The paper develops a new analysis of attitudes to aspects of work and caring for
children. The paper reports on analysis of data generated through a small scale
survey designed and conducted with pilot study funding to follow up aspects of
research by the ESRC Research Group for the study of Care, Values and the Future
of Welfare. The survey research takes as a focus a specific point in the life
course of parents: when they have children in the early years at primary school.
The paper develops an analysis of the coherence of people's attitudes and their
social location, with particular reference to social inequality. It also reports
on new linked analysis of British Social Attitudes Survey data. In contrast to
recent arguments of increasingly ‘autonomous’ subjectivities the research
contributes to a broader theoretical understanding of the mutuality of
subjectivities and extant social relations.
BruegelI. (1996)
Whose myths are they anyway?: a commentBrit. Journ. Soc47, 1,
175–77.
7.
CromptonR., BrockmannM., and WigginsR.D. (2003) A
woman's place. employment and family life for men and women,
in ParkA. (eds) British Social
Attitudes. The 20th Report, National Centre for
Social Research, London:
Sage.
8.
CromptonR. (2002)
Employment, flexible working and the familyBrit. Journ. Soc53, 4,
537–58.
9.
DeanH. (2001)
Working parenthood and parental obligationCritical Social Policy21, 3,
267–86.
10.
DuncanS. (2003). Mothers,
care and employment: values and theories.
DuncanS. (2000). Localities
paper 2, choosing case study areas for strand 3 research - localities and
neighbourhoods, CAVA WP 17A.
13.
DuncanS. (2000). Localities
paper 3, variations in parenting and partnering at the local level
CAVA WP 17B.
14.
DuncanS., EdwardsR., ReynoldsT., and AlldredP. (2003)
Motherhood, paid work and partnering: values and
theories, Work, Employment and Society17, 2,
309–30.
15.
DuncanS., and EdwardsR. (1999) Lone
mothers, paid work and gendered moral rationalities,
Houndmills:
Macmillan.
16.
EgertonM., and SavageM. (2000) Age
stratification and class formation: a longitudinal study of the social
mobility of young men and women, 1971-1991Work, Employment and Society, 14,
1, 23–49.
17.
GlucksmannM. (2000) Cottons and
casuals. The gendered organisation of labour in time and space.Durham:
sociologypress.
18.
HakimC. (1996) Key issues
in women's work. female heterogeneity and the polarisation of women's
employment, London:
Athlone Press.
19.
HakimC. (2000).
Work-lifestyle choices in the 21st century. Preference
theory.Oxford University Press.
20.
HatteryA. (2001) Women, work
and family. Balancing and weaving.Thousand Oaks and London:
Sage.
21.
HimmelweitS. (2002)
Economic theory, norms and the care gap, or: why do
economists become parents?, in
CarlingA., DuncanS., and EdwardsR. (eds) Analysing families:
Morality and rationality in policy and practice.London:
Routledge.
22.
IrwinS. (2003)
Interdependencies, values and the reshaping of difference:
gender and generation at the birth of twentieth century
modernityBritish Journal of Sociology54, 4,
565–84.
IrwinS., and BotteroW. (2000)
Market returns? Gender and theories of change in employment
relationsBritish Journal of Sociology51, 2,
261–80.
25.
IrwinS. (1999)
Resourcing the family: gendered claims and obligations and
issues of explanation, in SilvaE., and SmartC.C. (eds) The new
family?London:
Sage.
26.
IrwinS. (1995) Rights of
passage. Social change and the transition from youth to adulthood,
London: UCL
Press.
27.
IrwinS., and WilliamsF. (2002).
‘Understanding Social Values and Social Change: the Case of Care,
Family and Intimacy’, Paper presented to the ESPRN Conference on
Social Values, Social Policies, 29 August -31 August 2002, University of
Tilburg, Netherlands.
28.
JarvisL. (2000).
Women's Social Attitudes: 1983 to 1998. A report prepared
for the Women's Unit, Cabinet Office, National Centre for Social
Research.
29.
LindleyJ., DaleA., and DexS. (2004).
Ethnic differences in women's demographic, family
characteristics and economic activity profiles, 1992 to 2002Labour Market Trends
30.
MckieL., BowlbyS., and GregoryS. (2001)
Gender, caring and employment in BritainJnl. Soc Pol.30, 2,
233–58.
31.
McraeS. (2003)
Constraints and choices in mothers' employment careers: a
consideration of Hakim's preference theory, Brit.
Journ. Soc.54, 3,
317–38.
32.
MarksG., and HoustonD.M. (2002)
Attitudes towards work and motherhood held by working and
non-working mothersWork, employment and society16, 3,
523–36.
RuberyJ. (1997)
Wages and the Labour marketBrit. Journ. Ind. Relns35, 3,
337–62.
35.
PedersenS (1993). Family,
dependence and the origins of the welfare state. Britain and France
1914-1945.Cambridge University Press.
36.
Saugeres
and Duncan (2002). ‘Choice
and ideology in mothers' work-life decisions’, paper presented to
the ISA Conference, Brisbane, Australia, August.
37.
ScottJ., BraunM., and AlwinD. (1998).
‘Partner, parent, worker: family and gender
roles’, in JowellR. (eds.) British and
European social attitudes. The 15th Report,
Aldergate:
SCPR/Ashgate.
38.
SilvaE., and SmartC.C. (ed.) 1999The new family?London:
Sage.
39.
SkinnerC. (2003) Running
around in circles. Coordinating childcare, education and work.Bristol: Policy Press for the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
40.
ThomsonK. (1995).
Working mothers: choice or circumstance? In
JowellR., British Social Attitudes: the 12th Report.
41.
TomlinsonJ. (2003). How are
women's decisions about transitions in and out of part-time work affected by
their work/life balance and changing policy and employment
contexts? PhD thesis, University of
Leeds.
WilliamsF. (1999)
Good-enough principles for welfareJourn. Soc. Pol.28, 4,
667–87.
44.
WilliamsF. (2001). Changing
Families - Changing Values? Paper given to the National Family and
Parenting Institute at the Launch of Parents' Week, October 2001, available
online: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cava/papers/changingfamilies.htm
45.
WindebankJ. (1999)
Political motherhood and the everyday experience of
mothering: a comparison of the child care strategies of French and British
working mothersJournal of Social Policy28, 1,
1–25.
