transitions in the south waikato labour market: an ethnographic study

4. UNPAID WORKThe nature of this study and the use of transitions as the unit of analysis havedeliberately ensured that work is considered in its broadest sense. Adopting such aview of work allows this analysis to move beyond just looking at paid activities. Thishas already been apparent in the preceding discussions around education and welfare.We now turn to the area of unpaid work, which has been broken into two generalareas: voluntary work and unpaid domestic work.(i)Unpaid Domestic WorkThe focus of this section is on work for which people received no paid income andwhich occurred in the private sphere, predominantly in the person’s own home. Whilstmost people perform some unpaid activities in a household, the interest here is onpeople who clearly identified a primary or significant role involving unpaid work.Also considered is the relationship of this to people’s association with, and movementinto and out of, paid work. This allows shifts between paid and unpaid work, as wellas how people managed various combinations of both, to be examined. Just over halfof the 23 people who were profiled reported that unpaid work played a significant partin their pattern of working for some time during the 10 year study period. They mayhave been involved solely in this, or it could have been done in conjunction with paidwork or other unpaid activities, such as voluntary work or education and training.Care of children and the household were the primary areas of domestic work reportedby those interviewed. This was organised along very traditional lines with all thewomen who were interviewed reporting a primary and significant role in this area.Only one man described taking on principle responsibilities of this nature. His wifehad willingly relinquished this role and returned to full-time work and the swapappeared to have been made by choice and fitted with other lifestyle and work changeshe was making. Having been a school teacher for many years and become increasinglydisillusioned, this man was looking for alternative employment, preferably running hisown business. Through family the couple were able to purchase some land and set upa commercial fruit and vegetable growing business. Initially, he continued to teachpart-time and his wife helped out whilst looking after the young children. Graduallythe business required more input and so the husband decided to give up his teachingcompletely. This coincided with his wife becoming interested in returning to paidwork having completed her real estate agent examinations. Consequently, he devotedhimself full-time to the business and took on primary responsibility for caring for thechildren.[In] 1987 our youngest there was 12, 18 months old and [my wife] didn’tneed to be there for him the whole time. He’d sleep in the afternoons andallow me to work. I could look after him.Over time, he was able to more easily combine roles.I was here and the house and the shop we had were only 20 metres apartand so the kids were playing inside or outside on the swings, or riding theirbikes. Like there was plenty of room for them to do all those things. I wasright there and so I could run a business basically and keep an eye on them.24