In this study, being the first Hungarian qualitative study devoted to this subject, we focus on the work-life balance situation of Hungarian women acting as main breadwinners within their family. The empirical base of our study consisted of 22 in-depth interviews conducted with Hungarian mothers of dependent children younger than 14, living in (heterosexual) couple households, who bring in at least 60 per cent of the total household earnings. We examined how the main breadwinner role might affect the gender norm expectations acquired during socialisation, the division of domestic labour and child care duties between the partners, as well as the internal power relations of the couple. According to our findings, various versions of work-life balance management could be identified even within our small-scale qualitative sample on the basis of two main dimensions. On the one hand, on the basis of our interviewees' accounts we examined whether the partners had similar role expectations in terms of egalitarian sharing of family related tasks or traditionally gendered role specialisation. On the other hand, we have also considered to what extent other contextual factors contributed to women becoming primary breadwinners, and whether these were perceived in terms of external constraints or preferred choices (or both). On the basis of our analyses we have identified four models of family relations in the context of primary female breadwinning: the traditional, the egalitarian, the externally forced role reversal and the consciously implemented role reversal models.
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AbsztraktEgy nemzetközi családszociológiai kutatás részeként interjúkat készítettünk olyan, kiskorú gyermeket nevelő nők körében, akik a családi összjövedelemhez nagyobb mértékben járulnak hozzá, mint férfi társuk.Elemzésünk szerint ez a Magyarországon rendhagyónak minősülő felállás változatos módon fejtette ki hatását a családi gazdálkodás, a partneri viszonyok és a szülői szerepek gyakorlása terén. Miután a családi élet és a családi gyakorlatok nagymértékben függenek a partnerek családra és nemi szerepekre vonatkozó előzetes elképzelése-itől, négy családi modellt sikerült azonosítanunk. Amennyiben mindkét fél egyformán osztotta a hagyományos, vagy éppen az egalitáriánus szerepfelfogását, a család működését kevéssé érintette a nők fokozott jövedelem-szerző képessége. Azokban a családokban viszont, amelyekben a nő hagyományos szerepfelfogása ellenére vált családfenntartóvá és szorította háttérbe anyai és háztartási feladatait, kényszer-szülte szerepcsere történt. A szerepcsere öntudatos felvállalását pedig azok a családok példázták, amelyekben a társadalmilag elvárt viselkedéseket felülírta a nők mindkét fél által elfogadott domináns szerepe egy újfajta családi viszonyrendszerben.Kulcsszavak: kereső munka és család összeegyeztetése, családfenntartás, szülői szerepek Parenting and breadwinning -when the mother is the main breadwinner Abstract As part of an international research project in family sociology, we conducted interviews with mothers of children under 18, whose contribution to the family income is higher than that of their spouses. We have found that this situation, which is unusual in Hungary, impacts family economy, partner relations and the practising of parental roles in a variety of ways. Considering that family life and family practices greatly depend on the partners' prior notions about family and gender roles, we have identified four family models. When both partners shared traditional or egalitarian role perceptions to the same degree, the operation of the family was left largely intact by the woman's increased income generating capacity. However, in families where the woman had become the breadwinner despite her traditional role perception, pushing her motherly and domestic functions to the background, a coerced role swapping took place. A conscious assumption of changed roles is exemplified, in turn, by families where socially expected behaviours were overridden by the dominant role of the woman in a new kind of family pattern accepted by both parties.
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