IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v16y2011i3p66-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fathers ‘Care’ Too: The Impact of Family Relationships on the Experience of Work for Parents of Disabled Children

Author

Listed:
  • Katharine Venter

Abstract

There is a wealth of literature exploring the impact of parenthood on employment. However, this literature largely overlooks the experiences of parents of children with disabilities, for whom combining the care of their child with employment poses considerable challenges. Within the limited literature on these parents, the focus is on primary carers who are predominantly women. Consequently, the implications for fathers' employment experiences of parenting children with disabilities are largely invisible. Based on research with mothers and fathers this paper argues that being the parent of a child with disabilities impacts significantly on the characteristics of both parents' employment and on their experience of employment. This depends on the nature of parents' roles in care and is reflective of broader patterns of gender relationships within the family. Employment decisions take place within an ongoing parental dialogue that reflects broader conceptualisations of gender relations within the family and in the workplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Katharine Venter, 2011. "Fathers ‘Care’ Too: The Impact of Family Relationships on the Experience of Work for Parents of Disabled Children," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(3), pages 66-81, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:16:y:2011:i:3:p:66-81
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.2441
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.2441
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.2441?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maja Debacker, 2008. "Care strategies among high- and low-skilled mothers: a world of difference?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(3), pages 527-545, September.
    2. Anne Gray, 2006. "The Time Economy of Parenting," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Fiona Carmichael & Claire Hulme & Sally Sheppard & Gemma Connell, 2008. "Work - life imbalance: Informal care and paid employment in the UK," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 3-35.
    4. Janice McLaughlin, 2006. "Conceptualising Intensive Caring Activities: The Changing Lives of Families with Young Disabled Children," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 11(1), pages 51-61, April.
    5. Timmermans, Stefan & Freidin, Betina, 2007. "Caretaking as articulation work: The effects of taking up responsibility for a child with asthma on labor force participation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(7), pages 1351-1363, October.
    6. DeRigne, LeaAnne & Porterfield, Shirley, 2010. "Employment change and the role of the medical home for married and single-mother families with children with special health care needs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 631-641, February.
    7. Susan Himmelweit, 1995. "The discovery of “unpaid work”: the social consequences of the expansion of “work”," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 1-19.
    8. Gershuny, Jonathan & Sullivan, Oriel, 2001. "Cross-national changes in time-use: some sociological (hi)stories re-examined," ISER Working Paper Series 2001-01, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    9. Young, Bridget & Dixon-Woods, Mary & Findlay, Michelle & Heney, David, 2002. "Parenting in a crisis: conceptualising mothers of children with cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(10), pages 1835-1847, November.
    10. Susan Himmelweit, 1995. "The Discovery of 'Unpaid Work': the social consequences of the expansion of 'work'," Open Discussion Papers in Economics 6, The Open University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paula Rodríguez-Modroño & Lina Gálvez-Muñoz & Astrid Agenjo-Calderón, 2015. "The hidden role of women in family firms," Working Papers 15.01, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, revised Dec 2015.
    2. Ailsa McKay, 2001. "Rethinking Work and Income Maintenance Policy: Promoting Gender Equality Through a Citizens' Basic Income," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 97-118.
    3. Sarah-Louise Ruder & Sophia Rose Sanniti, 2019. "Transcending the Learned Ignorance of Predatory Ontologies: A Research Agenda for an Ecofeminist-Informed Ecological Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-29, March.
    4. Susan Donath, 2000. "The Other Economy: A Suggestion for a Distinctively Feminist Economics," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 115-123.
    5. David Brennan, 2006. "Defending The Indefensible? Culture'S Role In The Productive/Unproductive Dichotomy," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 403-425.
    6. Zdravka, Todorova, 2009. "Employer of Last Resort Policy and Feminist Economics: Social Provisioning and Socialization of Investment," MPRA Paper 16240, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. M. V. Lee BADGETT & Nancy FOLBRE, 1999. "Assigning care: Gender norms and economic outcomes," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 138(3), pages 311-326, September.
    8. Lourdes BENERÍA, 1999. "The enduring debate over unpaid labour," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 138(3), pages 287-309, September.
    9. Margaret Lewis & Kimmarie McGoldrick, 2001. "Moving Beyond the Masculine Neoclassical Classroom," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 91-103.
    10. Marina Sánchez, 2015. "De la reproducción económica a la sostenibilidad de la vida," Revista de Economía Crítica, Asociación de Economía Crítica, vol. 19, pages 58-76.
    11. Julie Vinck & Idunn Brekke, 2019. "Gender and education inequalities in parental employment when having a young child with increased care needs: Belgium and Norway compared," Working Papers 1904, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    12. Heger, Dörte & Korfhage, Thorben, 2017. "Does the negative effect of caregiving on work persist over time?," Ruhr Economic Papers 703, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    13. Julie A. Nelson, 2013. "Gender and caring," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 5, pages 62-76, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Gillian Hewitson, 2001. "A Survey of Feminist Economics," Working Papers 2001.01, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    15. Giménez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2020. "Should we cheer together? Gender differences in instantaneous well-being during joint and solo activities: An application to COVID-19 lockdowns," GLO Discussion Paper Series 736, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Ernst, Mareike & Brähler, Elmar & Klein, Eva M. & Jünger, Claus & Wild, Philipp S. & Faber, Jörg & Schneider, Astrid & Beutel, Manfred E., 2020. "What's past is prologue: Recalled parenting styles are associated with childhood cancer survivors' mental health outcomes more than 25 years after diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    17. repec:dgr:rugsom:96c01 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Siobhan Austen & Rachel Ong & Therese Jefferson & Rhonda Sharp & Gill Lewin, 2013. "Elder care and the employment intentions of mature age women," Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series WP1310, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School.
    19. Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz & Maria Stanfors, 2021. "The Great Convergence: Gender and Unpaid Work in Europe and the United States," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(1), pages 181-217, March.
    20. Nazier, Hanan & Ezzat, Asmaa, 2022. "Gender differences and time allocation: A comparative analysis of Egypt and Tunisia," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 174-193.
    21. Ursula Henz, 2019. "Fathers' involvement with their children in the United Kingdom: Recent trends and class differences," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(30), pages 865-896.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:16:y:2011:i:3:p:66-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.