Running head: MINI RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Mini Research Proposal

Leaving Career for Motherhood:
The Impact on a Womens Identity
Lisa Rogers
Loyola University Chicago

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Chapter 1: Introduction

Background

According to the United States Census, in 2006 there were 5.8 million stay-at-home

parents. Of that number, 5.6 million were mothers (Palladino-Schultheiss, 2009, p. 25). As
the percentage of women in the workforce continues to grow, there are still many women
who opt out of careers in order to be full time mothers. According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, in 2011 70.6 percent of women with children less than eighteen years of age
were in the workforce (Solis & Galvin, 2012, p. 35). This is compared to 93.5 percent of
men with children less than eighteen years of age. This gap is even larger between men
and women when children are less than six years old. These statistics show that there is a
large percentage of womennearly 30 percentwho are making the decision to
completely leave the workforce for motherhood.

When women leave their careers for motherhood, they face a number of risks and

pressures from various people to make the right decision. According to Palladino-
Schultheiss (2009), motherhood may be the most controversial career a women can
havediscourse on motherhood is wrought with images of women throwing away their
career (p. 29). Research has shown that leaving career for motherhood can be a difficult,
anxiety provoking decision, especially when there are so many competing opinions from
trusted external authorities. Much of this anxiety comes from dualistic gendered
expectations, varying opinions from multiple authorities, and a womans own comfort with
her identity as a woman.
Women have many factors to balance, all of which impact the decision-making
process women go through as they make they decision to leave career in order to dedicate

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time to motherhood. A gap in the literature suggests that there is little research available
about how women make their decision to leave career for motherhood. This analysis looks
deeper at the large number of mothers who have decided to do just that.
Purpose

The purpose of the present study is to generate descriptive knowledge around

womens decision-making process for those women who decide to leave their careers for
motherhood. Additionally, the purpose is to understand how identity impacts the decision-
making process and conversely how the decision to leave career impacted the mothers
identity.
Research Questions and Design

Three research questions were developed to address the purpose of this study:
1. What is the decision-making process for women who make the decision to leave
their careers for motherhood?
2. How does ones identity as a women and a worker impact the decision-making
process?
3. How does the decision-making process and the decision to leave career impact a
womans identity and understanding of her identity as a woman, worker, and
mother?
These questions will be explored using a qualitative, multiple case-study approach.

This method was chosen because the research goal is to describe how women make the
decision to leave their careers that represents a large part of their lived experiences.
Through a series of three interviews with each participant, the researcher will gain an in-
depth understanding of experiences encompassing the decision-making process and

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identity issues during the process. My collection of data will have a phenomenological slant
as I collect data that will describe the general lived experiences of all women who leave
career for motherhood. Learning about individual processes and looking at the
culmination of data with a phenomenological lens will help me describe the decision-
making phenomenon I hope to study. In order to appropriately examine data related to
identity, a case-study examination of the data will be utilized, as no womans experience
will be exactly the same as another. Using a case study approach to looking at identity, I
will do greater justice to the women I interview as I will be better able to describe their
experiences and decision-making processes, given the identity pieces that make each
woman unique.
Significance

This research has particular significance in two ways. First, it suggests a need for

more flexible and inclusive workplace policies. When women are faced with the choice of
whether or not to leave their careers, they begin to question whether or not their
workplace is inclusive of their dual identities as worker and as mother. If the workplace is
not particularly flexible, they are more likely to make the decision to leave career. The
review of the literature and proposed research look into how women make these decisions,
including how workplace policies may impact their decision. If we had more inclusive
workplace policies that allowed women to work and mother, the need for this research
would be lower.

Secondly, this research has implications for career counselors working with young

women in college or high school settings. Many of the factors women consider when
making the decision to leave work for motherhood, including information they have

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gathered about what it stereotypically appropriate for a woman given her gender. For
career counselors it is important to ensure that ones own biases regarding gender
appropriateness are kept to oneself. This being said, a career counselor should be aware of
the potential struggles women might face and the possible decision-making process that
may ensue if she chooses a career or employer that is not accepting of this dual identity.

