Hard Labour: The Sociology of Parenthood by Caroline Gatrell
The first part of the book provides an up-to-date, comprehensive and readable overview of the literature on motherhood, fatherhood, family practices, and women in employment. The second part draws on a qualitative study of the lives of twenty mothers and their husbands or partners, each of whom is educated to degree level or above, and has at least one child under five. This study considers key aspects of the family lives of the men and women interviewed, including:
- How they manage their commitments to one another, their children and their professional work
- Sharing out family tasks such as childcare and housework
Hard Labour is essential reading for students and academics in sociology, family policy, family studies, womens or gender studies and the sociology of management/employment.