Abstract

Care work at home becomes a barrier to the insertion of women in the paid work, especially when they have children under 6 years old, because they must reconcile motherhood with their job careers. This problem is exacerbated when women reside in rural areas and have limited access to formal care services. To aim this problem, the relationship between work and family was explored based on the perspective of women who had at least one infant child and were residents of rural areas in southern Chile. A qualitative study was conducted based on 16 interviews of 12 informants. The results described the time-based and strain-based conflicts, and the leisure postponement experienced by participants. The conclusions encourage the denaturalization of motherhood and promote rural development based on male co-responsibility in parenting and the strengthening of a public agenda of balance between work and family.