新世代臺灣母親的處境與挑戰：就業母親在照顧與工作之間的文化矛盾

The Situation and the Challenges of New-Generation Mothers in Taiwan: The Cultural Contradiction of Employed Mothers as Caregiver and Worker

女性參與勞動市場的趨勢，讓「母親」這個社會角色出現很大的轉變。女人工作後，女人作為母親不再只是「孩子照顧者」，她同時也是「工作者」。從相關文獻的回顧，本文發現當代資本主義社會對於「母親作為照顧者」以及「工作者」均設有一套規範性標準。這兩套規範性標準本質上相互矛盾。過去透過家庭內部的性別分工作安排，這兩套截然對立的規範性標準被巧妙地「分隔」在兩個空間與不同性別的個體身上。女人去工作後，這樣的「分隔」被瓦解了：每個同時具工作者與母親身分的女人都得面對兩套規範性標準所構成的「文化矛盾」困境。本文透過13位就業母親的深度訪談，試圖就「微視」層面去探究女人在文化矛盾困境底下的母職經驗。從訪談文本中，我發現對女人而言，「作母親」這回事並不僅止於回應孩子基本生存需要，它也在養成「理想的人」。但社會的變遷的確改變了女人「做母親」的樣態。首先，「專家知識」取代「重要他人」，成為新世代母親學習母職最重要的取徑。其次，年輕一輩的母親不僅自己期許繼續保有「工作者」的身分，整個社會也期待她們去工作。不過女人並沒有因為工作就降低對「母親作為孩子照顧者」的標準。為了逃離文化矛盾困境，許多女人試著採取一種不同於男人對「理想工作者」標準來投入工作：工作不能阻礙她們實現「母親作孩子照顧者」的理想。結語將聚焦在文化矛盾可能的出路。

The trend of female labor market participation has contributed the transformation of the social role of “motherhood”. After taking the jobs, women as mothers are not only the “caregiver of children”, but also the “workers”. Based on the review of the relevant literatures, it was found that contemporary capitalism had assumed particular normative standards both for the “mothers as caregivers” and for “the workers”. Such two normative standards contradict essentially with each other. However, under the traditional gender division of labor with families, the two opposite normative standards had been “segregated and divided” into two spheres and different genders. But after women went to work, the “segregation and division” was dismantled: each woman who had both identity of worker and mother was forced to confront the “cultural contradiction” between the above two normative standards. Based on the in-depth interview of 13 employed mothers, this article aimed to explore the mothering experience of the women situated in the “cultural contradiction”. According to the text, I discovered that for women, “being someone’s mother” was not just to respond the basic subsistence needs of children, it also include the nurture of the “ ideal citizen”. The social change had transformed how women “did someone’s mother”. First, the “expert knowledge”, which replaced the “significant others”, became the most important mothering-learning approach of new generation mothers. Secondly, young cohort mothers expected themselves maintain the identity of “worker”, and the whole society also expected them to stay in the labor market. But women never diminished their own standards for “motherhood as children’s caregivers”. In order to escape from the cultural contradiction, when they work, many women attempted to take alternative standard to participate the labor market, which differed greatly from the men’s norm for “ideal worker”: their ideal for “motherhood as children’s caregiver” shouldn’t be impeded by the paid jobs. In the concluding remarks, I tried to consider the alternative solutions for “cultural contradiction”.