Abstract
This article seeks to learn how women perceive invisible work and how it affects their lives. This article contributes to the integration of different manifestations of invisible work into a conceptual whole, especially in light of the fact that most research has confined itself to only one aspect such as care work, housework, or volunteering. Nine group interviews were conducted with Israeli mothers from differing ethnic, religious, class, and age groups. Analysis reveals that the distinctions between aspects of invisible work, such as housework and care work and between activities belonging to the private and public spheres are much more blurred in women’s lives than might be inferred from the academic literature. Furthermore, throughout the life course of women the meanings and expressions of invisible work evolve creating a continuous struggle. In describing their everyday activities, women challenge the socially constructed binary oppositions in the context of the neoliberal economy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1525-1545 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Journal of Family Issues |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Sep 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to acknowledge our indebtedness to the interviewees who shared their thoughts and emotions and contributed extraordinary insights that allowed us to conduct this study. We would like to express our gratitude to Naomi Chazan, Hadass Ben Eliyahu, Ronna Brayer-Garb, Shimrit Slonim and Talya Pfeferman of Shavot, The Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere (WIPS) at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, for their invaluable collaboration in researching this project. We are also grateful to Donna Dalnekoff, our editor, for her important contribution. We wish to acknowledge the National Insurance Institute of Israel for its support of this study. Special appreciation is owed to Dr. Miri Endeweld, director of economic research, the National Insurance Institute of Israel. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by a research grant from the National Insurance Institute of Israel.
Funding Information:
Kaplan Amit 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9351-7284 Sabbah-Karkabi Maha 2 Herzog Hanna 3 1 Department of Government and Society, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College, Yaffo, Israel 2 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Shefamer, Israel 3 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Dr. Maha Sabbah-Karkabi, Department of Government and Society, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College, Yaffo and The Center for Family Study, Haifa University, Israel. Email: mahasab71@hotmail.com 12 2019 0192513X19894351 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 SAGE Publications This article seeks to learn how women perceive invisible work and how it affects their lives. This article contributes to the integration of different manifestations of invisible work into a conceptual whole, especially in light of the fact that most research has confined itself to only one aspect such as care work, housework, or volunteering. Nine group interviews were conducted with Israeli mothers from differing ethnic, religious, class, and age groups. Analysis reveals that the distinctions between aspects of invisible work, such as housework and care work and between activities belonging to the private and public spheres are much more blurred in women’s lives than might be inferred from the academic literature. Furthermore, throughout the life course of women the meanings and expressions of invisible work evolve creating a continuous struggle. In describing their everyday activities, women challenge the socially constructed binary oppositions in the context of the neoliberal economy. gender and family household labor qualitative work and family life course edited-state corrected-proof typesetter ts1 We would like to acknowledge our indebtedness to the interviewees who shared their thoughts and emotions and contributed extraordinary insights that allowed us to conduct this study. We would like to express our gratitude to Naomi Chazan, Hadass Ben Eliyahu, Ronna Brayer-Garb, Shimrit Slonim and Talya Pfeferman of Shavot, The Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere (WIPS) at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, for their invaluable collaboration in researching this project. We are also grateful to Donna Dalnekoff, our editor, for her important contribution. We wish to acknowledge the National Insurance Institute of Israel for its support of this study. Special appreciation is owed to Dr. Miri Endeweld, director of economic research, the National Insurance Institute of Israel. Authors’ Note Maha Sabbah-Karkabi is now affiliated with Department of Government and Society, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College, Yaffo and The Center for Family Study, Haifa University, Israel. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by a research grant from the National Insurance Institute of Israel. ORCID iD Maha Sabbah-Karkabi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9351-7284
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
Keywords
- gender and family
- household labor
- life course
- qualitative
- work and family
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)