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

Orthodox Jewish women we interviewed in Stoke Newington, for example, were all
working part-time (see also Blumen, 2002). Part-time work allowed for the moral
obligation to prioritise the perceived needs of the children and for maintaining an
identity of women as mothers and as at the centre of all family life, managing the
household, and present when children return from school:

I always said I would never go out to work if it means I can’t fetch my
children, if I can’t be there for them, so whatever I’m doing in a day stops at
3.30pm full stop, even the housework, washing, everything stops at 3.30 until
8.30. I fetch them, give them supper, do homework, put them to bed, tidy up
and then I can do what I want again. It’s their hours, they deserve it. (Leah,
four children, white UK, married, pt family support worker)

We also interviewed a number of Muslim women from a South Asian background
(although mainly born in Britain) who were living within a small, well-defined area in
one of our case study localities. The women were all married, largely young and with
very young children. They were at home with their children and often lived in
extended families. In the interviews, they emphasised the primacy of their role as
mothers and in running a home and stressed the continuity of traditional family
values:

And the children do learn a lot from their mothers, yeah, so I think it is really
important to have.. .to be at home with the children. (Saher, one child, Asian
Indian, married, at home)

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