Book review: Mothers’ Employment and Childcare Use in Britain. By G.PAULL and J. TAYLOR with A. DUNCAN

This book aims to provide a comprehensive picture of mothers’ employment andchildcare use in Britain in order to highlight recent developments and to inform thepolicy debate. The 1990s saw a shift in the research agenda in that the family came to theforefront, especially the relationship of families to the labour market. In the UK,stimulated by the policy agenda of New Labour with its recognition of the need topromote family-friendly policies and extend childcare provision, recent research hasbeen concerned to investigate the stress imposed on family life by intensified workloads,long and unsocial hours and the difficulties of parenting in the context of a lack ofchildcare and elderly care. This book seeks to extend previous studies by emphasizingthe connection between employment and childcare use, and it succeeds in its aimauthoritatively.