abstract: 'The article asks whether daycare can alleviate work-family tensions in

  the dual-earner society or if perceptions of `care gaps'' will hamper

  women''s careers. Using survey data from Swedish parents with pre-school

  children (n approximate to 2250) and qualitative interviews of survey

  respondents (n = 40), we explore how children''s daycare hours and

  parents'' reflections on daycare hours are related to mothers'' and

  fathers'' involvement in paid and unpaid work and to their perceptions of

  stress. The results show that parents have a strong ambition to limit

  daycare hours. This ambition provides a stressful dilemma for mothers

  but for fathers, daycare is not a source of stress. Maternal part-time

  work is an important tool for managing daycare hours, but collides with

  ideals of gender equality. Full-time work can be combined with short

  daycare hours, provided that the parents take shifts in the home and

  share care responsibilities. Sharing of care work also reduces mothers''

  stress. However, such arrangements require flexible schedules which are

  more available to parents in high-skill jobs. Single parents have little

  opportunity to keep daycare hours short.'
affiliation: 'Gronlund, A (Corresponding Author), Umea Univ, Dept Social Work, Umea,
  Sweden.

  Gronlund, Anne, Umea Univ, Dept Social Work, Umea, Sweden.

  Oun, Ida, Umea Univ, Dept Sociol, Umea, Sweden.'
author: Gronlund, Anne and Oun, Ida
author-email: anne.gronlund@umu.se
author_list:
- family: Gronlund
  given: Anne
- family: Oun
  given: Ida
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1007/s11205-020-02366-z
earlyaccessdate: MAY 2020
eissn: 1573-0921
files: []
issn: 0303-8300
journal: SOCIAL INDICATORS RESEARCH
keywords: 'Daycare; Gender; Part-time; Parenthood; Family policy; Flexible

  schedules'
keywords-plus: 'CONFLICT; POLICY; FATHERS; OPPORTUNITIES; INEQUALITY; MOTHERS; SWEDEN;

  MODEL; LABOR'
language: English
month: AUG
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '49'
orcid-numbers: 'Gronlund, Anne/0000-0002-7680-334X

  Oun, Ida/0000-0002-8414-8381'
pages: 259-280
papis_id: 30d817ea22d9e00b581c82c917e03c36
ref: Gronlund2020mindingcare
times-cited: '3'
title: 'Minding the Care Gap: Daycare Usage and the Negotiation of Work, Family and
  Gender Among Swedish Parents'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000535209900002
usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
usage-count-since-2013: '11'
volume: '151'
web-of-science-categories: Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary; Sociology
year: '2020'