AVERTISSEMENT
Ce document est le fruit d’un long travail approuvé par le jury de soutenance et mis à disposition de l’ensemble de la communauté universitaire élargie. Il est soumis à la propriété intellectuelle de l’auteur : ceci implique une obligation de citation et de référencement lors de l’utilisation de ce document. D’autre part, toute contrefaçon, plagiat, reproduction illicite de ce travail expose à des poursuites pénales. Contact : [email protected]
LIENS
Code la Propriété Intellectuelle – Articles L. 122-4 et L. 335-1 à L. 335-10 Loi n° 92-597 du 1er juillet 1992, publiée au Journal Officiel du 2 juillet 1992 http://www.cfcopies.com/V2/leg/leg-droi.php http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/infos-pratiques/droits/protection.htm
THÈSE
En vue de l’obtention du
DOCTORAT DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE TOULOUSE
Délivré par l’Université Toulouse 1 Capitole
Ecole doctorale : Sciences de Gestion
Présentée et soutenue par :
Camille DESJARDINS
le 19 novembre 2021
Maternity as a Tipping Point in Women’s Careers
Discipline : Sciences de Gestion
Spécialité : Management des Ressources Humaines
Unité de recherche : TSM Research, UMR 5303 CNRS
Directrice de thèse : Professeure Marion FORTIN
JURY
Rapporteurs Madame Fida AFIOUNI, Professeure associée, American University of Beirut
Madame Ariane OLLIER-MALATERRE, Professeure, Université du Québec à
Montréal
Suffragants Monsieur Akram Al Ariss, Professeur, Toulouse Business School
Monsieur Nikos Bozionelos, Professeur, EM Lyon
Monsieur Karim Mignonac, Professeur, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole
4
Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by a research grant of the Agence Nationale de la
Recherche, to whom I am grateful for giving me the opportunity to do a PhD. I wish to thank
the administrative members of TSM-Research laboratory and TSM doctoral programme for
helping with my research activities: thank you Anne-Sophie, Cédric, Claudia, Corinne,
Lesley, Montserrat, and Sarah. Thank you also to Fany Declerk, the former head of the
doctoral programme who has been a great support during the first years of my PhD. I also
wish to thank all the professors from the HR/OB track at TSM-Research for providing
invaluable feedback on my research over the years.
I would not have completed this journey without the help and guidance of my
wonderful PhD supervisor, Prof. Marion Fortin. Marion has been a tremendous mentor and a
great source of inspiration for me during the PhD. I would like to thank her for offering me
the opportunity to work on the JuDy project with her, this wonderful experience has made me
grow as a person and as a researcher, and I am very grateful for it. Marion, thank you for
your support, patience and benevolence throughout these three years. I hope that our paths
will cross again.
I wish to thank my dear co-authors, Prof. Marjo-Riitta Diehl, Dr. Hayley German and
Prof. Marc O’hana, it has been a great honor and pleasure to work by their sides. I hope for
many more research projects together in the future. Thank you also to Manon Bessolles, a
wonderful colleague who has been of great help in conducting the studies of the JuDy
project.
I am also very grateful to the members of my Viva Voce committee: Dr. Fida Afiouni,
Prof. Akram Al Ariss, Prof. Nikos Bozionelos, Prof. Ariane Ollier-Malaterre and Prof. Karim
Mignonac. Thank you for taking the time to read my thesis, to attend my Viva Voce and for
doing me the great honor of sharing your expertise with me.
5
I want to acknowledge all the women I interviewed as part of this research, I thank
them for their time and for trusting me with their narratives. I hope that this research can help
other mothers (to be) and that it will make a positive difference within organizations.
