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Part-Time Employment among Women with Preschool Children: Organisational Cultures, Personal Careers and Sense of Entitlement

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Abstract

Part-time employment is popular among women with small children in the UK. Currently, one in every four employees works part-time and the vast majority (82%) of them are women (Summerfield and Babb, 2003). Between 1991 and 2001 the number of women in part-time employment increased by 13 per cent and in 2001 almost one in every three women with children under five years old were working part-time (Matheson and Babb, 2002; Twomey, 2002). Despite its popularity, part-time employment has been described as a ‘trap which lowers women’s lifetime employment prospects and earnings’ (Tam, 1997: 243).

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© 2005 Maria Sigala

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Sigala, M. (2005). Part-Time Employment among Women with Preschool Children: Organisational Cultures, Personal Careers and Sense of Entitlement. In: Work-Life Balance in the 21st Century. The Future of Work Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373594_6

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