Gender Equality in Time: Low-Paid Mothers' Paid and Unpaid Work in the UK

Policies concerning time use are crucial to parents' experiences of paid and unpaid work and the reconciliation of work and family life. In heterosexual-couple households, gender inequalities in the distribution of paid work and care, working hours, and responsibility for children's schedules mean that mothers experience pressure on time and their ability to work, care, and manage households. Via qualitative interviews conducted in 2005-6, this contribution explores the time strategies of a sample of low-waged mothers in England whose choices around unpaid and paid work are most constrained as a result of the UK's limited policies. The authors discuss alternative policy scenarios, finding that respondents supported policies that challenge gender inequalities in work time, enhancing their time in paid employment and their partners' time for unpaid work. Higher-quality part-time work, shorter full-time hours, and parental leave for fathers would begin to address time inequalities in the UK and elsewhere.