I am thankful for crossing the paths of my PhD colleagues at the doctoral programme,
and for the beautiful friendships created through this experience: a special thought for
Eugénie, Acil and Nour. In particular, I wish to thank the colleagues with whom I used to
share an office as well as great solidarity, Angela, Batoul, Jenny, Thi, Mathieu, and all my
other colleagues from room J206. Thank you also to my fellow delegates, David, Evgeniya,
Thi and Vincent, it was great working with you toward creating more cohesion among TSM
PhD students. A heartfelt thank you to Clark Warner who has always shared great tips with
me and kindly offered his help during the writing phase of my PhD. Thank you for accepting
to proof read the first and last chapters of my thesis, Clark. And last but not least, a very
special thank you to Giulia Pavone, a colleague that has become a precious friend, who has
closely shared this journey with me. Our numerous coffee breaks, rich conversations and fun
moments outside of work have made this PhD adventure more enjoyable.
This accomplishment would not have been made possible without the full and
constant support of my fantastic parents, Michel and Nathalie. They have always supported
me in any choices I made in life and their love and encouragement throughout the years have
made the completion of this thesis possible, I will never thank them enough for that. Thank
you also to my darling sisters, Manon and Charlotte, for their phone calls and comforting
words during these three years of hard work.
Finally, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my dear husband, Jed,
who has provided me with uninterrupted support during this journey. The PhD has for sure
come with important challenges but he has always found the words to encourage me
6
overcome obstacles. I wish to thank him for his patience, love, and reassurance but also for
cooking delicious food during these three years.
7
Table of contents
Dedication ................................................................................................................................. 3
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... 4
Table of contents ...................................................................................................................... 7
List of tables ........................................................................................................................... 11
List of figures ......................................................................................................................... 12
List of acronyms .................................................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER 1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 14
1. Research motivation ................................................................................................................ 14
2. Motivations behind my research questions ........................................................................... 16
2.1. The evolving literature on women’s careers ...................................................................... 16
2.2. Justice experiences at the time around maternity leave ...................................................... 17
2.3. Interruption challenges for mothers of young children ...................................................... 18
3. Thesis theoretical background ............................................................................................... 21
3.1. A historic overview of women’s careers research .............................................................. 21
3.2. Positioning my thesis in the literature on women’s careers ............................................... 25
4. Content overview ..................................................................................................................... 25
5. Thesis contributions ................................................................................................................ 27
5.1. To research ......................................................................................................................... 27
5.2. To practice .......................................................................................................................... 30
6. Declaration of contribution ..................................................................................................... 31
7. Conclusion of introduction chapter ....................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER 2. Novel Perspectives on Women’s Careers: A Review and Directions for
Future Research ..................................................................................................................... 34
8
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 35
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 36
2. Structure and approach of the review ................................................................................... 39
3. Five distinct perspectives on women’s careers ...................................................................... 45
3.1. The relational perspective .................................................................................................. 45
3.2. The decision-making perspective ....................................................................................... 52
3.3. The gender bias perspective ............................................................................................... 57
3.4. The temporal perspective ................................................................................................... 62
3.5. The intersectional perspective ............................................................................................ 69
4. “Looking ahead”: A path forward for research on women’s careers ................................ 73
4.1. Greater account of time ...................................................................................................... 73
4.2. Greater intersectionality ..................................................................................................... 75
4.3. Integration of biased-reduction interventions ..................................................................... 76
4.4. Need for adopting a holistic approach ................................................................................ 77
5. Limitations ............................................................................................................................... 79
6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 79
CHAPTER 3. (In)justice episodes around maternity leave: How women going on and
returning from maternity leave experience, make sense of, and react to justice-related
experiences ............................................................................................................................. 81
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 82
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 83
2. Theoretical background .......................................................................................................... 84
2.1. (Justice) Experiences at the time around maternity leave .................................................. 84
2.2. About justice events ........................................................................................................... 87
3. Method ...................................................................................................................................... 92
3.1. Sample ................................................................................................................................ 92
3.2. Study design and data collection ........................................................................................ 93
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3.3. Coding process ................................................................................................................... 94
4. Findings .................................................................................................................................... 97
4.1. Injustice events at the time around maternity leave ........................................................... 97
4.2. Justice episodes: How injustice events and justice omissions are interwoven over time 103
4.3. Justice memories and anticipations .................................................................................. 107
