Working Women in the Sandwich Generation: Theories, Tools and Recommendations for Supporting Women’’s Working Lives

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.
Women more often than men take care of their ageing relatives together with their own children or grandchildren. These Sandwich Generation (SG) women constitute an expanding vulnerable group on the labour market at higher risk of discrimination, work-family conflict, burnout, and withdrawal from the labour market and unemployment. Working Women in the Sandwich Generation helps present a clearer view of how to support this group both now and in the future.

Beginning with a presentation of quantitative and qualitative research that sheds light on the SG situation in Poland, Finland and Flanders, this volume provides insights into various components from the SG life domains such as personal development and learning, connection to the labour market, coping strategies, resources, and energy drainers. In the second part the book provides tools for SG women, their supervisors, educators, and coaches to help manage challenging situations and improving wellbeing at work. Working Women in the Sandwich Generation then introduces the results of international comparative research the purpose of which was to identify and characterise the SG in five European countries before concluding with recommendations for supervisors and policy makers in supporting SG women.

Mervi Rajahonka, PhD in Economics, works as RDI Specialist in the field of Digital Economy in South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland.

Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha is PhD in Economics, and Professor at Wroclaw University of Economics and Business in the Department of Logistics, Poland.

Miet Timmers is MA in History and MS in Population and Development and works as Lecturer and Researcher at Odisee University of Applied Sciences in Brussels, Belgium.

Urszula Zaluska is PhD in Economics, and Assistant professor in the Department of Logistics at Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland.

Kaija Villman is MMus in Arts Management, and Project Manager in the field of Digital Economy in South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland.

Veerle Lengeler is ’Sandwich Coach’ at Emino, Belgium, providing career counselling to employees from the Sandwich Generation.

Tim Gielens is senior researcher in sustainable HR within the research center Sustainable Entrepreneurship (CenSE) at Odisee, Belgium, and also a guest professor in HRM.