eprintid: 10141847
rev_number: 12
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/10/14/18/47
datestamp: 2022-01-13 15:11:40
lastmod: 2022-01-13 15:11:40
status_changed: 2022-01-13 15:11:40
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Bravo-Moreno, A
title: The Intersection of Reproductive, Work-Life Balance and Early-Education and Care Policies: ‘Solo’ Mothers by Choice in the UK and Spain
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B16
divisions: B14
divisions: J81
keywords: Public policies; assisted reproductive policies; work-life balance policies; early-education and care policies; UK and Spain; ethnography; solo-mothers-by-choice families
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abstract: This article focuses on women who have opted to be mothers on their own by choice in the UK and Spain, and how their access to assisted reproductive technologies in the National Health Service was affected because they were 35 years old or older, forcing them to go to private clinics for their treatment. Having given birth to their children, the participants face a second obstacle: the lack of policies that support work-life balance. A third obstacle also arises, in the form of a lack of childcare and early-education provision, particularly in the UK. The last two obstacles affect the whole population, but they are intensified in the case of solo-mother-families where the mother is responsible for simultaneously being the caregiver and the sole economic provider. Solo motherhood by choice highlights the impact of the absence of these policies, and the inequalities that result from current contemporary conceptualizations of family, woman and early-childhood-care and education. This article draws on ethnographic research that took place in the UK and Spain where I conducted 60 in-depth interviews and participant observations. The aim is to provide an analysis capable of capturing and confronting how inequalities affect women-mothers-workers and their children.
date: 2021-11-29
date_type: published
official_url: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10120458
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1888669
doi: 10.3390/socsci10120458
lyricists_name: Bravo-Moreno, Ana
lyricists_id: AMBRA09
actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette
actors_id: BFFLY94
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Social Sciences
volume: 10
article_number: 458
citation:        Bravo-Moreno, A;      (2021)    The Intersection of Reproductive, Work-Life Balance and Early-Education and Care Policies: ‘Solo’ Mothers by Choice in the UK and Spain.                   Social Sciences , 10     , Article 458.  10.3390/socsci10120458 <https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10120458>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10141847/1/socsci-10-00458-v3.pdf