Shortlisted for the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2019.


What’s it really like to be a mother with a career working flexibly?


Drawing on over 100 hours of interview data, this book is the first to go inside women’s work and family lives in a year of working flexibly.


The private labours of going part-time, job sharing, and home working are brought to life with vivid personal stories.


Taking a sociological and feminist perspective, it explores contemporary motherhood, work-life balance, emotional work in families, couples and housework, maternity transitions, interactions with employers, work design and workplace cultures, and employment policies.


It concludes that there is an opportunity to make employment and family life work better together and offers unique insights from women’s lived experiences on how to do it.