ABSTRACT
The continued trend toward large numbers of mothers in paid employment in the US highlights the pressing need for quality, affordable and accessible child care. In the 1950s gender roles and the division of labor between married, heterosexual couples were clear-cut: men were “breadwinners” and women did the domestic chores and child rearing. Today, women do not view their paid labor force participation as intermittent and since the early 1980s women in the US (especially younger women, including mothers) are more likely to search for fulltime rather than part-time employment opportunities. Although over half of all women are in paid employment and contribute an increasingly larger share to their family’s income, the division of household responsibilities has not altered proportionately. In this chapter I explore the everyday lives of working mothers in Columbus, Ohio, paying particular attention to the coping strategies they develop to enable them to negotiate their multiple, but not necessarily overlapping, roles.
