The impact of childcare on a parent’s career

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how professional dual-working parents working in parastatal companies try to continue progressing in their career when having children, the difficulties they encounter while trying to achieve a work-life balance and factors which may effect and hider this balance. Ten interviews were conducted amongst professional dual-working parents. This study addressed whose career is affected when having children. The main result of this study shows that parents try to achieve a work-life balance with the help of grandparents and childcare facilities. Although men are being involved in childcare and house work, women still carry the major responsibility of unpaid work even though both parents work the equal amount of hours. The most important recommendations derived from this study are that fathers need to participate more in family life, women should be given the same job opportunities as men in their career, women should not only been seen as the sole care givers, parental leave and career breaks should become partially or fully paid and family-friendly measures when available they must also been used by males.