Overall, this research will contribute new knowledge about womens dual roles and

how they navigate them. This research will contribute to further understanding about how
women make the decision to leave their careers for family and how that impacts their
multiple identities and understanding of self. The research fills a significant gap in the
literature regarding women, work, and motherhood.
Limitations

Limitations of this study have not been fully explored, however a non-exhaustive list

of limitations may include the inability to generalize across populations, inherent bias, and
the lack of a contrasting analysis. Firstly, there is likely inherent bias in the way that I
approach this study and review of the literature. I chose this topic because I am a young
women thinking about my future and how I am going to make the decision between career,
family, or both when that time comes. Right now, I assume there is a decision to be made,
but for some women, a career is just work and leaving it may have no impact on how they
see themselves as women. This research assumes that this decision is difficult for the
majority of women with to make, but this could be proven incorrect.

A second limitation of the study is that this research lacks a contrasting analysis.

This refers to the fact that this research does not include how women make the decision to
stay in careers while mothering. This is an area for future research because this analysis

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strictly focuses on women who leave career to raise a family when children are young,
despite the fact that they may return to careers later on in life. Keeping this in mind, we
can assume that there is a similar, but different process for those women versus the women
from whom data is gathered in the present study.

A third and final limitation to this research is the generalizability of the study to the

greater population of mothers. As stated, this study uses a multiple case-study approach,
which means the data will delve deep into womens individual experiences. Because of this
we cannot be sure that the data collected and patterns identified can be applied to all
women currently in the workforce who are in the process of making the decision to leave
career for motherhood. Additionally, other identities (e.g. race, sexual orientation, ability,
etc.) aside from female and woman identities were not controlled for or included
intentionally as part of the analysis. In examining individual data, there may be some small
noticeable patterns as a result of other identities; however, they are not part of the greater
analysis. Again, this is another area for future research.

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Chapter 2: Review of the Literature

The cultural script around career and mothering has shifted in a way that has

caused women to feel as though they need to do everything and be everything for
everyone. As women engage in the workplace in greater numbers, the expectations of a
womans role as mothers have not. This puts women in a place of struggle, especially when
they have built a career and then are forced to make a decision regarding whether or not to
be a full-time mother only, leaving their career behind or pausing it temporarily.

This review of the literature starts with types of career patterns, the concept of a

split dream, (Farber, 1996), and the desire to have it all. The review then covers
expectations of women and the factors women consider when making the decision to leave
work for motherhood, including a brief review of some of the risks women face when they
leave work. Finally, Baxter-Magoldas (2008) Theory of Self-Authorship is used to examine
how women make meaning of their experiences through this decision-making process and
how that meaning-making influences her identity as a women, mother, and career person.
The literature shows that womens decision-making process around leaving career for
motherhood is an area in need of further study.
Career and Family Patterns

Every womans experience is unique and cannot be generalized across the board,

but there are a few different patterns from which women tend to choose their path.
According to Whitmarsh, Brown, Cooper, Hawkins-Rodgers, and Keyser Wentworth
(2007), there are three patterns: unitrack, sequential, and multitrack (p. 230). The
unitrack pattern is described as engaging in career or motherhood, without the added role
of the other at the same time. The sequential pattern is described as an initial career

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history followed by an interruption to focus on the responsibilities of motherhood,

followed by a return to career. The multitrack pattern is becoming more and more
common and is described as juggling expectations associated with both full-time career and
mothering. When making the decision as to whether or not to leave career for
motherhood, women are choosing one of these patterns. Multitrack is becoming the most
desirable option, but many women still choose a unitrack or sequential pattern given the
pressures on women to successfully have it all.
Having it All
Todays women hold a split dream, which encompasses a desire for both career
and family. According to Farber (1996), women wanting it all has puzzled career
theorists as it was thought that career and homemaking were distinct orientations that
could not coexist (p. 330). This theoretical assumption comes out of the fact that maternal
and work identities, as constructed in our culture, are dialectic (Johnston and Swanson,
2007, p. 449). Not only are these patterns separate, they are divided along gendered lines.
According to Palladino-Schultheiss (2009), conventional gendered definitions of work
reflect a split[that renders] invisible alternative definitions of work (p. 30). The jobs of
motherhood and employment are performed in separate contexts.
United States culture is set up in such a way that keeps these two realms divided.
Despite this, women evaluate the combination of wife/mother/career as the most
attractive role option according to Bridges (1987) (Hoffnung, 2004, p. 711). Even with the
overlap in roles, women pursuing a career still want the time and flexibility to satisfy
family needs and they want to be the one to pick their child up from school if they are sick
(Crowley & Kolenikov, 2014, p. 186). This is not too much for women to ask for, but given

