ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on practices of combining work and family responsibilities by employed mothers in contemporary Ukraine that are realised in the new context of a market economy, a child-centred parenting culture, and a changing state role in supporting working mothers. It explores the main state-socialist legacies of the working mother gender contract, particularly parental leave and public childcare services. The chapter also focuses on temporal tensions of everyday practices of combining work and care for children by employed mothers who live in two large Ukrainian cities and have at least one child aged 3-10 years old attending a kindergarten or primary school. The image of the good mother was supplemented with ideas about caring for a child. Ninety-two per cent of mothers who participated in the quantitative survey work full time, which is close to the average rate of full-time work among all employed women in Ukraine.
