Nanny Families

Eldén, Sara; Anving, Terese

doi:10.2307/j.ctvm7bbst

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“… 10. In fact, as we argue elsewhere (Eldén and Anving, 2019), emotional activities and engagements are implicitly expected by the parents too, when describing the practices and characteristics of ‘good’ nannies/au pairs. …”

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confidence: 72%

“…As care is in a fundamental way building and sustaining relationships (Mason, 1996), the delegation of the – thought to be – menial care can be assumed to affect the relationships between parents and children. There are reasons to critically examine what this ideal of parenting will lead to, when everyday mundane care activities and conflicts are diminished and are being replaced by ideals of parenting as something that is best enacted in ‘good times’, as we argue elsewhere (Eldén and Anving, 2019). In addition, as we will show shortly, the actual care situations that children find themselves in, but now together with nannies and au pairs, still entail elements of stress and conflict.…”

Section: Gender Equality and Good Parenting: New Classed Ways Of Doinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While wives and mothers at least in some instances can gain a certain ‘status’ through their enterprise of sustaining the family, nannies and au pairs are always dependent on the family’s will to include them as ‘part-of-family’, and this position is – at least in the cases in our study – always temporary. In addition, the vulnerable structural position of nannies and au pairs identified by other scholars, related to migration/ethnicity and social class (Anderson, 2000; Bikova, 2017; Búriková and Miller, 2010; Macdonald, 2010; Stenum, 2010; Williams, 2012), makes the possibilities of drawing attention to the actual demanding emotional activities in the care situation even more unlikely (Eldén and Anving, 2019).…”

Section: Invisible Care: Nannies Au Pairs and Children Doing (The Trmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 3. Within the research project as a whole, we also interviewed institutional actors and authorities involved in and setting frameworks for nanny and au pair care, see Eldén and Anving (2019). …”

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confidence: 99%

“… 4. The project has been approved by the Ethics review board (Dnr 2014/94) and follows the ethical guidelines of The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet (VR), 2017). For a discussion of the specific ethical considerations in family case studies (Gabb, 2010), see Eldén and Anving, 2019. …”

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confidence: 99%

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Nanny care in Sweden: The inequalities of everyday doings of care

Eldén¹,

Anving

2019

Journal of European Social Policy

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In this article, we analyse practice of care and family in families who employ nannies and au pairs. Taking our point of departure in the narratives of all the participating actors – nannies/au pairs (n = 26), parents (n = 29) and children receiving care (n = 19) – we show how this ‘doing of family’ is reproducing inequalities between families: the new local care loops enable a possibility for some – well-off – parents to realize the (highly valued) ideals of gender equality and ‘good and stress-free parenting’. We also show how this reproduces inequalities within families. The narratives of everyday care situations told by nannies, au pairs and children entail evidence of invisible and complex ‘sentient’ care activities that diverge remarkably from the explicit characterizing of the work as easy and independent. This discrepancy makes nanny/au pair work into precarious gendered care doings, similar to the care performed in families traditionally, by wives and mothers, but now obscured by the nanny/au pairs’ subordinate status. In conclusion, classed, gendered and ethnic inequalities are characterizing the new ‘local care loops’ being encouraged and enabled in Sweden. The driving forces are to be found on a macro level, in processes of globalization and in political and policy changes, but the consequences are detectable in everyday interactions in the micro-settings of the home.

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confidence: 72%

Section: Gender Equality and Good Parenting: New Classed Ways Of Doinmentioning

confidence: 99%