Paid Leaves as Buffer Zones: Social Policies and Work-Life Balance among Canadian Mothers
Date
2015-06
Authors
Christopher, Karen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Texas State University, Center for Diversity and Gender Studies
Abstract
In this article, I use in-depth interviews with 26 Canadian mothers to explore their accounts of paid leaves and work-life balance. Drawing from a theoretical framework that emphasizes the structural, cultural, and interactional influences on mothers' experiences, I find that among higher-income mothers, paid leaves serve as "buffer zones" in two ways: they postpone the typical conflict between paid and unpaid work, and they assuage the guilt associated with employment under an intensive mothering ideology. However, low-income and non-citizen mothers have less access to the "buffer zones" of paid leaves, and mothers' reports of work-life balance vary considerably by social class after paid leaves end. Among this non-representative sample, higher-income mothers report the most work-life balance. The paper ends with the implications of this research for the policy and work-life balance literatures.
Description
Keywords
paid leave, work-life balance, motherhood, employment, social policy, intensive mothering
Citation
Christopher, K. (2015). Paid leaves as buffer zones: Social policies and work-life balance among Canadian mothers. <i>Journal of Research on Women and Gender, 6</i>(1), pp. 24-39.