4.4. Responses to (in)justice experiences ................................................................................ 111
5. DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................................... 120
6. Practical implications ............................................................................................................ 125
7. Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 128
8. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 129
CHAPTER 4. All at Home: The Gender Effect of Work and Childcare Interruptions
during Telework .................................................................................................................. 130
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 131
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 132
2. Theoretical background ........................................................................................................ 135
2.1. Telework of working parents in times of COVID-19 ...................................................... 135
2.2. Career goals - long term and daily ................................................................................... 137
2.3. Interruptions and career goals .......................................................................................... 137
2.4. Interruptions and work engagement ................................................................................. 140
2.5. Interruptions and emotional exhaustion ........................................................................... 141
2.6. Gender effects of cross-domain interruptions .................................................................. 143
3. Method .................................................................................................................................... 145
3.1. Design, procedure and participants .................................................................................. 145
3.2. Measures ........................................................................................................................... 146
4. Results ..................................................................................................................................... 147
4.1. Analytic strategy ............................................................................................................... 147
4.2. Variance decomposition ................................................................................................... 148
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4.3. MCFAs ............................................................................................................................. 148
4.4. Hypothesis testing ............................................................................................................ 149
5. Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 154
CHAPTER 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 158
1. Synthesis of the papers .......................................................................................................... 158
2. Theoretical contributions ...................................................................................................... 160
2.1. Contribution to the literature on women’s careers ........................................................... 160
2.2. Contributions to organizational behavior ......................................................................... 162
3. Managerial implications ........................................................................................................ 164
4. Limitations and future research opportunities ................................................................... 167
5. Final conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 169
References ............................................................................................................................ 170
Appendices ........................................................................................................................... 207
Appendix 1. Women’s careers review data structure ................................................................ 207
Appendix 2. Interview guide for the first interview ................................................................... 213
Abstracts ............................................................................................................................... 215
French Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 215
English Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 216
Keywords ........................................................................................................................................ 218
11
List of tables
Chapter 1.
Table 1. Thesis overview ......................................................................................................... 33
Chapter 2.
Table 1. List of journals and number of articles included in the review ................................. 41
Table 2. Overview of the five perspectives on women's careers ............................................. 44
Chapter 3.
Table 1. Type of injustice events encountered across waves ................................................ 102
Table 2. Type of justice omissions encountered across waves .............................................. 106
Table 3. Propositions to counter the most common (in)justice events and omissions around
maternity leave ........................................................................................................ 127
Chapter 4.
Table 1. Means, SDs, Intraclass Coefficients, and Correlations ........................................... 148
Table 2. Indirect Effects ........................................................................................................ 151
Table 3. Interaction Effects ................................................................................................... 152
12
List of figures
Chapter 3.
Figure 1. Data structure ........................................................................................................... 96
Figure 2. Justice episode dynamics around maternity leave and career-related responses ... 119
Chapter 4.
Figure 1. Mediation model .................................................................................................... 149
Figure 2. Plots of the moderating effect of gender on relationships of WCI with authenticity153
Figure 3. Plots of the moderating effect of gender on relationships of WCI with balance ... 153
Figure 4. Plots of the moderating effect of gender on relationships of WCI with challenge 154
13
List of acronyms
CWIs: Childcare-to-work interruptions
WCIs: Work-to-childcare interruptions
KCM: Kaleidoscope career model
14
CHAPTER 1. Introduction
1. Research motivation
1
1 Sources https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01993-x https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/26/thinktank-sounds-warning-over-female-workers-stuck-on-mummy-track https://theconversation.com/women-face-motherhood-penalty-in-stem-careers-long-before-they-actually-become-mothers-164744 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/motherhood-penalty-cuts-earnings-by-up-to-45-zqnlxg3jj
https://www.ft.com/content/19025754-ad69-4cfa-9653-f8c8216539e9 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/upshot/coronavirus-careers.html
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Despite the growing participation of women in the workforce (Bernard, 2019) and the
fact that they now hold more higher education degrees than men (Couppié & Epiphane,
2019), women still lag behind their male counterparts in terms of career progression and
opportunities. In particular, research shows that the increase in disparities between women’s
and men’s careers coincides with the birth of the first child and continues to grow in the years
following childbirth (Coudin et al., 2019). When they become mothers, women see their
earnings drop (Cukrowska-Torzewska & Matysiak, 2020), however lower pay is not the only
penalty associated with motherhood. Indeed, mothers tend to be seen as incompetent (Masser
et al., 2007) and are less likely to be hired (Correll et al., 2007). This phenomenon has been
termed the ‘motherhood penalty’ and there is evidence that mothers may face its
consequences throughout their entire career (Eurofound, 2015; Eurofound, 2012).
