What Mothers Do: Motherhood as a Resource for Negotiating Sick-Leave Legitimacy in Swedish Sickness Insurance Interactions

Flinkfeldt, Marie

doi:10.1080/08038740.2017.1380698

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In line with previous research (Nybergh et al, 2020 ), our study shows that doing gender for men in family life meant having a certain leeway when on sick leave. Moreover, the situation for women in our study is in line with research that has focused not only on time spent on household work but also on caring for others (Cunha et al, 2016 ; Flinkfeldt, 2017 ; Hjálmsdóttir & Bjarnadóttir, 2020 ). Women’s unequal position in terms of caring for others, providing emotional support, and doing emotion work also made them vulnerable to challenging life events.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Possible limitations are related to the fact that the interviews had to be conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and recall bias. Moreover, in line with others (Flinkfeldt, 2017 ; Vidman, 2007 ), we experienced challenges to achieve a comprehensive understanding of gendered experiences in workplace settings, for example, experiences of gender segregation or differences between work sectors. Rather, participants described themselves and others in gender-neutral terms as either a collective of humans (sharing common experiences and preferences) or individuals (having specific experiences and preferences).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Gendered aspects of work and sick leave can be understood as something both pervasive yet elusive. The implication of gender on employees’ work life is previously described as challenging to capture in qualitative research (Flinkfeldt, 2017 ; Vidman, 2007 ). In our study, the influence of high workload and boundaryless work on employee health was described similarly among participants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring reasons for sick leave due to common mental disorders from the perspective of employees and managers – what has gender got to do with it?

Holmlund

Ljungberg

Bültmann

et al. 2022

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

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Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the employee and the managerial experience of reasons for sick leave due to CMDs in relation to work and private life, through the lens of a transactional perspective of everyday life occupation and gender norms. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 employees on sick leave due to CMDs and 11 managers. By using transactional and gender perspectives in a reflexive thematic analysis, themes were generated in a constant comparative process. Findings Four themes were identified: a) struggling to keep up with work pressure and worker norms; b) struggling with insecurity in an unsupportive work environment; c) managing private responsibilities through flexible work schedules, and d) managing emotions alongside unfavourable working conditions. Conclusion Sick leave due to CMDs was understood as related to experiences of accumulated events situated in different social, cultural, and societal contexts of everyday life. Practices and policies should encourage an open dialogue about work and private life and health between employees and managers. To build healthy and sustainable work environments practices should also aim for increased awareness of social norms. A better understanding may facilitate the identification of situations in work and private life that are problematic for the employee.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring reasons for sick leave due to common mental disorders from the perspective of employees and managers – what has gender got to do with it?

Holmlund

Ljungberg

Bültmann

et al. 2022

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In this article, we examine how motherhood is engaged and enacted in daytime television talk-show debates about parenting. Our findings build on prior research that reveals motherhood as a moral category (e.g., Austin & Fitzgerald, 2007; Flinkfeldt, 2017; Stokoe, 2003b), and one that is vested with expertise (e.g., Hanell & Salö, 2017; Holland, 2019; Mackenzie & Zhao, 2021). Our analysis offers further insight into both counts.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Flinkfeldt’s (2017) study of work-based sick leave meetings in Sweden reveals motherhood as an interactional resource with variable outcomes. On some occasions, mundane notions of good motherhood (e.g., putting children first) provide a resource for members who are resisting a return to work, whilst on other occasions, claiming some level of conflict between the demands of motherhood and those of the workplace leaves mothers vulnerable to challenges, either regarding their parenting ability or their commitment to the workplace.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Speaking as a mother”: A membership categorisation analysis of child-centric talk in a UK daytime television talk show

Foster

Kilby

2023

Feminism & Psychology

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In this study, we explore motherhood as an interactionally emergent identity category that speakers construct and lay claim to in talk, and as a category that is imbued with moral expectations of how incumbents should behave. We analyse 18 child-focussed debates from British daytime television talk show, This Morning. Engaging a postfeminist framework, we use membership categorisation analysis to explore how, and to what effect, women deploy claims to motherhood. We report three main findings: (a) Speakers routinely quantify their motherhood credentials in the development of a “mother-cum-expert” identity; (b) speakers who construct motherhood in accordance with neoliberal norms of “good motherhood” habitually trump the arguments offered by other speakers, including those with professional expertise; (c) any challenge to essentialist norms of womanhood and/or motherhood become accountable matters. We conclude that whilst there is power in motherhood insomuch as it vests some women with expertise and elevates their rights to be heard on child-focussed matters, the speakers in our study nevertheless construct motherhood in a manner that (re)produces and elevates essentialised notions of gender and narrow versions of motherhood.

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Dealing with callers’ racialised talk in suicide preventive helplines: Accomplishing (anti)racism in the context of unconditional support

Iversen,

Flinkfeldt,

Hamed

2024

Sociology Health & Illness

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This article investigates how mental health counsellors on helplines in Sweden deal with racism from callers who self‐categorise as non‐racialised. Previous studies have identified racism as a problem in health care interactions, but there is limited knowledge about the features of racialised talk and how staff respond. In this study, we use conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis to examine racialised talk in 17 audiorecorded calls, a subset of 458 calls to suicide preventive helplines. The analysis shows that racialisation functions as a resource for callers to make sense of their mental health difficulties. This speaks to the complexity of responding to racism in a mental health setting, as counsellors must see to callers’ needs, and calling out racialised talk may alienate callers. Call‐takers manage this problem in three ways: (1) questioning racialised talk, (2) supporting the callers’ stance in a way that makes it ambiguous if call‐takers are coproducing racism or affiliating with callers’ lives being difficult and (3) supporting callers’ problems as mental health issues while resisting a potentially racist trajectory. The study offers direct insight into the workings of racism in health care and how practitioners can balance health care users' needs for support with an antiracist position.

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What Mothers Do: Motherhood as a Resource for Negotiating Sick-Leave Legitimacy in Swedish Sickness Insurance Interactions

Cited by 4 publications

References 30 publications

Exploring reasons for sick leave due to common mental disorders from the perspective of employees and managers – what has gender got to do with it?

Exploring reasons for sick leave due to common mental disorders from the perspective of employees and managers – what has gender got to do with it?

“Speaking as a mother”: A membership categorisation analysis of child-centric talk in a UK daytime television talk show

Dealing with callers’ racialised talk in suicide preventive helplines: Accomplishing (anti)racism in the context of unconditional support

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