Achieving gender equality through paid and unpaid work: an exploration of mothers’ perspectives on work

Abstract

The prevailing understanding of work as paid work is reflected in political efforts to achieve gender equality, which include emphasising that women, like men, should increasingly pursue paid work. This exploratory research aims to question whether this idea to align female with male life patterns is conducive to gender equality and to promote new insights based on mothers’ experiences. Our analysis is based on guided interviews with eight Swiss mothers in part-time employment who have at least one child aged three or older, and a working partner in the same household. The interviews show that these mothers do not share the expectation that all mothers should take on the main responsibility for domestic and care work, nor the expectation that all women should be doing full-time paid work. They would like to see greater acceptance and appreciation of different forms of work. This research concludes that gender justice can be understood as a freedom of choice that includes both the right to be doing paid work and the right to have time for domestic and care work - for men and women. Gender equality efforts do not have to be restricted to one form of work, but can leave room for different types of work and the appreciation of them.