The goal of this study was to provide a link between the family-supportive benefits offered by an employer, and the work-family conflict experienced by that organization's employees. In order for employee outcomes such as job satisfaction to remain high, the work-family conflict experienced by the employee needs to remain low. One way to possibly lower the amount of work-family conflict experienced is to offer family-supportive benefits.

<p>  </p> <p>This dissertation examines working women’s experiences with careers and childcare in South Korea. Korea is characterized by its ultra-low fertility rate, aging population, and high proportions of working women and those opting out of work after childbirth. Despite the government’s generous childcare policies and widespread help from child(ren)’s grandmothers, Korean mothers report substantial difficulties in pursuing their careers due to childcare responsibilities. Thus, this dissertation asks the following questions: 1) How do beliefs and norms about childcare influence Korean women’s career pursuits and childcare arrangements? 2) What factors influence Korean working mothers’ career aspirations and pursuits in the context of COVID-19? 3) How does grandmothers’ care help influence Korean working mothers’ careers and childcare arrangements? </p> <p><br></p> <p>To investigate these questions, I analyze three waves of longitudinal in-depth interview data (n=102) from women in Korea. The first wave was collected in-person in 2019 ­before the COVID-19 pandemic with 37 women. The second (n=32) was conducted in 2020, and the final (n=33) wave in 2021. Due to travel restrictions related to COVID-19, the second and final waves were conducted virtually using video calls. The semi-structured interviews asked questions about women’s experiences with their careers and childcare, and examined how their experiences have changed or remained the same since the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one of the first qualitative studies to examine working mothers’ experiences with childcare pre-pandemic (2019) and during the pandemic (2020 and 2021).</p> <p><br></p> <p>Based on the findings, I develop the concept of “childcare ideologies”– defined as beliefs and norms about childcare. Korean women shared a diverse range of beliefs and norms about childcare encompassing family members like mothers, fathers, and grandparents, as well as non-family members like care facilities and the government. Because childcare is not a concern or responsibility of mothers alone, this dissertation encourages the sociological scholarship to conceptualize childcare more broadly, by including the discussions of political interests, social and cultural norms, and intergenerational familial care, among other relevant factors. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In addition, I document women’s experiences related to pursuing their careers and arranging grandmothers’ childcare help.  The findings show the influence of <em>gendered</em> childcare beliefs and norms on Korean mothers’ career aspirations and pursuits. Childcare beliefs that do not assume that mothers are primarily responsible for childcare motivated mothers to aspire to career success and pursue such aspirations. On the other hand, childcare beliefs that associate mothers with having primary childcare responsibility discouraged mothers from their career aspirations and pursuits. Furthermore, while I demonstrate Korean mothers’ heavy reliance on their children’s grandmothers for childcare help, I show that mothers preferred to receive childcare help from maternal grandmothers than from paternal grandmothers. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In analyzing these empirical findings, this dissertation contextualizes Korean mothers’ experiences related to childcare and career pursuits within the novel context of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, I employ a gendered life course framework to investigate how women’s family lives and careers have been affected when the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic caused an economic and societal disruption, in addition to a health crisis. I conclude the dissertation with empirical implications and policy recommendation to better anticipate future health challenges and to assist working women and their families when these challenges emerge.</p>

Abstract in English, IsiZulu and Sepedi / Business Management / M. Com

Over the last three decades, the impact of dramatic change in the social, religious, political and economic environment has led to a rapid expansion in the number of women entering the paid labour force in Sri Lanka as elsewhere. However, their identities and workload continue to be defined around caring work, especially for children. Not surprisingly, employed mothers endeavour to balance these two central spheres of their life, family and work. This research focuses on the contradictions of mothers¿ work-life balance. It does so through an analysis of how successfully (or unsuccessfully) professional and managerial mothers in Sri Lanka combine motherhood with paid work, and how they understand this in terms of gendered identities and social norms. This example also allows an evaluation of western derived theories about mothers¿ decision making in the context of a developing, Asian country. Grounded theory was used to examine mothers¿ narratives about life in the family and at work, drawn from in-depth qualitative interviews, along with data from some representative secondary sources, in order to explore these questions. This thesis demonstrates that working women¿s mothering leads to the formation of a gendered identity which varies according to different socio-cultural and religious opportunities and constraints. Using the Bourdieu approach the research suggests how everyday life operates in terms of habitus, field and capital. However, these working mothers have low capacity to achieve a work-life balance and this may lead to complex social problems.

