A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Unequal but balanced: Highly educated mothers' perceptions of work-life balance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Finland and the Netherlands
Tekijät: Yerkes Mara A., Remery Chantal, André Stéfanie, Salin Milla, Hakovirta Mia, van Gerven Minna
Kustantaja: Sage
Julkaisuvuosi: 2022
Journal: Journal of European Social Policy
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICY
Lehden akronyymi: J EUR SOC POLICY
Artikkelin numero: 09589287221080411
Sivujen määrä: 17
ISSN: 0958-9287
eISSN: 1461-7269
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09589287221080411
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8927890/
Tiivistelmä
One year after the European work-life balance directive, which recognises the need for work-family policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parents' work-life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretical frameworks hold in this new environment with combined old and new policy frameworks. We are also challenged to understand the nuanced ways in which the first lockdown affects the combination of paid work and care. We address both of these issues, providing a cross-sectional comparative analysis of highly educated mothers' perceptions of work-life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland and the Netherlands. Our findings show that highly educated Finnish mothers have more difficulty combining work and care during the first lockdown than Dutch mothers. The absence of state-provided care during the lockdown creates greater difficulty for full-time working Finnish mothers in a dual-earner/state-carer system than an absence of such care in the Dutch one-and-a-half earner system, where most mothers work part time. Further analyses suggest variation in part-time and (nearly) full-time hours mitigates the work-life balance experiences of highly educated Dutch mothers. Additional factors explaining cross-country variation or similarities include the presence of young children and the presence of a partner. We discuss these findings in light of current theoretical frameworks and highlight avenues for future research.
One year after the European work-life balance directive, which recognises the need for work-family policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parents' work-life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretical frameworks hold in this new environment with combined old and new policy frameworks. We are also challenged to understand the nuanced ways in which the first lockdown affects the combination of paid work and care. We address both of these issues, providing a cross-sectional comparative analysis of highly educated mothers' perceptions of work-life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland and the Netherlands. Our findings show that highly educated Finnish mothers have more difficulty combining work and care during the first lockdown than Dutch mothers. The absence of state-provided care during the lockdown creates greater difficulty for full-time working Finnish mothers in a dual-earner/state-carer system than an absence of such care in the Dutch one-and-a-half earner system, where most mothers work part time. Further analyses suggest variation in part-time and (nearly) full-time hours mitigates the work-life balance experiences of highly educated Dutch mothers. Additional factors explaining cross-country variation or similarities include the presence of young children and the presence of a partner. We discuss these findings in light of current theoretical frameworks and highlight avenues for future research.
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