Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Work Role-Motherhood Role Constructions & Conflicts in Workplace Interactions


Affiliations
1 IIM Kashipur, Kundeshwari, 244713, India
2 XLRI School of Management, P.Box 222, Circuit House Area (East), Jamshedpur 831001, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


Professional working women face workplace conflicts out of the combined effect of social expectations, pressures and career role aspirations. This study focuses on a particular stage in women’s career continuity – entry into motherhood roles in their early careers which creates attendant dilemmas and anxieties due to organizational-managerial dispositions and biases. A grounded qualitative research approach was adopted and in-depth conversational, unstructured interviews were conducted with eight professional women subjects holding managerial positions using the snowball technique. The subjects and the geographies have been held anonymous to protect sources. Five frames representing the work role-motherhood role dynamics at the workplace emerged from the study which can become the basis for sensitizing organizations on this issue.
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size


  • Arendell, T. (2000), “Conceiving and Investigating Motherhood: the Decade’s Scholarship”, Journal of Marriage and Family,62(4): 1192-1207.
  • Beets, G.C.N., Liefbroer, A.C. & De Jong, G, J. (1997), “Combining Employment and Parenthood: A Longitudinal Study of Intentions of Dutch Young Adult”, Population Research and Policy Review, 16(5): 45774.
  • Chugh, S. & Sahgal, P. (2007), “Why Do Few Women Advance to Leadership Positions”? Global Business Review, 8(2): 351-65.
  • Cleveland, J.N., Stockdale, M. & Murphy, K.R. (1990), Women and Men in Organizations: Sex and Gender at Work, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Crompton, R., Brockmann, M. & Lyonette, C. (2005), “Attitudes, Women’s Employment and the Domestic Division of labor: A Cross-national Analysis in Two Waves”, Work, Employment and Society, 19(2): 21333.
  • Dechter, E.K. (2014), “Maternity Leave, Effort Allocation and Post-motherhood Earnings”, Journal of Human Capital, 8(2): 97.
  • Desai, P.T. (1999), “The Times That Are a-changing”, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 6(2): 241-59.
  • Ely, R. & Rhode, D. (2010), “Women in Leadership: Defining the Challenges”, in Nohria, N. & Khurana, R (Eds.), Advancing Leadership, Boston: HBS Publishing.
  • Fursman, L.J. (2002a), Expecting Labor? Pregnant Women in the Corporate Workplace, Berkeley: University of California.
  • Fursman, L.J. (2002b), Ideologies of Motherhood and Experiences at Work: PregnantWomen in Management and Professional Careers, Working Paper: 34, Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley.
  • Garey, A. (1999), Weaving Work and Motherhood, Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press.
  • Ghadially, R. (2007), Urban Women in Contemporary India, New Delhi: Sage Publications
  • Gordo, L.R. (2009), “Why Are Women Delaying Motherhood in Germany”, Feminist Economics, 15(4): 57-75
  • Gulati, L. (1999), “The Tyranny of Tradition”, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 6(2): 185201.
  • Hakim, C. (2002), “Lifestyle Preferences as Determinants of Women’s Differentiated Labor Market Careers, Work and Occupations, 29 (4): 428-59.
  • Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (1994), Ethnography: Principles and Practices.New York, Routeledge.
  • Himmelweit, S. & Sigala, M. (2004), “Choice and the Relationship between Identities and Behavior for Mothers with Pre-school Children: Some Implications for Policy from a UK Study”, Journal of Social Policy, 33(3): 455-78.
  • Jung, A. & Heppner, M. J. (2015), “Work of Fulltime Mothers: Putting Voice to Relational Theory of Working”, The Career Development Quarterly, 63: 253-67.
  • Kanter, R.M. (1977), Men and Women of the Corporation, New York, Basic Books.
  • Kelan, E.K. (2009), “Gender Fatigue: The Ideological Dilemma of Gender Neutrality and Discrimination in Organizations”, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 26(3): 197-210.
  • Korvajarvi, P. (1998), “Reproducing Gendered Hierarchies in Everyday Work: Contradictions in an Employment Office”, Gender, Work and Organization, 5(1): 54-73.
  • Krishnaraj, M. (2008), “Between Public and Private Morality”, Economic and Political Weekly, 43(17): 40-43.
