The motherhood experiences of women employees: An interpretive field study in Turkey

Abstract

Motherhood is an extensive research topic that can be seen in different disciplines. Problems arising from motherhood are the main research questions of this research. Social constructivism has been chosen as a philosophical basis of the research in order to understand subjective motherhood experiences of female employees through their self- expressions. According to social constructivism individuals try to make sense of the world they live in. Social constructivisttheory discusses motherhood as a social construct which constructed by members of a particular society or culture, not as a fundamental feature of women or secondary product of social structure. Phenomenological research approach has been chosen with qualitative research design. Participants of this study consist of 33 married working mothers with 0-6 years old children in Turkey. For sampling method, snowball sampling method was used as a purposive sampling strategy. Qualitative data is gathered by using an unstructured interview form with 13 questions. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis method. According to research findings, the first priority of working mothers is motherhood. Keeping a balance between motherhood and work is a real challenge for working mothers. Working mothers also experience various problems.