Reconciling Work and Motherhood: Class and Access to Childcare in Dublin

The  ‘motherhood penalty’ is invoked to explain the lower labour force participation of Irish women. Mothers with low educational levels have even lower participation rates referred to as an ‘education penalty’. This paper will explore the way these penalties are socially constructed in an Irish childcare policy context.

Funded by FP7 FLOWS, separate focus groups composed of mothers with third level education and those with second level education were conducted in order to compare their respective orientations to work and their reconciliation strategies.  Mothers in both groups articulated a strong intrinsic, social and instrumental orientation to their work and a distinct worker identity, separate to motherhood.  As working mothers  they had all overcome the first penalty.

Mothers with third level education earned incomes that enabled them to commodify childcare for children aged (0-3 ) using private nurseries which facilitated their full-time employment, but at considerable  financial cost.  But low income earning mothers could not afford the  800- 1,000 euros a month fees. This explains their over lower participation rates.

The exceptional mothers in our focus groups with low educational levels were facilitated by getting a childcare place in a local community crèche with fees of 95 euros a week full time and pro-rata reductions for part time.  (Only 30,000 parents nationally have access to these).  Mothers without a childcare place (if married) relied on their unemployed partner to provide childcare, or both parents worked part time. Grandparents or siblings also provided care. These constitute a mixture of reconciliation strategies not easily replicated.  Childcare policies in a neo-liberal society can considerable reduce equality of access to childcare places and offer an explanation for the education penalty. Overall participation rates are unlikely to rise unless this inequality is addressed.