<p dir="ltr">This research studies post-stay-at-home mothers from a traditional nuclear family who enter the workforce after divorce. While family communication scholars have explored topics surrounding divorce, very little about how mothers make sense of their transition from being stay-at-home mothers (SAHMs) to working mothers (WMs) after divorce.</p><p dir="ltr">Through an interdisciplinary approach, this research uses Transitional Theory (Anderson et al.<i>, </i>2012; Schlossberg, 1981; Schlossberg, 2008) and Communicated Narrative Sense Making (CNSM) (Koenig Kellas, 2018; Koenig Kellas & Horstman, 2014) to understand how mothers make sense of their experiences during this change in their lives. It further studies the participants through mixed methods, using the Shift and Persist Scale (Chen <i>et al.,</i> 2015) and Sense of Control Scale (Lachman & Weaver, 1998a, 1998b) along with reflexive thematic analysis (TA) (Braun & Clarke; 2021; 2006).</p><p dir="ltr">The results of the qualitative section of this study brought forth seven themes displayed in the realms of sense-making during transition. These themes are <i>Belief themes: Out of control</i>, <i>taking back life</i>, and <i>finding a place to belong</i>; the <i>Value themes:</i> <i>Finding the wherewithal to survive</i>, <i>discovering and reclaiming self</i>, and <i>accepting of accomplishments</i>; and the <i>Meaning-Making theme: Recognizing resolve</i>.</p><p dir="ltr">The quantitative results of this study indicated that there were significantly higher levels of persistence and personal mastery with those who told narratives framed positively as opposed to those who told narratives framed negatively. There was, however, no significance in their ability to shift or in their perceived constraints.</p>

No description available.

Depth interviews with 16 urban female heads of households (FHHs) were the basis of this qualitative study which sought to understand the nature of the child care decisions these women made for their school age children. A theoretical sampling model based on six dimensions of contrast (race, financial security, the presence of other caretakers in the household, the number of children in the household, and the age of children) was used in selecting the sample. All of the women were involved in work, education or training to a degree that child care was an issue for them. The collective testimony of the sample reveals that the FHHs chose care for their children that was compatible with their role as provider and with their resources. Resources included knowledge of caregivers and settings, network support, and material resources (income, presence of care in the community, and transportation). Women who had limited resources and restrictive provider roles functioned in an environment of forced choice and were more at risk for making decisions on child care that they were not personally comfortable with. Their affect, values, and children's opinions and needs played an important role within the bounds allowed by the provider role and resources. The FHHs maintained child care arrangements until life events or changes in resources or provider role precipitated the need for another decision. However, unmet values, and unacknowledged affect and child opinion precipitated a change if they were highlighted so clearly by anomalous events that they could not be ignored. Such conditions affected immediate change in child care, but not subsequent decisions. Social policy recommendations that stemmed from these findings conclude the study. / M.S.

In this study an ecosystemic and social constructionist approach is used to understand the meanings and perceptions held by working mothers in relation to their experiences with the childcare and organisation settings. These meanings are described in terms of the influence of wider social discourses, personal epistemological assumptions, tacit knowledge, past experiences and current contexts. The working mothers, together with the researcher, form a linguistic system in which meanings about motherhood, employer-support and childcare arrangements are co-constructed and shared. The relationships between the working mothers and the researcher are not only observed within a linguistic context, but also within the ecosystemic view of mutual reciprocity, self-referentiality and double description. A qualitative and naturalistic research methodology is followed to describe the emergent design and the grounded theory. Based on the qualitative paradigm, the conclusions drawn at the end of the study are idiographic and reflective. / Psychology / M.A.(Clinical Psychology)

In this study an ecosystemic and social constructionist approach is used to understand the meanings and perceptions held by working mothers in relation to their experiences with the childcare and organisation settings. These meanings are described in terms of the influence of wider social discourses, personal epistemological assumptions, tacit knowledge, past experiences and current contexts. The working mothers, together with the researcher, form a linguistic system in which meanings about motherhood, employer-support and childcare arrangements are co-constructed and shared. The relationships between the working mothers and the researcher are not only observed within a linguistic context, but also within the ecosystemic view of mutual reciprocity, self-referentiality and double description. A qualitative and naturalistic research methodology is followed to describe the emergent design and the grounded theory. Based on the qualitative paradigm, the conclusions drawn at the end of the study are idiographic and reflective. / Psychology / M.A.(Clinical Psychology)

Through the use of contextual data, this research study aims to explicate a theory about the experiences of academic women, who are also mothers, employed at a South African University. The research is interpretive in nature as it explores the women's accounts of the conflicts they face in striving to satisfy the demands of both their scholarly work and family responsibilities within multiple intersecting factors related to their personal/familial circumstances, and the strategic processes they engage in to manage the balance between these competing roles. The study followed a constructivist grounded theory design in an attempt to test the hypothesis (emerging from a prior pilot study) that the most significant enabling factors at work in the lives of these women comprise various relational support processes. The findings indicate that balancing academic work and mothering is a delicate activity that is sensitive to a number of facilitating as well as hindering factors. The participants revealed that they experience work-family role-conflict as a result of competing desires to dedicate themselves fully to both of these roles. The relational factors most prominently cited as being critical to enabling a work-family balance include the presence of a supportive partner, a support structure in the home in the form of an employed domestic helper, and the support derived from a 'shared experience' with other working mothers. Non-relational factors emanating from the unique quality of life afforded to mothers by employment within the particular case institution also emerged as being significantly enabling of a work-family balance for this group of academic mothers.