How does being a single parent affect how and why you work?

We all know that single parents are likely to face more challenges balancing childcare responsibilities as they don’t have a partner to share the load, but what does the data show?

We analysed our annual workingmums.co.uk survey of over 2,000 mums to compare the answers of single mums and those with partners.

We found that childcare availability affects the hours single parents can work much more than those with partners. Over 60% of single parents said childcare issues affected the hours they could work, compared with 39% of other parents.

Single parents were also more likely to say their career progression had been affected after having children – 30.4% said this, compared to 26.3% of parents with partners. Single parents were also more likely to be looking to change sectors – 34.9% said this compared with 24.8% of parents with partners.

Single parents were less happy with their hybrid working patterns than those in couples  – 55.5% were unhappy compared to 40.4% of those with partners. Single parents were more likely to work from home than those with partners – 26.5% of single parents work full time from home, compared to 21.3% of those with partners and 32.5% of single parents work part time from home, compared to 14.5% of those with partners.

Shalin Maina, a University of Kent student of quantitative sociology, conducted the research. She said: “Overall, single individuals tend to bear a heavier burden in terms of childcare responsibilities and face more challenges in balancing work and family life compared to those with partners or spouses. They are also more likely to seek career changes and report dissatisfaction with their current flexible working arrangements.”

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