Often, women end up being stuck on what has been called the ‘mummy track’ once
they have children, which typically refers to jobs with greater flexibility or fewer hours, at the
price of career advancement and responsibility. Research specifically shows that
organizations and managers are reluctant to promote mothers who work fractionally (Blair-
Loy, 2003). For instance, a recent longitudinal study conducted in France suggests that the
majority of the motherhood penalty can be attributed to a gap in promotions: Following
childbirth, women’s career advancement drops and while women start again making some
moves up the corporate ladder after two years, the earning gains associated with those moves
are much lower than for childless women (Lucifora et al., 2021).
At the same time, more and more initiatives have been implemented to put an end to
gender inequalities in organizations and societies. For example, Emmanuel Macron has
chosen gender equality as one of the major goals of his presidential mandate. In January
2019, the French government has implemented the ‘Gender Work Equality Index’, which has
been developed with the goal to eliminate gender inequalities within organizations. Each year
16
companies with more than 50 employees have to calculate their gender work equality score
based on five indicators and communicate their score to the government. One of the
indicators of this index is concerned with mothers’ return form maternity leave and stipulates
that if salary increases have been granted within the organization during the employee’s
maternity leave, the organization also has to re-evaluate her remuneration. Specifically, the
returning employee should receive an increase equivalent to the average of individual
increases allocated to employees in the same professional category during the period of
maternity leave2.
Despite these advances and with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we
observe a decline in gender equality as suggested by the Global Gender Gap Report (World
Economic Forum, 2021). Specifically, the report states that it will take up to 267.6 years to
close the Gender Economic Participation and Opportunity gap, which includes the labor force
participation gap, the remuneration gap and the career advancement gap. A better
understanding of the mechanisms behind these gaps and penalties is needed if we want to
achieve work and career equality between men and women.
2. Motivations behind my research questions
2.1. The evolving literature on women’s careers
The topic of gender career equality and the careers of women in particular have
received growing scholarly attention over the past century (Joshi et al., 2015), and have
yielded important advances in our understanding of women’s career experiences. Yet, the
production of knowledge on this topic has tended to occur in a fragmented way. Very
different themes related to women’s careers have been covered in different disciplines such
2 https://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/droit-du-travail/egalite-professionnelle-discrimination-et-
harcelement/indexegapro
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as psychology and labor economics, through different approaches, and using varied theories.
We believe that there is a need to take stock of the evolution of the literature on women’s
careers to provide novel insights on this important topic and to delineate new directions to
move the field forward.
2.2. Justice experiences at the time around maternity leave
Academic research reveals that women who have children experience many
stereotypes and prejudices at work in relation to their maternity (Grandey et al., 2020).
Recent data show that once they become mothers, women face a median loss of 45% in
earnings as compared to if they had remained childless (Vagni & Breen, 2021). Following
childbirth, women also end up having fewer career prospects with 61% of scientist-mothers
believing that becoming a parent has damaged their career and 38% of them reporting they
have been offered fewer work opportunities since childbirth (Mother in science, 2021).
