Double Burden, Unequal Ground : Childcare Challenges and Work-Family Conflict for Low-Income Mothers in Urban Burkina Faso

The overlapping challenges of limited economic opportunities, maternal responsibilities, and almost no access to childcare services have detrimental effects on the wellbeing of women and children in Sub- Saharan Africa. In urban areas, shifting family structures and economic constraints, combined with gender norms that cast women as primary caregivers, leave many mothers simultaneously managing childcare and work, often in unsafe environments. The findings from this ethnographic study in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, illustrate the physical and emotional tolls that arise for women and children in low-income households when mothers lack access to reliable childcare, leading them to work under conditions of constant caregiving demand. While home-based work is a common coping strategy, it rarely eases maternal burden or ensures child safety. The consequences of work-family conflict are exacerbated by the dangers linked with poor quality infrastructure in low-income neighborhoods, by the physical burdens associated with available forms of work predominantly in the informal economy, and by the stresses induced by perpetual negotiations and compromises that affect caregivers’ ability to meet subsistence needs. This study prompts critical reflection on how to value investments in childcare programs by underscoring why group-based childcare may yield disproportionate benefits for low- income families—and conversely, why these families incur especially high costs in its absence.