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Unequal but balanced: Highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work–life balance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Finland and the Netherlands
Journal of European Social Policy ; : 1, 2022.
Article in English | Academic Search Complete | ID: covidwho-1745554
ABSTRACT
One year after the European worklife balance directive, which recognises the need for workfamily policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parentsworklife 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 mothersperceptions of worklife 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 worklife 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. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of European Social Policy is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: Academic Search Complete Language: English Journal: Journal of European Social Policy Year: 2022 Document Type: Article

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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: Academic Search Complete Language: English Journal: Journal of European Social Policy Year: 2022 Document Type: Article