Unequal but balanced: Highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work–life balance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Finland and the Netherlands

One year after the European work–life balance directive, which recognises the need for work–family policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parents’ work–life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of European social policy 2022-10, Vol.32 (4), p.376-392
Main Authors: Yerkes, Mara A., Remery, Chantal, André, Stéfanie, Salin, Milla, Hakovirta, Mia, van Gerven, Minna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Comparative analysis
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Family policy
Family work relationship
Pandemics
Perceptions
Shelter in place
Time
Work
Work life balance
Working hours
Working mothers
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Summary:One year after the European work–life balance directive, which recognises the need for work–family policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began shaping parents’ work–life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretical frameworks hold in this new environment with combined old and new policy frameworks. We are also challenged to understand the nuanced ways in which the first lockdown affects the combination of paid work and care. We address both of these issues, providing a cross-sectional comparative analysis of highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work–life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland and the Netherlands. Our findings show that highly educated Finnish mothers have more difficulty combining work and care during the first lockdown than Dutch mothers. The absence of state-provided care during the lockdown creates greater difficulty for full-time working Finnish mothers in a dual-earner/state-carer system than an absence of such care in the Dutch one-and-a-half earner system, where most mothers work part time. Further analyses suggest variation in part-time and (nearly) full-time hours mitigates the work–life balance experiences of highly educated Dutch mothers. Additional factors explaining cross-country variation or similarities include the presence of young children and the presence of a partner. We discuss these findings in light of current theoretical frameworks and highlight avenues for future research.
ISSN:0958-9287
1461-7269
DOI:10.1177/09589287221080411