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the gendered nature of work and of mothering, women are faced with balancing their
multiple roles and fulfilling all of them successfully as specified by the cultural script.
Overall, young women are willing to delay starting a family in order to pursue a
career, however they are still very committed to having one (Hoffnung, 2004). Balancing
these competing desires can be trying. Hoffnung (2004) identifies four components that
affect whether or not one can be successful in balancing career and family. The first
component centers on the type of career women choose. For example, if a career is more
flexible, balancing career and family may be easier. In fact, Hoffnung (2004) found that the
historically common solution to balancing work and family was to choose a female-
dominated profession that tends to allow more integration of mothering responsibilities.
The second component is marriagewhether and when women marry and what
division of labor looks like in the household. The third component is motherhoodhow
many children women have. Finally, the fourth component is attitude, which includes
individual opinions about womens role within the household, work, or marriage. If a
woman has more traditional views that include staying home and caring for children, she is
less likely to be successful in balancing career and family. Balancing work and family
responsibilitiesremains a challenge and still poses a barrier for women (Landivar, 2014,
p. 213), however according to Perrone-McGovern (2012), the boundary between worker
and mother identities is becoming more permeable and fluid.
Expectations

The cultural script in the United States has changed from the selfless mother of the

past, to the superwoman of the present (Farber, 1996, p. 331). This alludes to the
number of roles and responsibilities women are expected to successfully fulfill. Women are

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expected to by everything to everyone. At the same time, the older cultural script, as
described by Johnston and Swanson (2007), enforces expectations that make women
responsible for childcare. Not only are they responsible for child care, it is an expectation
that decisions made by a mother should be appropriate and responsible given the needs of
children and family. Johnston and Swanson (2007) call these intensive mothering
expectations and argue that they position mothers as the sole source of child guidance,
nurturance, education, and physical emotional sustenance (p. 448).

These expectations make it difficult for women to successfully manage both career

and family because they are pulled in opposite directions. Mothers are also forced to justify
their desire to work. Johnston and Swanson (2007) cite that many women feel the only
way they can justify their desire to work is by describing it as a financial need. Feeling
pressure to justify actions this way continues to belittle a womens right to work and
mother even in a time when women are accepted and successful in the workplace.
Palladino-Schultheiss (2009) describes the history of the gendered nature of career and
family by saying the womens movement gained momentum through transformations of
the feminine into male-dominated hierarchies rather than through struggles to have
womens experiences validated (p. 27). This speaks to the fact that women can work in a
career and in the home, so long as they are not letting their womanly responsibilities
faulter.

This circles back to the concept of having it all and balancing career and family.

The demands of external reality often cause women to adjust their career expectations to
provide a compatible match with marriage and family responsibilities (Whitmarsh et al.,
2007, p. 231). Adjusting career expectations can look a multitude of ways, including taking

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an extended leave, reducing hours, or switching to a career that can better accommodate
the demands family puts on mothers. Ferber and Green (2003) echo that it is extremely
difficult for women to balance career and family and argue that there is great concern
about the problems women encounter combining career and family, in part because of the
difficulties in doing justice to both, and in part because of the strains on the individuals
who do combine both (p. 143).
Women know that combining career and motherhood is extremely difficult, but in
many cases they continue to attempt it. Making the decision to leave career for family
could have many career-related risks for women. When in the decision-making process,
women consider a variety of factors, including career risks. The following addresses those
factors and risks.
Factors in the Decision-Making Process

Though researchers do not know much about how mothers navigate the decision-

making process when deciding to leave their career for family, they do know that women
must consider a variety of factors in order to make a decision. Some of these factors
include perceived career harm, societal value orientation, and relationships. These factors,
among others, are influential in the decision-making process.
Perceived Career Harm

The major factor in the decision-making process is perceived career harm. Many of

the perceptions women hold about how their careers may be harmed are grounded in
reality. Women who reduce their hours at work or leave altogether are at greater risk for
marginalization, may be given less important or interesting work, are more vulnerable to
layoffs, and are viewed by employers and coworkers as less committed to their work

