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Working mothers, injury and embodied care work
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Maher , JaneMaree, Wolkowitz, Carol and Charles, Nickie (2018) Working mothers, injury and embodied care work. Gender, Work, and Organization . doi:10.1111/gwao12270 ISSN 0968-6673 .
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12270
Abstract
In this article, we examine how mothers respond when injury interrupts maternal care, using the lens of embodied care, which we conceptualize as a form of ‘body work’. We draw on findings from a qualitative research project with two organizations in Australia that help people with injuries to return to work, examining the experiences of workers who are also mothers of dependent children. Mothers' inability to care for children during periods of injury was a significant concern for our interviewees; constraints on physical labour and physical affection were particularly troubling, indicating the importance of embodied maternal caregiving to maternal roles. Yet, while these mothers inhabited the spheres of paid work and unpaid care work simultaneously, service providers did not consider embodied care work or its relevance to injured women's ongoing needs for support. While our findings reflect the experiences of injured women, they also suggest the need for a materialist analysis of the ways that both paid work and care activities are deeply enmeshed in and through the bodies of those doing the work. Employers and service organizations still fail to recognize maternal ‘body work’, and this may be typical of social attitudes more widely.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology > Centre for the Study of Women and Gender | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Working mothers , Mothers -- Home care, Maternal and infant welfare, Mothers -- Employment, Mothers -- Wounds and injuries , Continuum of care | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Gender, Work, and Organization | ||||||
Publisher: | Wiley Blackwell | ||||||
ISSN: | 0968-6673 | ||||||
Official Date: | 25 July 2018 | ||||||
Dates: |
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DOI: | 10.1111/gwao12270 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | "This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Maher, JM, Charles, N, Wolkowitz, C. Working mothers, injury and embodied care work. Gender Work Organ. 2018; 1– 18. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12270, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12270. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions." | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Copyright Holders: | Jane-Maree Maher, Nickie Charles, Carol Wolkowitz | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 17 June 2019 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 25 July 2020 | ||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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