Highly skilled women are the ones that suffer the strongest consequences from spending time
out of employment to look after their children (England et al., 2016).
This gender career gap is often explained by women’s changing career motives
following childbirth. At the beginning of this century, several newspaper articles sparked
debates around the ‘Opt-out revolution’ phenomenon that described the decision of highly
educated women to leave the workforce to take care of their children, thus conforming to
traditional gender role expectations (Belkin, 2003; Story, 2005). These articles were highly
criticized for referring to this phenomenon as a choice, only considering the “pulls” attracting
working mothers out of the workforce, and failing to acknowledge the work-related
constraints associated with this decision, i.e., “pushes” (Williams et al., 2006).
A very new stream of research shows that the work experiences of women during
their pregnancy and upon work reentry following maternity leave can result in evolving
career attitudes for working women. Specifically, two studies have shown how interpersonal
18
experiences during pregnancy could harm women’s career attitudes. The results of the first
study suggest that work-interfering help received from coworkers during pregnancy can
result in turnover intentions postpartum for women (Jones et al., 2020) and the second study
shows that perceived decreased career encouragement influences women’s turnover
intentions throughout their pregnancy (Paustian-Underdahl et al., 2019). Further, work-
reentry experiences also seem to be important for women’s work and career outcomes.
Specifically, the perceived (lack of) organizational support directly impacts home stress and
indirectly affects experiences at work (Little & Masterson, In press). These results suggest
that threatening interpersonal experiences during a time of heightened uncertainty, i.e.,
pregnancy and maternity leave, can have harmful consequences for women’s career
outcomes over time. Understanding how women personally experience, make sense of and
react to the treatment they receive at work at the critical time of maternity leave can further
our knowledge on women’s career dynamics following childbirth.
2.3. Interruption challenges for mothers of young children
For the many women who decide to remain in the workforce while having young
children, work practices and childcare arrangements often bring about daily challenges. This
is especially true in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2019, the French
government decided to close schools and childcare services and many employees were asked
to work entirely from home for several months. These unique work settings, where parents of
young children had to simultaneously work and take care of their children, resulted in the
blurring of the work and family spheres for many of them. For instance, parents of young
children were likely to experience interruptions, defined as “unexpected suspension of the
behavioral performance of, and/or attentional focus from, an ongoing work task” (Puranik et
al., 2020, p. 817), coming from the work sphere while looking after their children, and from
children while working.
19
Research shows that teleworking from home increases the likelihood of experiencing
interruptions between home and work (Delanoeije et al., 2019) and the unique context of the
COVID-19 pandemic has been found to exacerbate these interruptions. Indeed, the pandemic
context brought many challenges for teleworking parents who juggled between their work
responsibilities and childcare as reported in the Washington Post: “Our personal
responsibilities interrupt our professional ones, which interrupt our personal ones — and we
feel we are failing at all our jobs.” (Edwards & Snyder, 2020). Based on this observation, the
two journalists decided to run an experiment which showed that the parent on childcare duty
was interrupted 45 times in a three-hour period for an average of 15 times per hour.
Noteworthy, mothers are more likely than fathers to be interrupted during their working
hours: while women could work 35% of their working hours without being interrupted, men
could do so for 70% of their work time (Andrew et al., 2020).
At the same time, we observe that the new work practices and associated challenges
have a strong impact on women’s career outcomes. A recent report indicates that women
have been experiencing a shift in their career attitudes and experiences since the beginning of
the pandemic (Deloitte, 2021). Specifically, 51% of surveyed women reported feeling less
optimistic about their career prospects and 57% of them mentioned planning to leave their
current job within two years. Women cited work-life balance concerns as the major reason
for having the intention to quit their employer. While it is clear that the pandemic has
adversely impacted women’s career outcomes, how women experience work on a daily basis
under pandemic settings is less well understood. There is a need to further our knowledge on
women’s work experiences during this critical time because they are likely to hold important
implications for women’s career development. It is reasonable to question whether these
experiences will end up widening the gender career gap in the long term, as already shown in
20
the Global Gender Gap Report 2021 which suggests that it will now take 135.6 years3 to
close the global gender gap worldwide as opposed to 99.5 years before the beginning of the
pandemic.
