Employment without childcare: How do parents do it?

Abstract

One of the significant changes in OECD countries in recent decades has been a substantial increase in maternal employment. While many children attend formal or informal childcare while mothers work, a substantial proportion of children in dual employed families are cared for only by their parents. This paper uses two Australian studies to explore how families manage dual employment without the use of non-parental childcare, with a focus on working arrangements used by mothers and fathers. The 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics Child Care survey is used to examine job characteristics and childcare in a national sample of children aged up to 11 years. The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children is also used to look at work arrangements used when children are very young. Mothers were asked to report on the main jobs they and their partner had after the birth of their child, and what working arrangements each had used to care for their child. Open-ended responses from this survey are used to illustrate some of the findings on how work is managed without non-parental care. The findings highlight gendered patterns, but with certain job characteristics, especially working from home, related to the avoidance of non-parental care.