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(Landivar, 2014, p. 212). Crowley and Kolenikov (2014) cite Schwarz (1989) findings that
opting into the mommy track was not cost free and that women who elected to take
advantage of this option [to leave career] should expect slower wage growth and other
more limited employment opportunities (p. 168).
In these quotes from the literature we see that wages and workplace discrimination
are the greatest risks to career that women must consider when deciding whether or not to
leave work for family. Kahn, Garcia-Manglano, and Bianchi (2014) report findings similar
to Landivar (2014) that mothers may face greater workplace discrimination because they
are perceived by employers to be less competent and committed to their jobs than childless
women. Wages were also found to suffer for women who exit the workforce for a
substantial amount of time. Kahn et al. (2014) found that having and raising children
interferes with the accumulation of human capital and hence the level of productivity,
which then translates to lower wages (p. 56). Budig and England (2001) discovered
similar findings and estimated that the wage penalty is approximately seven percent per
child (Crowley and Kolenikov, 2014, p. 170).
If women perceive greater career harm, they are less likely to fully exit the
workforce for motherhood. This is especially true if they have high career salience. When
a career has less personal meaning to a mother, they are more likely to leave their career in
lieu of motherhood (Raskin, 2006). These potential risks to career can be controlled if
there is greater flexibility in the workplace that allows for work and mothering to coexist.
Value Orientation
Perrone-McGovern (2012) identified four societal value orientations that impact
workplace culture and individual values, which in turn impact mothers decision-making

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process. The first of the four orientations is individualism versus collectivism, which
impacts whether or not a workplace or individual is supportive of community. When it
comes to motherhood, workplaces with a collectivist view are more supportive of a woman
and her multiple roles. If this were the case, she would be less likely to leave her career.
The second is humane orientation, which is the degree to which a society values
kindness and generosity. In this orientation as it relates to work and motherhood, an
employer that holds a strong humane orientation would have workplace policies in place
that allows women to navigate both mothering and work roles.
The third orientation is specificity versus diffusion is the degree to which social
constructs are viewed as separate or as one. In a diffuse society, like the United States,
roles are compartmentalized. In this case, mother and worker identities are seen as
separate and are difficult to combine.
The final orientation is gender egalitarianism, which focuses on the minimization of
differences between genders. In the United States, there are very clear gender roles. This
is particularly true when it comes mothering. Women are responsible for rearing children
regardless of whether or not the work, as described early in this review of the literature.
Relationships

Relationships are the final primary factors women consider when making the

decision to leave career for motherhood. Motulsky (2014) argued, career decision making
has traditionally been viewed as primarily an individual, objective, and rational process,
(p. 1083), but other research has shown that parents, partners, friends, colleagues, and
supervisors greatly impact the decision-making process. Palladino-Schultheiss (2009)
wrote:

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Motherhood may be the most controversial career a woman can havewomen who
make [the choice to leave career] are often greeted with surprise, disapproval, and a
lack of understandingnot only from coworkers, colleagues, and supervisors, but
also from family and friends. Discourse on motherhood is wrought with images of
women throwing away their career or wasting their well-deserved and well-earned
education (p.29).
As is evident in Motulsky (2014) and Palladino-Schultheiss (2009) research, relationships
impact the decision-making process regardless of the context or type of the relationship.
Jacobsen (1999) argued, disapproval from others as well as a struggle with ones self,
comes from values and worldviews from family of originabout what [is] possible, good,
or desired on career and life choices (Motulsky, 2014, 1091). Regardless of whether or
not others opinions are expressed to mothers, mothers are constantly thinking about what
others will think of their decision to leave career.
Theoretical Orientation

Many theories can be used to analyze the decision-making process women go

through. In reviewing the literature, a relational cultural perspective is the most used
theoretical orientation. This perspective is used because a relational approach to career
developmentdescribes the interaction between career and other life roles within the
larger societal context (Perrone-McGovern, 2012, p. 21). A relational approach focuses on
a womans interactions with the world because as Blustein (2004) puts it, women do not
make career decisions in a relational vacuum (Motulsky, 2014, p. 1080).

