CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Tayler, Sarah Esther |
|---|---|
| Title | Rejecting the Normative 3-Year Parental Leave: Motivations of Hungarian Mothers' Early Return to Work |
| Summary | In Hungary, the overwhelming majority of women take advantage of the full three-year term of job-guaranteed, state-subsidized parental leave. Although the possibility of taking a lengthy parental leave can be considered “woman-friendly”, in reality, it has a detrimental effect on women’s opportunities in the labor market, and even though recent policy changes seemingly encourage women to return to work earlier, the number of women returning before the third year is still very low. To contribute to the broader understanding of why more Hungarian women do not resume work earlier, this study presents a qualitative analysis of interviews with 16 middle-class mothers with secondary or higher education who did not take advantage of the full leave term, and explores the complex reasons for their early return. To justify women’s employment, financial pressures are often assumed to be a decisive factor. While half of the women in my study did cite money as an important motivator, more significantly almost all interviewees mentioned work enjoyment and the opportunity to engage with peer company as a significant benefit of their employment. This thesis argues that the reason for this is that the Hungarian social policy system provides a reasonable income-replacement for women who were previously employed, enabling a significant number of interviewees to choose employment because of its various positive effects on their own well-being. Some women, who did not experience financial pressures to work, described how earning a salary also contributed towards their well-being by enhancing their self-esteem. Although interviewees emphasized their own needs, they still positioned their children’s well-being as very important, while intricately linking it to their own needs as well. Most women conceptualized their children’s needs as remarkably similar to their own, stressing the benefits of peer company and mental stimulation provided by an institutional childcare setting. Women in this study rejected the psychological attachment theory discourses which posit full-time maternal care as central to children`s well-being. While they maintained the importance of a close mother-and-child bond, they dismissed the notion that this could only be achieved if they were continuously available to their child. Rather, some women conceptualized employment as helping them be better mothers through quality time together. |
| Supervisor | Éva, Fodor |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/tayler_sarah.pdf |
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