TY - JOUR
T1 - Motherhood 2.0: slow progress for career women and motherhood within the ‘Finnish Dream’
AU - Niemistö, Charlotta
AU - Hearn, Jeff
AU - Kehn, Carolyn
AU - Tuori, Annamari
PY - 2021/3/12
Y1 - 2021/3/12
N2 - This article investigates the gendered dynamics of motherhood and careers, as voiced by professionals in the knowledge-intensive business sector in Finland. It is informed by the CIAR method through 81 iterative, in-depth interviews with 23 women and 19 men. Among the women respondents with no children, one child, or two children, three dominant forms of discursive talk emerge: ‘It takes two to tango’, ‘It’s all about time management’ and ‘Good motherhood 2.0’. Though Finland provides a seemingly egalitarian Nordic welfare state context, with the ‘Finnish Dream’, women face contradictions between expectations of women as full-time ideal workers pursuing masculinist careers and continuing responsibilities at home, performing ‘good motherhood’. The women’s double strivings meet the double constraining demands of these ideals. The gendered pressures are imposed on the women by themselves, male colleagues, the organisation more broadly and society, leading the women to enact a form of ‘bounded individualism’.
AB - This article investigates the gendered dynamics of motherhood and careers, as voiced by professionals in the knowledge-intensive business sector in Finland. It is informed by the CIAR method through 81 iterative, in-depth interviews with 23 women and 19 men. Among the women respondents with no children, one child, or two children, three dominant forms of discursive talk emerge: ‘It takes two to tango’, ‘It’s all about time management’ and ‘Good motherhood 2.0’. Though Finland provides a seemingly egalitarian Nordic welfare state context, with the ‘Finnish Dream’, women face contradictions between expectations of women as full-time ideal workers pursuing masculinist careers and continuing responsibilities at home, performing ‘good motherhood’. The women’s double strivings meet the double constraining demands of these ideals. The gendered pressures are imposed on the women by themselves, male colleagues, the organisation more broadly and society, leading the women to enact a form of ‘bounded individualism’.
KW - 512 Business and Management
KW - career
KW - family
KW - Finland
KW - gender
KW - knowledge professionals
KW - motherhood
KW - women
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102438156&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/69115edc-ee00-3df3-9b14-244ac5104efe/
U2 - 10.1177/0950017020987392
DO - 10.1177/0950017020987392
M3 - Article
SN - 0950-0170
VL - 35
SP - 696
EP - 715
JO - Work, Employment and Society
JF - Work, Employment and Society
IS - 4
ER -