Manufacturing motherhood : The shadow work of nannies and au pairs

This paper explores how working mothers and paid child care providers interpret the division of mothering labor in the context of in-home care. The nannies, au pairs, and working mothers interviewed for this study make sense of their shared "mother-work" in the context of a dominant belief system that values "intensive mothering." Consequently, in addition to negotiating the allocation of mothering tasks, they must also negotiate the meanings assigned to these tasks: specifically, they manufacture an image of shared mothering that contradicts their day-to-day practice. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]