Introduction

This chapter explores the range of negotiations and tensions that mothers in paid work outside the home report as characterising their lives. Drawing on interview data with 30 lone and partnered mothers in non-professional, non-managerial occupations, the notion of boundary is explored as an analytical device to conceptualise the tensions, both ideological and practical, that these women report as experiencing. The chapter explores how the respondents seemed to construct boundaries between work and home, while recognising and dealing with their permeable and flexible features. The chapter examines how boundaries between family and work are constructed through the type of paid work undertaken as well as through the value attached to paid work in terms of identity as both woman and mother. It then goes on to consider how these boundaries are permeated and breached as work life spills into home life and home life spills into work life (Daly, 2000). Although the construction of boundaries implies the separation of distinct spheres of experience, thus serving as a way of balancing work and family life, in practice, the meanings and daily reality of both are played out in relation to each other. Temporal and spatial boundaries are therefore continuously challenged, requiring negotiation of both practical management strategies as well as the development of discourses that can transcend time and space.

In the UK there are increasing numbers of mothers in the labour market (65% of women with dependent children in 2001 [Labour Market Trends, 2000]), many of whom work part time (Dex, 2003). The UK government is also emphasising paid work as a route out of poverty and as part of active citizenship, especially for lone parents, the vast majority of whom are mothers (Millar, 2000). Paid work is highly valued by government and a range of policies is in place to promote and support work for those outside the labour market, including those currently caring for children. Tax credits have been introduced to help make work ‘pay’ and the extension of nursery education and a range of childcare options have been initiated to help work to ‘work’ for families.