Maternal Body work: How Women Managers and professionals negotiate pregnancy and new motherhood at work

Gatrell, C J (2013) Maternal Body work: How Women Managers and professionals negotiate pregnancy and new motherhood at work. Human Relations, 66 (5). pp. 621-644. ISSN 0018-7267

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Abstract

This article builds on the theorizing of body work through introducing a new concept: ‘maternal body work’. In so doing, it shows how progress towards a feminist politics of motherhood within organizations remains limited. Despite decades of feminist scholarship, dissonances remain between the private worlds of reproduction and public worlds of organization. With regard to this limited progress, the article reveals how, among a sample of 27 mothers (all professionally and managerially employed in the UK), 22 felt marginalized and undervalued at work, experiencing the borders between maternity and organization as unmalleable. By contrast, five women treated borders between reproduction and organization as more fluid than anticipated. Setting a high value on their skills, they developed strategies for parrying unfavourable revisions of their status. The article concludes by considering the potential development of resources for enhancing maternal coping strategies.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Human Relations
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1408
Subjects:
?? abjectionemployed mothersmarginalizationmaternal body workpregnancywomen managerswork and familystrategy and managementsocial sciences(all)management of technology and innovationdiscipline-based research ??
ID Code:
45559
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Jul 2011 18:34
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
29 Mar 2024 00:41