understanding of cultural beliefs about gender equality, employment, and motherhood. With women held to unrealistic standards in all four countries, the best solutions demand that we redefine motherhood, work, and family. Making Motherhood Work vividly demonstrates that women need not accept their work-family conflict as inevitable |
| Analysis |
Americans |
|
Au pair |
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Breadwinner model |
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Breast milk |
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Career ladder |
|
Career |
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Caregiver |
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Child care |
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Childbirth |
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Cultural lag |
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Day care |
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Diaper |
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Disadvantage |
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Division of labour |
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Domestic worker |
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Early childhood education |
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Elterngeld |
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Employment discrimination |
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Employment |
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Ethnography |
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Everyday life |
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Family Lives |
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Family support |
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Family-friendly |
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Feminism |
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Feminist movement |
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Fertility |
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Finding |
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Gender equality |
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Gender inequality |
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Gender pay gap |
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Gender role |
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Germans |
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Grandparent |
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Health insurance |
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Homemaking |
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Household |
|
Housewife |
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Ideology |
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Income |
|
Interview |
|
Italian welfare state |
|
Italians |
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Job security |
|
Kindergarten |
|
Labour law |
|
Laundry |
|
Legislation |
|
Lifeworld |
|
Meal |
|
Middle class |
|
Mommy track |
|
Month |
|
Mother |
|
Norm (social) |
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Nursing |
|
Of Education |
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Oppression |
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Outsourcing |
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Overtime |
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Parental leave |
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Parenting |
|
Part-time contract |
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Pension |
|
Poverty |
|
Preschool |
|
Private sector |
|
Provision (contracting) |
|
Refugee |
|
Resentment |
|
Respondent |
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Salary |
|
Sexism |
|
Sibling |
|
Sick leave |
|
Single parent |
|
Social class |
|
Social exclusion |
|
Social inequality |
|
Social policy |
|
Social safety net |
|
Sociology |
|
Spouse |
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Subsidy |
|
Supervisor |
|
Swedes |
|
Tax |
|
Temporary work |
|
The Other Hand |
|
Toddler |
|
Unemployment |
|
Welfare state |
|
Welfare |
|
West Germany |
|
Woman |
|
Workforce |
|
Working Mother |
|
Working time |
|
Workplace |
|
Year |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed December 5, 2018) |
| Subject |
Working mothers.
|
|
Work and family.
|
|
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
|
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
|
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Services & Welfare.
|
|
Work and family
|
|
Working mothers
|
|
USA
|
| Genre/Form |
Cross-cultural studies
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780691185156 |
|
0691185158 |
|
