Mothers, daughters and workers? An analysis of the relationship between women's family caring, social class and labour market participation in the UK

This thesis concerns the family caring that women do or do not do, coupled with the implications this has for the time they spend in paid work. Comprising three separate papers, each takes a new approach to the old problem of 'who cares?' and how this is related to UK women's lives in the 21st century. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study and the British Household Panel Survey, I analyse three separate aspects ofinfonnal family caring. Chapter 2 takes an innovative look at the evolution of women's work/family balance in light of demographic changes in the age of motherhood and life expectancy. The fmdings suggest that caring for parents and children simultaneously is linked to reduced labour market participation for older women and women with older parents. Chapters 3 and 4 both take a different approach from most studies in recognising the heterogeneity across various forms of eldercare and childcare. Chapter 3 examines the extent of class variation in the provision of different types of eldercare to parents and the results suggest that a certain types of support are socially patterned. Chapter 4 considers different childcare options and employer support in relation to the length oftime a mother takes to return to work post childbirth. The findings suggest that childcare usage by type is linked to timings of post-childbirth returns into full- and part-time work. The results also suggest that the extent to which a work-place is family-friendly can also influence the speed of return.