rogers, lisa - mini research proposal (eportfolio)

Running head: MINI RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1

Mini Research Proposal

Leaving Career for Motherhood:

The Impact on a Womens Identity

Lisa Rogers

Loyola University Chicago

MINI RESEARCH PROPOSAL 2

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


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


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


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


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.


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


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


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


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


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


(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


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:


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


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


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).


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


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


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.


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


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.


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


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


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.


References

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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 planning how your career and motherhood would combine?

The goal of this question is to get a sense of how long the decision-making process takes 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, motherhood, and the role of women?

The goal of this question to learn more 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 leaving career for motherhood or vice versa?

This question builds on the former. The goal of this question is to gain a deeper 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 deciding whether or not to leave career once you found out you were having a child?

This question strives to fill in any gaps that are left after the last two questions are 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


than others? How did you know these were the important factors to weigh?

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?

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)

When it was time to actually make a decision, how did your actions match or differ from what you had planned?

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?

Questions Aligned with Research Q2/Q3:

Question Rationale 1.) How did your career identity impact

your decision to leave work to pursue motherhood?

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?


During? After? Within your first year of giving birth, how did your feelings about career and motherhood change?

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.

rogers, lisa - mini research proposal (eportfolio)

Documents

decisionmaking process

percent of women

images of women

research questions

career impact

mothers identity

research goal

right decision