  • Mainiero, L.A. & Sullivan, S.E. (2006), The Optout Revolt, California: Davies-Black Publishing.
  • Marks, G. & Houston, D.M. (2002), “Attitudes towards Work and Motherhood Held by Working and Non-working Mothers”, Work, Employment and Society, 16(3): 52336.
  • Marshall, J.L., Godfrey, M. & Renfrew, M.J. (2007), “Being a Good Mother: Managing Breast Feeding and Merging Identities”, Social Science Medicine, 65(10): 2147-59.
  • Mazumdar,V. (1999), “A Heritage of Heresy within Tradition”, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 6(2): 291-309.
  • Mehta, B. & Kapadia, S. (2008), “Experience of Childlessness in an Indian Context: A Gender Perspective”, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 15(3): 437-60.
  • Mutter, Joanne. & Thorn, Kaye (2017), “The Enduring Penalty of Motherhood: A Human Capital Perspective”, New Zealand Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(2): 41-55.
  • Nordenmark, M. (2002), “Multiple Social Roles – a Resource or a Burden: Is It Possible for Men and Women to Combine Paid Work with Family Life in a Satisfactory Way”? Gender, Work and Organization, 9(2): 125-45.
  • Pas, B., Peters, P., Eisinga, R., Doorewaard, H. & Lagro-Janssen (2011), “Explaining Career Motivation among Female Doctors in the Netherland:The Effects of Children, Views on Motherhood and Work-home Cultures”, Work, Employment and Society, 25(3): 487505.
  • Patil, V. (2001), “Striving to Break Through the Glass Ceiling”, The Tribune, 14 October, Chandigarh
  • Patton, M. Q. (2002), Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
  • Pixey, J.E. (2008), “Life Course Patterns of Careerprioritizing Decisions and Occupational Attainment in Dual-earner Couples”, Work and Occupations, 35(2): 127-63.
  • Spector, Michal Gross., Cinamon, RachelGali (2017), “Identity Exploration during the Transition to Motherhood: Facilitating Factors and Outcomes”, Career Development International, 22(7): 829-43
  • Stone, P. & Lovejoy, M. (2004), “Fast-track Women and the Choice to Stay Home”, TheAnnals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 596: 62- 83.
  • Swaminathan, P. (2008), “Exclusions from and Inclusions in ‘Development’: Implications for ‘Engendering Development”, Economic and Political Weekly, 43(43): 48-56.
  • Thapan, M. (2001), “Adolescence, Embodiment and Gender Identity: Elite Women in a Changing Society”, Women’s Studies International Forum, 24(3/4): 359-71.
  • Van Manen, M. (1998), Researching Lived Experience, Ontario, Canada: Althouse.
  • Van Wel, F. & Knijn .T. (2006), “Transitional Phase or a New Balance? Working and Caring by Mothers with Young Children in the Netherlands”, Journal of Family Issues, 27(4):633-51.
  • Vijayanthi, K.N. (2002), “Women’s Empowerment through Self-help Groups: A Participatory Approach”, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 9: 263-74.
  • Vlasblom, J.D. & Schippers, J. (2006), “Changing Dynamics in Female Employment around Childbirth: Evidence from Germany, the Netherlands and the UK”, Work, Employment and Society, 20(2): 329-47.
  • Wharton, A.S. (2005), The Sociology of Gender: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Abstract Views: 199

PDF Views: 1




  • Work Role-Motherhood Role Constructions & Conflicts in Workplace Interactions

Abstract Views: 199  |  PDF Views: 1

Authors

Mridul Maheshwari
IIM Kashipur, Kundeshwari, 244713, India
Jerome Joseph
XLRI School of Management, P.Box 222, Circuit House Area (East), Jamshedpur 831001, India

Abstract


Professional working women face workplace conflicts out of the combined effect of social expectations, pressures and career role aspirations. This study focuses on a particular stage in women’s career continuity – entry into motherhood roles in their early careers which creates attendant dilemmas and anxieties due to organizational-managerial dispositions and biases. A grounded qualitative research approach was adopted and in-depth conversational, unstructured interviews were conducted with eight professional women subjects holding managerial positions using the snowball technique. The subjects and the geographies have been held anonymous to protect sources. Five frames representing the work role-motherhood role dynamics at the workplace emerged from the study which can become the basis for sensitizing organizations on this issue.

References