Dual-earner parents' work-family time: The effects of atypical work patterns and non-parental childcare

Craig, L. and Powell, A. (2012) Dual-earner parents' work-family time: The effects of atypical work patterns and non-parental childcare. Journal of Population Research, 29 (3). pp. 229-247. ISSN 1443-2447

Full content URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-012-9086-5

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Item Type:Article
Item Status:Live Archive

Abstract

Finding time to both earn money and raise children is demanding. Within the constraints and opportunities of their employment and social policies affecting work and family, parents seeking to manage their time may use a number of strategies. For example, they can outsource childcare or adopt atypical work patterns: non-standard work schedules, self employment, working from home. In this paper we compare the effects of these measures on the household time use and gender division of labour of dual-earner couples with children, using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey, 2006 (n = 772 couples). We find that these strategies do help households manage their work and family time. However, this is almost exclusively a result of women changing their time use. Such measures generally enable mothers, not fathers, to adjust paid work around family commitments, and offer little amelioration of gendered divisions of labour. This reinforces normative gender-role expectations and is probably a result of institutional constraints, including sparse social policy and workplace support for mothers' full-time employment and for fathers' involvement in childcare. © 2012 Springer Science & Business Media B.V.

Additional Information:cited By 18
Divisions:College of Social Science
ID Code:39982
Deposited On:27 Jan 2020 15:23

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