‘I’m so much more myself now, coming back to work’ - working class mothers, paid work and childcare.

- so I ain’t done too bad! (Moira, two children, white UK, lone mother, ft care
coordinator)

However, none of the mothers talked about their work in terms of a career. Quite a
few of the women described frequent job changes and switching between private and
public sector employment. Interviewees located themselves broadly as someone in
the labour force, rather than identified with a particular skill or sector. Whilst some of
the interviewees talked to us about their career aspirations, they often lacked a clear
conception of how they may achieve these and/or did not have the necessary
education qualifications, nor the space in their lives to study for them.

This is markedly different from the middle class study (Vincent & Ball 2006), which
featured mothers who were very highly educated and had their first children in their
30s when they were often well established in professional positions of responsibility
and some way down a planned and specific career path. Some of the middle class
mothers expressed anxiety upon returning to work because of their perceived failure
to live in two worlds, that of motherhood and that of the successful professional with
concomitant demands of out-of-hours work and socialising. The working class
mothers did not voice such anxieties and the social connections work afforded were
highly valued, with colleagues and work relations held in particular regard:

I was looking forward to go[ing] back to work [] being back in the workforce
and meeting people every day and, you know, different challenges every day.
(Diana, three children, black Caribbean, lone mother, pt post office worker)

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