The everyday world of single mother nurses : a rejection of the public/private dichotomy
Date
1993
Authors
Harrison, Donna Lee
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Abstract
The constructs public and private, used in our academic and everyday speech to describe our world, have not been exposed to much rigorous critique. In this thesis, which explores the everyday world of single mother nurses, these constructs are examined and found to be wanting as adequate descriptors for the nurses' experience.
While the private sphere has historically been a place for the reproduction of people both on a generational and a daily basis, and a site for leisure and respite away from the constraints of capital for the working class, it is argued that the division of labour under capitalism has curtailed the experience of the private sphere as a place of respite for women. For the nurses interviewed in this study, it is demonstrated how their situation as single mothers working the 12-hour rotating shift and performing caring labour both on and off the job intensifies their oppression, creating for them a situation wherein they struggle to create a personal space necessary for their peace of mind and well being. They struggle to create for themselves the "private".