For the purposes of combining the decision-making process, meaning-making, and

identity as they relate to women leaving careers for family, Baxter-Magoldas Theory of Self

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Authorship is used to frame the proposed research. Self-Authorship is defined by Baxter-

Magolda (2008) as the internal capacity to coordinate, integrate, act upon, or invent
values, beliefs, convictions, generalizations, ideals, abstractions, interpersonal loyalties, and
interpersonal states (p. 270). At the most basic level, self-authorship focuses on learning
how to negotiate and act on our own purposesrather than those we have uncritically
assimilated from others (Baxter-Magolda, 2008, p. 270). This is crucial not only to the
decision-making process mothers go through, but also to identity formation and
reformation as roles change and shift.

There are four sequential stages to Baxter Magoldas Theory of Self Authorship as

documented by Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, and Renn (2010). They are: following
formulas, crossroads, becoming the author of ones life, and internal foundation. The final
two stages consist of the three elements of self-authorship: trusting the internal voice,
building on an internal foundation, and securing internal commitments.
In the first stage, following formulas, individuals use external authorities to decide
what to believe, how to view themselves, and how to construct relationships with others
(Baxter-Magolda, 2009, p. 628). In times of uncertainty in this stage, individuals feel
discomfort and sense of obligation to live up to authorities expectations. This is
particularly relevant to mothers who leave the workforce when they are faced with parents
or supervisors who may be disappointed in the decision they make.
In the second stage, crossroads, individuals discover that the plans they have
followed do not necessarily work well and that they need to establish new plans that better
suit their needs and interests (Evans et al., 2010, p. 185). Individuals spend this time
examining what truly makes them happy and what is important to them. They begin to

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separate feelings from external expectations (Baxter-Magolda, 2009). The proposed

research will look at womens process when they begin to separate themselves from the
internalized expectations of others.
In the third stage, becoming the author of ones own life, individuals are able to
choosebeliefs and stand up for them in the face of conflicting external viewpoints
(Evans et al., 2010, p. 186). This is a time of intensive reflection when one develops a
strong self-concept. In thinking of mothers leaving the workforce, this is where one learns
how to convey their decision-making process to others and be comfortable in doing so. In
the fourth stage, internal foundation, individuals have solidified a comprehensive system
of belief (Evans et al., 2010, p. 186). They are aware of external opinions, but are not
greatly affected by them.
Within the final two stages, there are three elements that signal one is approaching
a fully self-authored life. The three elements are: trusting the internal voice, building on an
internal foundation, and securing internal commitments. Trusting the internal voice means
that an individual recognizes that what happens to them is beyond their control, but
reactions to what happens are within their control (Baxter-Magolda, 2008). Individuals are
able to take more ownership of meaning-making. Building on an internal foundation is
identified as being when an individual has reflected on how they had organized
themselves and their lives and rearranged to align with their internal voices (Baxter-
Magolda, 2008, p. 280). In this element, individuals move from thinking with their heads to
thinking with their hearts. Baxter-Magolda (2008) describes securing internal
commitments as a crossing over from understanding their internal commitments to living
them (p. 281).

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With this foundation, career development can be better analyzed. According to

Creamer and Laughlin (2005),
Self-Authorship plays a role in career decision-making because it influences how
[individuals] make meaning of the advice they receive from others; how susceptible
they are to negative feedbackand the extent to which the reasoning they employ to
make a decision reflects an internally grounded sense of self (p. 14).
With a more grounded sense of self, mothers are more capable of making a decision that is
both rational and inclusive of ones own feelings. When individuals have fully developed
self-authorship, they are better able to deal with the cognitive acrobatics (Johnston and
Swanson, 2007) and competing opinions that pull women in various directions.
Impact on Identity

The gendered nature of society, the dialectic expectations of woman, the risks

involved with leaving career, the juggling of relationships, and the meaning-making process
all impact how a mother views her identity. Johnston and Swanson (2007) define identity
as a complex web of interconnections that integrate self, others, and culture (p. 448).
When leaving the workforce, women are subject to a change in identity; they are now a
mother and as such they must integrate that social identity with their identity as a career
woman. Many women may feel they have to sacrifice one of these identities to fully achieve
the other.

Leaving the workforce to stay at home may be a difficult task for some women

because it does require a change in identity. Raskin (2006) found work to be a major
source of actual and perceived competence (p. 1362). When that measure of competence
is taken away, women may feel like a part of themselves is missing, which is why they must

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engage in what Johnston and Swanson (2007) call cognitive acrobatics. Johnston and
Swanson (2007) assume that some cognitive process is necessary to construct an
integrated identity that reconciles the potential contradictions of worker identities and
mothering identities (p. 449). This cognitive process requires reframing what it means to
work and be a mother.

