Between Money and Love: Work-family Conflict Among Swedish Low-income Single Mothers

Abstract

KeywoRds Control over work / economic resources / low-income and working-class Swedish single mothers / relative deprivation / structural ambivalence / work-family reconciliation Introduction It has been noted that the kinds of state support that single mothers receive can be used as a measure of the position of women more generally (Hobson, 1994, p. 176). The Nordic countries, where family policies emphasize both gender equality and equality in children's living conditions regardless of family form, are frequently cited as good examples. Universal publicly financed childcare has enabled single mothers to support themselves and their children by taking up paid jobs. This in turn has kept poverty rates down (Esping-Anderson, 2016, p. 82; Meagher & Szebehely, 2012, pp. 98-102). Surprisingly, little is known, however, about how single mothers cope with being both primary breadwinners and carers. Survey data indicate that work-family conflict and financial stress are the strongest predictors of subjective well-being for single mothers in Scandinavia (Bull & Mettelmark, 2009), but research on work-family reconciliation has mostly focused on dual-earner families. This is also the case internationally (Ciabattari, 2007;Gibson, 2012; Kröger, 2009).The present study adds to previous research by exploring work-family reconciliation among low-income and working-class single mothers in Sweden.1 It is particularly warranted to focus on low-income and working-class single mothers because international 1 You can find this text and its DOI at https://tidsskrift.dk/njwls/index. 2

The Long-Term Costs of Family Trajectories: Women’s Later-Life Employment and Earnings Across Europe

“…Compared with all other family trajectories, women who spend a considerable time as a single mother may experience the greatest need to provide. We expect that single mothers will be the least driven by normative expectations toward motherhood: because they simply need to care and provide simultaneously, they cannot afford to lower their time investment in labor market activity (Roman 2017). However, single mothers could have great difficulties reconciling work and family because they carry the childcare burden on their own.…”

Understanding work-life balance, resilience and emotional endurance of single working mothers in the workplace: a qualitative study

“…For example, they may face lower income, no so cial support or benefits, low self-esteem, less personal satisfaction, and more tremendous time pressures (Knoef & van Ours, 2016). One of the main problems single working mothers face is wage discrimination and, as a result, economic insufficiency (Roman, 2017). In addition to wage discrimination within the same sector or even in the same organization, women's labor force is also concentrated in low-paying and labor-intensive industries such as textile or ready-wear (Kabasakal et al, 2011).…”

Nonstandard Work Hours and Single Versus Coupled Mothers' Work‐to‐Family Conflict

“…Similarly, Baxter and Alexander () found that, in isolation from other factors, Australian single mothers report more WFC than coupled mothers. Single mothers' high levels of WFC may result from having to solely and with limited resources manage responsibilities (Alsarve, ; Roman, ; Son & Bauer, ) that are shared by two individuals in couples. In the absence of a partner, single mothers' total workload—combining work, domestic, and childcare responsibilities—places heavy demands on their family life, particularly compared with two‐parent families, as shown by previous studies from the three countries we examine in the present study (Bakker & Karsten, ; Kinnunen, Malinen, & Laitinen, ; Millar, ).…”

“…Whereas so‐called tag‐team parenting as a childcare‐related strategy can help to reduce coupled mothers' family workload and ensuring that the child receives parental care (see Mills & Täht, ; Murtorinne‐Lahtinen et al, ), single mothers navigate work and family responsibilities without a resident partner. Indeed, qualitative studies conducted in Europe (e.g., Alsarve, ; Roman, ) suggest that nonstandard work hours create major difficulties and pressures, particularly for single mothers in combining work and family life. Thus, we expect that the positive association between the amount of nonstandard work hours and WFC is stronger for single than coupled mothers because nonstandard work hours are unlikely to reduce single mothers' total family‐related workload for which the mother is solely and with more limited resources responsible for, compared with families with two parents (Hypothesis 2b).…”

“…Previous studies on the association between maternal working schedules and family life have generally focused either on North American samples (e.g., Ciabattari, ; Hepburn, ) or dual‐earner families (e.g., Steiber, ; Tammelin et al, ), and the European studies (e.g., Alsarve, ; Roman, ) that look at this issue in single‐mother families have been largely qualitative. Up to now, there has been no quantitative analysis of European single mothers' experiences of combining work during nonstandard hours and family life.…”