是養家者，也是照顧者－
論女性單親家長如何兼顧工作與家庭之經驗

本文主要以女性單親家長的經驗述說，重新建構單親家庭的樣貌，並且探討其中工作與家庭之如何兼顧。在女性單親家庭裡，女性無可避免地獨自一人身兼工作賺錢與照顧孩子等雙重負擔，如何兼顧兩者實屬不易。本文以女性單親家長的深度訪談為資料，探討婚姻關係的轉換如何影響女性單親家長的工作歷程，而且在擁有非正式支持系統的情況，她們如何應用婆家或娘家等親屬網絡的協助進行照顧工作；另一方面，在缺少非正式支持系統的情況，她們如何採取不同的因應策略。本文主要探討女性單親家長身處工作與家庭的雙重負擔，她們如何兼顧兩者的經驗。在非正式支持系統，兩者的差別在於，對於喪偶的女性單親家長來說，她們較可能獲得來自婆家的協助；娘家對於不論是喪偶或離婚的女兒，並不希望她們回到娘家生活，也或者僅能提供生活物質或情緒支持來協助她們。對於女性單親家長來說，非正式支持系統通常只是暫時協助，且並非所有女性單親家長都能獲得其協助，多數照顧工作還是落在她們的身上。在缺少非正式支持系統的情況，女性單親家長對於工作與家庭的優先次序不同，因而採取不同的因應策略，不論是因工作形態而形塑她們如何安排照顧工作、著重照顧工作而影響其工作選擇，或者是利用有酬工作結合托育照顧等方式，這些是女性單親家長的多元化因應策略。整體而言，由女性單親家長所處的脈絡及其經驗而理解她們如何讓工作與家庭得以兼顧，深入探究女性單親家長身處工作與家庭之間的雙重負擔，並且看見女性單親家長的能動性。

關鍵字

女性；單親；工作與家庭；支持系統；因應策略

並列摘要

This research tends to reconstruct the picture of single-parenting family through experience narratives of single mothers and discusses the way they reconcile work with family. In the families with single mothers, they inevitably suffer from a dual burden of employment and childcare. And it is difficult for them to give careful and equal consideration to both sides. My research materials are collected through deep interviews with single mothers. In the article, there are several issues discussed. First, how does the change in marriage status influence the working lives of these single mothers? Besides that, under the operation of the informal support system, how do they use the kinship networks of the family of their (former) husbands and their natal family? If not, what else coping strategies do they take? My research is mainly about the experiences of the way they maintain the work-family balance as single mothers. Within the informal support system, there is a difference between these two kinds of kinship networks. For those single mothers bereaved of their husbands, they can be more possibly provided help from the family of their bereaved ones. In comparison, their natal family doesn’t want them to come back no matter how they lost their marriages. If there’s some help provided, it can merely be some living necessities or emotional support. For single mothers, the informal supporting system is usually temporary and not all of them can reach it. Most of caring work should be in charged of by themselves. While lacking the informal support system, single mothers have different priority lists of work and family and take various coping strategies. Some arrange their caring work according to their paid employment, some put more weight on caring work which may affect the choosing of jobs, and the others make a combination of paid jobs and childcare. These are multiple coping strategies used by single mothers. All in all, we need to understand the way single mothers keep balance between work and family in the context of their living situation. This research discusses in details the dual burden of single mothers carry and observes their agency.