When reframing what it means to be a worker and a mother, most mothers try to

make motherhood and career coexist within the restraints of societal mothering
expectations (Johnston and Swanson, 2007). More specifically speaking, reframing
involves resolving the tension that exists between the two identities. Having choice in this
process, Johnston and Swanson (2007) argued increases anxiety and uncertainty and can
often create stress that is unhealthy for women and their families. Motulsky (2014) stated,
this anxiety can be expressed as confusion, self-doubt, loss of voice, and stucknessan
inability to move toward career goals (p. 1083).

This cognitive process can best be described as an internal struggle between who

one was and who one is becoming. Palladino-Schultheiss (2009) points out that
transitioning to motherhood has implications for the rest of the mothers life. Raskin
(2006) identified the key question as being how to develop an individual career identity
while satisfying social and individual expectations about ones identity as a fairly traditional
mother (p. 1357).
Conclusion

It is apparent that identity struggles are a key consequence of the decision-making

process to leave career for family. Women must weight numerous factors in their process
that will eventually have lifelong implications for identity, motherhood, and career

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development. The focus of this research proposal then is to 1) further explore the decision-
making process women go through to make the decision to leave career for motherhood,
and 2) explore the decision-making process impacts a mothers identity. These foci will
provide insight into the impact how decision-making and changing identities influences a
womans trajectory as a career person and as a mother.

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Chapter 3: Methods

Participants

In the present study, the population studied are mothers who left their careers

when they either 1) found out they were pregnant or 2) planned on becoming pregnant in
the near future. The goal is to have a sample of approximately fifteen to twenty. The
women in this study will be post-childbirth, with children ranging from newborns to
eighteen. Women can be any number of ages, but the preference is for them to be between
the ages of 18 and 50. Women may have returned to their careers by the time they are
interviewed for this study. For this particular study, women should be in a partnered
relationship or marriage as this greatly impacts whether or not women are able to leave
their careers when they pursue motherhood.
This population is an ideal fit for my research questions because I am looking at the
decision-making process and impact on identity. Having a maximum on the age range
helps control for the disintegration of saliency that may occur as women become more
immersed in their new identities. Having the women closer in age to the time of their
decision-making process allows the researcher to gain the most accurate and prevalent
information regarding their lived experiences. I am particularly focusing on women in
partnered relationships because studying the lives of single parents, specifically mothers,
would need to be a larger and significantly different study.
Once I have my sample of 15-20 women, I will be collecting a decent amount of
descriptive information. Some of the demographics I will want to collect include: gender,
age, race, educational background, marital status, number of children, childrens ages,
career before motherhood, and current career status. This information will give a fuller

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picture of where the individual is at positionally in their life. The one piece of information
that is not directly related is race, but this information is being collected so that in the case
that there are substantial patterns that appear, this can be accounted for, and a better case
can be made for future research.
In order to recruit participants, I will first reach out to people I personally know or
know of. From here, I will reach out to continuing education departments in the region to
see if they can recommend women who they believe would be willing to participate. I will
also create flyer advertisements and post them in daycare centers in the region. By doing
this, I should be able to get a solid base of five to eight participants who I can then ask to
recommend other women they might know who have similar experiences. This type of
sampling moves from opportunisticgathering people I knowto snowballfinding
people that others know. I will continue to use the snowball sampling technique until I
have the desired number of fifteen to twenty participants.
Instrument

The instrument that will be used to explore the research problem is designed

specifically for this study. Data collection with participants will take place over three
interviews, approximately an hour and a half long each. The first interview is more guided
by the researcher, discussing the protocol questions specifically. The protocol questions,
which can be found in Appendix A, focus on basic questions regarding when planning for
career and motherhood began, factors that influenced their decision-making process, and a
brief beginning to how the process of leaving career and becoming a mother impacted
ones identity.

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In subsequent interviews, questions will be based off of responses and conversation

that transpired in the first interview. The second interview will be the most flexible and
free flowing, but the majority of the questions will be on identity; how or if it has changed
since they became a mother, and left career. This will be particularly important for women
who left career for motherhood, and then returned when children were older.

