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From Professionals to Professional Mothers: How College-educated Married Mothers Experience Unemployment in the US

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  • Aliya Hamid Rao

Abstract

Unemployment influences life experiences and outcomes, but how it does so may be shaped by gender and parenthood. Because research on unemployment focuses on men’s experiences of unemployment, it presents as universal a process that may be gendered. This article asks: how do college-educated, heterosexual, married mothers experience involuntary unemployment? Drawing on in-depth interviews with unemployed mothers in the US, their husbands, and follow-up interviews, this article finds that the experience of job loss is tempered for mothers as they derive a culturally valued identity from motherhood which also anchors their lives. Husbands’ support emphasises that employment is one of several options mothers can pursue. Couples pivot attention to husbands’ careers as they worry about finances, often resulting in marital tensions. Using mothers’ unemployment as a case, this study demonstrates that unemployment has more divergent implications depending on gender and parenthood than prior theories suggest.

Suggested Citation

  • Aliya Hamid Rao, 2020. "From Professionals to Professional Mothers: How College-educated Married Mothers Experience Unemployment in the US," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(2), pages 299-316, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:2:p:299-316
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017019887334
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Henry S. Farber, 2015. "Job Loss in the Great Recession and its Aftermath: U.S. Evidence from the Displaced Workers Survey," NBER Working Papers 21216, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Henry S. Farber, 2015. "Job Loss in the Great Recession and its Aftermath: U.S. Evidence from the Displaced Workers Survey," Working Papers 589, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    3. Karon Gush & James Scott & Heather Laurie, 2015. "Households’ responses to spousal job loss: ‘all change’ or ‘carry on as usual’?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 29(5), pages 703-719, October.
    4. Jahoda,Marie, 1982. "Employment and Unemployment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521285865, November.
    5. Farber, Henry S, 2015. "Job Loss in the Great Recession and its Aftermath: U.S. Evidence from the Displaced Workers Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 9069, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    Cited by:

    1. Rao, Aliya Hamid, 2021. "Experiences of white-collar job loss and job-searching in the United States," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112455, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Laura Langner, 2022. "Desperate Housewives and Happy Working Mothers: Are Parent-Couples with Equal Income More Satisfied throughout Parenthood? A Dyadic Longitudinal Study," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(1), pages 80-100, February.
    3. Young-sook Kim, 2023. "A Study on the Effects of Gendered Social Norms on the Tradeoff Between Paid and Unpaid Work in Korea," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 870-882, December.

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