Can I have it all? Emerging adult women’s positions on balancing career and family

Abstract

Purpose Emerging adult women are actively engaged in career and family explorations, amidst changing opportunities and constraints. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether such women felt they could balance a high-achieving career and a family life, or what has become known in the popular discourse as women “having it all.” Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study utilized focus groups to explore subjective perceptions of balancing career and family held by emerging adult women. The sample (n=69) comprised female university students in a large Canadian metropolitan area. Findings Thematic analyses unearthed six distinct yet overlapping positions on the possibility of balancing career and family: Optimism (“I can have it all.”), Pessimism (“I cannot have it all.”), Uncertainty (“I am not sure I can have it all.”), Choice (“I don’t want to have it all.”), Pragmatism (“This is what I need to do to have it all.”) and Support (“Will I access the support necessary to have it all?”). Research limitations/implications Limitations include the potential of focus groups to elicit group polarization and to lead participants to censor opinions to conform to conversations. Still, the study reveals more nuanced positions held by women than reported earlier. Originality/value The study extends prior research by revealing the range of positions held by women toward career and family, highlighting women’s understanding of the complex issues involved and showcasing their awareness of the crucial role of social support.

Mother Like Mothers and Work Like Fathers: U.S. Heterosexual College Students’ Assumptions About Who Should Meet Childcare and Housework Demands

“…Few participants relied explicitly on gender stereotypes when explaining how family life and work life should be balanced. However, emerging adults made sense of how life should be balanced in gendered ways, as suggested by the prior literature: working husbands should be helpers (Midgette, 2020 ; Wenhold & Harrison, 2020 ), but not expected to stay at home to do childcare (Fulcher & Coyle, 2011 ; Fulcher et al, 2015 ), whereas mothers can be workers (Gere & Helwig, 2012 ), if not limited by children (Ezzedeen et al, 2018 ). Together, these findings suggest the development of a one-sided form of egalitarianism that shows preference and valuing of career and autonomy of men and women to some degree (i.e., optional or not to be limited), rather than a balancing of both career needs as well as family members’ care needs.…”

“…A recent thematic analysis of emerging adult expectations for their future found differences in how emerging adults approach balancing career and family life. Whereas some were certain that it is possible to “have it all,” others were not so sure (Ezzedeen et al, 2018 , p. 570). Ezzedeen et al’s ( 2018 ) investigation into Canadian college women’s ( M age = 21; 35.8% South Asian, 23.8% White, 13.4% Asians, 10.4% Middle Easterners, 10.4% West Indians, 3% Africans, and 3% Latinx) expectations for their future plans and expected ability to both work and have children, found that whereas some women believed they can “have it all” some referenced the notion that sacrifices would have to be made in order to balance work and career given that parenting, too, is a full-time job.…”

“…Overall, the research suggests that emerging adult women expect to take on most of the childcare and housework (Askari et al, 2010 ; Erchull et al, 2010 ; Fetterolf & Eagly, 2011 ). At the same time, emerging adult women also desire to work (Fulcher et al, 2015 ), understand that work is good for their well-being (Fetterolf & Eagly, 2011 ), and believe that a work-life balance is achievable (Ezzedeen et al, 2018 ; Gerson, 2010 ). Because emerging adult women are less likely to endorse traditional gender role attitudes, but are expecting inequality in their future, more gender egalitarian attitudes are not necessarily predictive of an expected future egalitarian division.…”

Career orientations of medical students: A Q-methodology study

“…Although Q-methodology has previously been used in career research [16][17][18], this study is the first to apply this approach to medical career research.…”

Liberal gender equality and social difference: an institutional ethnography

“…They often ignore the needs of women employees with child care and other domestic responsibilities, as well as men who may be active participants in family responsibilities (Burnett et al, 2013;Hari, 2017;Heikkinen and Lämsä, 2017;Walsh, 2013), which could lead to individualizing responsibility (Fernando and Cohen, 2014) or creating self-doubt among women employees (Toffoletti and Starr, 2016), regardless of their coping strategies (Haas et al, 2016;Herman et al, 2013). The gender ideologies that view women as responsible for child care and household work (Seierstad and Kirton, 2015) aid in making work-life balance predominantly a woman's problem (Epple et al, 2015;Rafnsdóttir and Heijstra, 2013;Romero-Balsas et al, 2013;Socratous et al, 2016) and consider career disruptions as normal for women (Maher, 2013), which need to be managed by themselves (Ezzedeen et al, 2018).…”