The Voices of Women Struggling to Manage Employment and Motherhood

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of working women when they announce their pregnancies, take maternity leave, transition back to work, and utilize flexible work policies. Using a qualitative methodology, transcripts of in-depth interviews were analyzed utilizing a life history approach. Key findings of the study are that women perceive more negative responses to the announcement of their pregnancies than positive ones. In terms of maternity and parental leave policies, all the participants had access to these benefits. Women found issues with financial adequacy, administration, and duration of these policies. Mothers found that financial support from the Canadian government was inadequate to allow them to take the full duration of the 52-week maternity and parental leave for which they were eligible. In addition, employer “top-up” payments were limited and administrative details of maternity leave were often not discussed fully with pregnant workers. When women returned to work, they found that workplaces did not offer resources such as a phased-in return to work or personnel to help them re-engage with their prior work projects. Women discussed the challenges of managing their dual roles of worker and mother and found that managers and coworkers put them in a mommy mould which lessened the quality of their assignments. New mothers found that they had difficultly juggling their work and home responsibilities, finding time for themselves, and receiving increased domestic support from their spouses. While some workplaces offered women flexible workplace policies, not all mothers chose to access them as they found these policies often negatively impacted their career progression. Other issues were a lack of flexible workplace policy transparency, inconsistent manager support, and difficulty maintaining a flexible schedule. Findings have major implications for an improved response from managers upon pregnancy announcement, improved dialogue among employers about increasing “top up” maternity leave pay to new mothers, developing a formal transition plan for new mothers returning to the workplace, and expanding the use of flexible workplace policies.

Keywords: Mothers
Workplace
career
Motherhood
employment
workplace struggles
women's voices
women's workplace struggles
pregnancy and the workplace
motherhood and careers
combining career and motherhood
pregnancy and challenges
maternity leave
role models for working mothers
Canadian maternity leave challenges
flexible workplace policies in Canada
flexible workplace policies and challenges
transition back to work
mommy mould at work
negative career progression and motherhood
duration of maternity leave in canada
managers response to pregnancy announcement at work
financial adequacy of maternity leave in Canada
Limited workplace support for family needs
the juggle of organizing work and home demands for mothers
facetime at work for mothers
the need for self care of mothers
spousal support for working mothers
opting in and out of the workplace for mothers
lack of transparency of flexible workplace policies
maintaining flexible workplace schedules
Manager's scepticism of flexible workplace policies
Advisor: Guttman, Mary Alice