La travail, l'argent et l'amour : les arrangements de couples de parents québécois à revenus modestes

This doctoral dissertation is centred on the arrangements of couples of low-income Québec heterosexual parents by focusing on the practices and meanings put forward in the stories of those interviewed. Its main purpose is to identify couples’ arrangements with regard to the division of labour and money management and, more specifically, to 1) describe these arrangements, 2) identify the articulation between the division of labour and financial management between spouses, and 3) identify gaps and convergences between the practices and the meanings of these arrangements in the narrative of the participants. Based on the analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with an inductive and comprehensive perspective with 17 women and 13 men, we bring to light the entanglement between the sexual division of labor, the social meaning of money and the semantics of contemporary conjugality to grasp the complexity of the arrangements described. Our analysis shows that women's occupational trajectories are very marked by motherhood, unlike those of men for whom factors outside the family explain the changes. The use of parental leave as well as childcare arrangements show the limits imposed by both working and remuneration conditions as well as occupational segregation by gender. In addition, the division of domestic work among the couples met reflects the maintenance of the sexual division of labour. Our analysis also shows that couples' financial arrangements can be described from the logic of management methods (pooling income or sharing expenses), but that money management dimensions also need to be addressed. By observing the property of money, access to money, control of money and moneywork, we can take full measure of the complexity of the financial arrangements. Closely linked, these four dimensions reflect the importance of the social relations of the sexes within couples. Whether it is in the way of perceiving one's income, the links that are still maintained between maternity and the expected dedication towards the children and the types of expenses made, or the continuity between the responsibility of domestic work and moneywork in couples where money is limited, etc., the sexual division of labour strongly imbues the meaning of money as well as the financial arrangements observed within couples. Finally, both the set up of the couples’ arrangements studied and the satisfaction of the participants reflect the logic of the sexual division of labour, the social meaning of money and the rules of the semantics of contemporary conjugality (fiction duration, continuous investment in the relationship, communication, altruism or disinterest, delayed reciprocity and trust). Contrary to popular belief that men and women in heterosexual couples, as independent and equal individuals, negotiate their arrangements, we affirm, on the one hand, that they do not have as much “choice,” and that, on the other hand, communication is not the means by which arrangements are put in place.

Keyphrases: Québec, Amour, Parents, Heterosexual couples, Couples' arrangements, Sexual division of labour, Money management, Family-work relationship, Low income, Love