Making Sense of Parenthood
Caring, Gender and Family Lives

Traces and theorises the processes of caring, paid work and 'gatekeeping' as parents negotiate these intensified and gendered domains.

Tina Miller (Author)

9781107504288, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 August 2017

194 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.1 cm, 0.3 kg

'Can a primary caring responsibility be equally shared between mothers and fathers? This is the central question addressed by Miller in her engaging and perceptive study of sixteen middle-income, dual-earner families. A longer term follow up to her earlier research, in this volume, Miller traces how the responsibility for orchestrating the care of children falls to mothers, and how, over time, this pattern becomes etched into the very fabric of family life. It is a study that gets to the heart of gendered practices of parenthood.' Bren Neale, University of Leeds

Following on from Making Sense of Motherhood (2005) and Making Sense of Fatherhood (2010), Tina Miller's book focuses on transitions to first-time parenthood and the unfolding experiences of managing caring and paid work in modern family lives. Returning to her original participants, it collects later episodes of their experience of 'doing' family life, and meticulously examines mothers' and fathers' accounts of negotiating intensified parenting responsibilities and work-place demands. It explores questions of why gender equality and equity are harder to manage within the home sphere when organising caring and associated responsibilities, re-addressing the concept of 'maternal gatekeeping' and offering insights into a new concept of 'paternal gatekeeping'. The findings presented will inform both scholarly work and policy on family lives, gender equality and work.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Parenthoods: setting the contemporary context
2. Caring landscapes and gendered practices
3. Fathering, caring and work: parenting school aged children
4. Mothering: caring, work and teenage children
5. Parenting separately?: post-separation experiences
6. Unfolding relationships: taking a longer view of moral orientations, mental work and gender in family care and work
7. Conclusions and reflections
References.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology: family & relationships [JHBK], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Society & culture: general [JF]