The third interview will take place with each participant after all first and second

interviews are conducted. The third interview has a focus on controlling for qualitative
research validity, particularly descriptive and interpretive validity. The researcher will use
the participant feedback technique to ensure that conclusions and interpretations of
participants data are in line with what the participants believe happened. Reaching back
out to the community of participants allows the conclusions and results to be more
generalizable to greater populations of women within reason.
Procedure

The first step in the process is to solicit participants. The researcher will reach out

to two to three individuals they personally know to get interest. The researcher will reach
out to three to five continuing education departments at local colleges and universities to
see if they can identify potential participants. From here, the researcher will begin
interviews with the current group of participants. During these interviews, the researcher
will inquire as to whether these individuals have other women who may be interested. The
snowball approach to gathering participants will continue as the first set of interviews
begin.

Once a substantial group of participants, approximately ten, have been gathered, the

first interviews will occur with these women. Separate one-and-a-half-hour interviews will

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23

be set up with each participant. During the first interview, participants will be interviewed
using the protocol questions outlined in Appendix A. Three to four weeks later the second
interview will take place. In the second interview, women will have the opportunity to
provide any further information that has been on their mind since the first interview. This
interview will primarily be focused on identity. The researcher will generate questions for
the second interview after the first interview.

The third interview will take place after all first and second interviews have taken

place with all 15-20 participants. The third interview may be several months after the first
interview depending on how quickly participants are solicited and interviewed. Between
the second and third interviews, data will be analyzed using a constant comparative
analysis in order to determine potential themes and steps to womens decision-making
process.
The third interview is focused on controlling for descriptive and interpretive
validity through participant feedback. During the third interview, the researcher will
inform the participant of their discovered themes and ask participants to discuss how they
think those findings match up with their lived experiences. This helps ensure validity
because the researcher is being careful not to publish results that are out of line with what
is really going on in womens lives. Once third interviews have taken place, the researcher
will recode the data inclusive of the third interview as well as reevaluate the themes that
may not fit with the participants lived experiences.
Analysis

Demographic information collected from the participants at the beginning of the

study will be collected and represented by a chart in the results section of the paper for

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24

reference by readers of the study. The researcher will use constant comparative analysis to
review the transcriptions and notes from the interviews. In coding the data, the researcher
will pay the closest amount of attention to: behaviors, definition of the situation, ways of
thinking, relationships and interactions, processes, and meanings. Meanings are
particularly important because this gives a sense of the weight participants put on events
occurring in their life as it relates to leaving career for family and thus the womens
identity. The researcher will look at the themes that emerge from coding to determine the
most common and significant pieces of womens processes and definitions of identity.

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25
References

Baxter Magolda, M. B. (2008). Three elements of self-authorship. Journal of College Student

Development, 49(4), 269-284.
Baxter Magolda, M. B. (2009). The activity of meaning making: A holistic perspective on
college student development. Journal of College Student Development Journal of College
Student Development, 50(6), 621-639.
Creamer, E. G. & Laughlin, A. (2005). Self-authorship and women's career decision making.
Journal of College Student Development, 46(1), 13-27.
Crowley, J. E. & Kolenikov, S. (2014). Flexible work options and mothers' perceptions of
career harm. The Sociological Quarterly, 55(1), 168-195.
Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F., Patton, L., & Renn, K. (2010). Student development in
college: Theory, research, and practice (2nd Edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Farber, R. S. (1996). An integrated perspective on women's career development within a
family. American Journal of Family Therapy, 24(4), 329-42.
Ferber, M. A. & Green, C. A. (2003). Career or family: What choices do college women have?
Journal of Labor Research, 24(1), 144-151.
Hoffnung, M. (2004). Wanting it all: Career, marriage, and motherhood during college-
education women's 20s. Sex Roles, 50(9/10)
Johnston, D. & Swanson, D. (2007). Cognitive acrobatics in the construction of worker-
mother identity. Sex Roles, 57(5-6), 5-6.
Kahn, J. R., Garca-Manglano, J., & Bianchi, S. M. (2014). The motherhood penalty at midlife:
Long-term effects of children on women's careers. Journal of Marriage and Family,
76(1), 56-72.

