Lone Mothers and Long Hours. Work-Family Conflict In The Everyday Lives Of Lone Mothers In Sweden

The gendered nature of the struggle to integrate caring, family and paid work has been repeatedly demonstrated. Most research, however, has focused on dual parent families. This paper discusses work-family conflict in the everyday lives of lone mothers in Sweden. We use an agency-centered framework inspired by the capabilities approach, which emphasizes that the options of an individual depend greatly on institutions and relations with others. Drawing on 38 in-depth interviews with lone mothers from different social backgrounds we explore i) how the proper relationship between motherhood and paid work is conceived of, ii) the institutional and relational factors that influence lone mothers’ opportunities to attain work-life balance, and iii) the strategies employed in negotiating paid work and family. Results show that paid work is integral to good motherhood to all mothers regardless of social class. They also show that lone mothers typically experience high levels of work-family conflict. Opportunities to reconcile paid work and family depend on employment conditions, accessibility to social support networks, the role of the absent father, household composition, and access to public childcare on unregularly hours. In the case of middle class mothers, blurred boundaries between work and family life and late meetings restrict opportunities to attain work-family balance. For working class mothers temporal employment, unregular working hours and low earnings are significant constraining factors. Reducing working hours, negotiating working schedules, and asking relatives and friends for help are examples of strategies used to reduce work-life conflicts. Reducing travelling time between the job and the home by moving from one place to another, and moving closer to relatives to increase the chances to get practical support are other examples. While middle-class women typically used flexi-time at work to alleviate conflicts between different responsibilities, several low-income mothers changed jobs in order to improve their situation.