"Soccer moms" and the new care work

Arendell

Teresa

Arendell, Teresa

Author

University of California, Berkeley

Center for Working Families

University of California, Berkeley. Center for Working Families

Sponsor

text

working paper

Berkeley, CA Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley 2000 2000 monographic

Berkeley, CA

Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley

2000

monographic

English eng

English

eng

electronic application/pdf 48 p. born digital

electronic

application/pdf

48 p.

born digital

Contemporary mothers are engaged in modern motherhood: holding employment and rearing children concurrently. Further, modern mothers seek to secure for their children the modernized childhood, which involves a high degree of involvement by children in extracurricular lessons, sports, and other activities. Coordinating these activities constitutes the new maternal care work. Based on in-depth interviews with 23 northern California employed, married, middle-class mothers, I examine how mothers manage their families' busy schedules and monitor their children's daily lives. I investigate mothers' strategies for managing their everyday lives in the context of time. Three strategies of action predominate: managing time, scaling back, and using help.

Teresa Arendell is a professor of sociology at Colby College, Waterville, Maine. She was a senior postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Working Families during 1998-99.

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper No. 16

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper

No. 16

Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States" (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/)

wfn_bwpaper_5.pdf

MChB English eng

MChB

English eng

English

eng