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Landivar, L. C. (2014). Opting out, scaling back, or business-as-usual: An occupational

assessment of women's employment. Sociological Forum, 29(1), 189-214.
Motulsky, S. L. (2010). Relational processes in career transition: Extending theory,
research, and practice. Counseling Psychologist, 38(8), 1078-1114.
Palladino-Schultheiss, D. E. (2009). To mother or matter: Can women do both? Journal of
Career Development, 36(1), 25-48.
Perrone-McGovern, K. M., Wright, S. L., Howell, D. S., & Barnum, E. L. (2014). Contextual
influences on work and family roles: Gender, culture, and socioeconomic factors. The
Career Development Quarterly, 62(1), 21-28.
Raskin, P. (2006). Women, work, and family. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(10), 1354-
1381.
Solis, H. L. & Galvin, J. M. (2012). Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity, 2011
[data file]. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from bls.gov/cps/cpsrace2011.pdf.
Whitmarsh, L., Brown, D., Cooper, J., Hawkins-Rodgers, Y., & Keyser Wentworth, D. (2007).
Choices and challenges: A qualitative exploration of professional women's career
patterns. Career Development Quarterly, 55(3), 225-236.

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Appendix A

Protocol Questions and Rationale for Interview One:

Questions Aligned with Research Q1:
Question
Rationale
When did you begin to think about and start The goal of this question is to get a sense of
planning how your career and motherhood how long the decision-making process takes
would combine?
and to discover whether or not there are
patterns that emerge among the women
being interviewed. Follow up questions
might be related to: What was going on for
you at that time? (eg. Were you in school at
the time?), What was the catalyst that began
the decision-making process?
Who influenced your opinions on career,
The goal of this question to learn more
motherhood, and the role of women?
about the key figures in female lives in
addition to how social media, historical

trends, and stereotypes impact how women
perceive themselves and motherhood. The
hope is to identify trends that emerge
among the women as I interview.
What information did you receive about
This question builds on the former. The goal
leaving career for motherhood or vice
of this question is to gain a deeper
versa?
understanding of the messages women are
receiving, understand how they interpret
them, and finally how that shapes their
opinions on career and motherhood. Follow
up questions may include: Do you think you
consciously absorbed that information? Did
you agree with the messages you were
receiving at the time?
What factors did you take into account when This question strives to fill in any gaps that
deciding whether or not to leave career once are left after the last two questions are
you found out you were having a child?
asked. The goal of this question is to
understand the conscious factors and
options women weigh as they make the
decision to leave career for motherhood.
Follow up questions may include: Were
there certain factors that weighed more

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Was there a pivotal moment in which you

decided you were going to leave your career to
start your family? If so, what was it and why
was it pivotal?

When it was time to actually make a

decision, how did your actions match or
differ from what you had planned?

Questions Aligned with Research Q2/Q3:
Question
1.) How did your career identity impact
your decision to leave work to
pursue motherhood?

28
than others? How did you know these were
the important factors to weigh?
The goal of this question is to identify the
key element that triggered a decision to be
made. This question relates to the crisis
stage in many identity development models
that suggests there is some sort of event that
causes an immediate change in thought or
action. An important follow up question
could be: When did this pivotal moment
occur? (eg. Before pregnancy, during
pregnancy, after birth)
The goal of this question is to get a sense of
how decisions change across time. This is
especially important if the woman started
thinking about career and family at a young
age. This will also speak to how others
influenced the decision-making process.
This will give insight into a key element of
decision-making. I would also be curious
how her identity shifted if she changed her
mind over the course of the lifetime. Follow
up questions would include: How do you
feel about having to change your decision?

Rationale
The goal of this question is to examine how
a womans career identity and self-
perception changes over time as her social
identity shifts from career to family. This
question advances the conversation into
identity and how one tells their story. It will
be important to observe reactions (positive,
negative, or neutral) related to how they feel
about their shift in identity. Follow up
questions may include: What identities
were salient to you before you had a child?

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Within your first year of giving birth, how

did your feelings about career and
motherhood change?

29
During? After?
The goal of this question is to elicit
reflection from the participant. At this
point, the individual has gone through the
decision-making process and can reflect on
how their feelings about career and
motherhood have shifted over the course of
their life. I would also ask the question: Do
you think you made the right decision in
leaving your career to raise a family? Do
you wish you made a different decision?
Finally I would want to know how these
feelings impact how they identify as women
now that they are mothers.