Shift Work, Childcare and Domestic Work: Divisions of labour in Canadian paper mill communities

Abstract

The growing prevalence of shift work and non-standard working hours is challenging many taken-for-granted notions about family and household life. This paper examines how rotating shift-schedules shape household strategies with regard to childcare and unpaid domestic work. In 1993-1994 we conducted in-depth interviews with 90 predominantly male newsprint mill-workers and their spouses living in three communities located in different regions of Canada. Our analysis is based on these interviews as well as data collected in a questionnaire survey administered to a much larger sample in each community. We focus on the effects of fixed versus rotating shifts and the extent to which household strategies differ between households with one or two wage-earners. Our findings reveal that the onus for adjusting to shifts fell mainly on the spouses of mill-workers who felt constrained in their own choices regarding employment and childcare by the demanding regimen of their partner's shift schedules. In the vast majority of households a traditional division of labour predominated with regard to both childcare and domestic work. When women quit paid employment to accommodate the schedules of shift-workers and ensure time for the family to be together, traditional values reassert themselves. Surprisingly, we found a high level of satisfaction with current shift schedules despite the significant adjustments to family life they had engendered. By comparing families employed in the same industry but living in three very different communities our analysis underscores the importance of local circumstances in mediating the strategies households deploy with regards to coping with shift-work; especially with regard to childcare.

Gender as contradiction: From dichotomies to diversity in natural resource extraction

“…For example, Preston et al (2000) undertook a comparative study of shift work in three paper mill communities, and found that the responsibility to adapt childcare and other household responsibilities to men's shift work rotations fell almost entirely upon their wives, whether or not their wives were working outside the home. The authors also found that employed women were likely to quit their jobs in order take care of their children, or, in one community, to hire live-in nannies.…”

Constructing gender, constructing the urban: A review of Anglo-American feminist urban geography

“…Urban form and process and locational differences within cities thus actively construct gender as well as other social relations: 'cities are not just the scenery for the playing out of gender' (Garber & Turner, 1995, p. xviii). For example, feminist urban geography has repeatedly shown how differences in local contexts of employment and neighbourhood are crucial to understanding the ways that gender identities, performances and relations are negotiated and reshaped in the domestic sphere (Dowling, 1998b;Holloway, 1998;Rose, 1999a;Bondi & Christie, 2000;Preston et al, 2000;Duncan & Smith, 2002).…”

A mulher como a principal provedora do sustento econômico familiar

“…Pesquisas têm revelado como este papel assumido pela mulher tem repercutido na dinâmica familiar, nas questões conjugais, bem como na educação dos filhos (Bertolini, 2001;Garcia, 2001;Preston, Rose, Norcliffe e Holmes, 2000;Arrighi & Maume, 2000). Nesse sentido, talvez um dos aspectos mais desafiantes a ser mencionado envolva a necessidade de essas mulheres conciliarem as funções familiares com as acadêmicas e profissionais.…”

“…Nesse sentido, talvez um dos aspectos mais desafiantes a ser mencionado envolva a necessidade de essas mulheres conciliarem as funções familiares com as acadêmicas e profissionais. Estes estudos apontam as transformações nos papéis e funções delegados para homens e para mulheres que possuem uma carreira, dedicam-se a uma profissão e precisam seguir criando e educando os filhos (Souza, 2001;Andrade, Postma e Abraham, 1999;Preston, Rose, Norcliffe e Holmes, 2000). No entanto, pouco tem sido relatado a respeito das peculiaridades estruturais das famílias em que a mulher representa a principal fonte de renda.…”