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Gender & Society, Vol. 10, No. 3, 291-311 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/089124396010003006

CUSTODIAL CARE, SURROGATE CARE, AND COORDINATED CARE

Employed Mothers and the Meaning of Child Care

LYNET UTTAL

Center for Research on Women, The University of Memphis

This study analyzes the meaning employed mothers give to having others take care of their children. In-depth interviews with 31 employed mothers of preschoolers, toddlers, and infants revealed three interpretations of child care: custodial care, surrogate care, and coordinated care. These meanings mediated the tension between the dominant cultural construction of motherhood and the reality of their lives as both mothers and wage earners. Their perceptions of child care were constructed in accordance with how they defined the relationship between "child rearing" and "child care," the degree to which they acknowledged their child care providers' care of their children, and definitions of their own mothering. These microideologies of child care demonstrate that mothers are contesting the assumptions of the dominant cultural ideology of motherhood and are rethinking child care as a socialized activity.


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