Overall, there is a need to develop a better understanding of mothers’ unique work
experiences that are known to have harmful consequences on women’s career outcomes. By
doing so, organizations and managers will be able to provide appropriate support to these
employees, to retain female talent within organizations and potentially to help make steps
toward closing the gender career gap.
The aim of this research is to obtain a better understanding of women’s career
experiences and in particular the work experiences of women at two critical points in their
careers, namely maternity leave and the COVID-19 pandemic. It also seeks to explore how
women’s personal interpretation of the justice and interruption experiences might impact
their career aspirations, attitudes and behaviors over time. Specifically, my work is guided by
the following overarching research question: How do work experiences influence women’s
career outcomes over time? Each paper presented in the following chapters assists me in this
quest by asking the following sub questions:
- Paper 1 (Chapter 2): How has the literature on and our knowledge of women’s careers
evolved over the last decade?
- Paper 2 (Chapter 3): What types of justice-related events do women experience at the
time around maternity leave, and how do they interpret and make sense of these
events? How do these (in)justice experiences affect their career intentions and
choices?
3 The Global Gender Gap is composed of the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap,
the Educational Attainment gap, the Health and Survival gap and the Political Empowerment
gap.
21
- Paper 3 (Chapter 4): How are daily cross-domain interruptions between work and
childcare experienced by teleworking mothers and fathers of young children, and how
do these experience affect their career motive fulfillment, wellbeing and work
attitudes?
3. Thesis theoretical background
This research is inscribed in the literature on women’s careers and builds on the
organizational justice framework (Greenberg, 1987) and research on work interruptions (e.g.,
Puranik et al., 2020).
3.1. A historic overview of women’s careers research
Historically, career researchers have tended to focus on the career development
patterns of men (e.g., Levinson, 1978; Schein, 1978) and have paid little or no attention to
women’s career specificities (Gallos, 1989; Sullivan, 1999). This is problematic because
several studies have shown that fundamental career theories such as Super’s career stages
theory (1957) and Levinson’s seasons of life theory (1978) could not be applied to women
because they failed to capture women’s complex lives (e.g., Ornstein & Isabella, 1990; Smart
& Peterson, 1994). These observations led several career scholars to shift away from the
conceptualizations and empirical investigations of men’s careers to focus on women’s career
development specifically. The first papers showing interest in how women’s careers evolve
over time go back to the 1980s. For example, Rossi (1980) regretted the lack of consideration
of biological factors in life-span theories and explored the influence of important concerns
such as work-family balance, maternal responsibility and the meaning of age and aging on
women’s career and life-span development. Further, new theories were developed such as
Astin’s model of career choice and work behavior (1984), which proposes a need-based
sociopsychological approach to explain how different psychological and cultural-
22
environmental factors interact to generate a career choice. Specifically, Astin argued that
women and men typically differed in the work and career expectations that shape their career
choices, which are informed by their socialization experiences and the knowledge of their
environmental constraints.
In the 1990s and 2000s, career scholars started to consider that approaching careers as
linear, stable, and limited to organizational boundaries was no longer relevant in light of the
increasingly dynamic nature of work environments. Hence, new models of career
development were proposed to capture the major changes associated with the way careers
were seen, developed and utilized. These new models, which include the protean career
model (Hall, 1996, 2004) and the boundaryless careers (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996) model,
reflected the increasing mobility of workers across professions, organizations, and countries
(Sullivan & Arthur, 2006), and revealed that more and more individuals followed value-
driven careers where career success was defined in more subjective ways (Hall, 1996; Heslin,
2005). Again, several researchers argued that these new models did not fully account for the
unique specificities of women’s careers (Sullivan & Mainiero, 2008). In response to this
observation, new models integrating women’s larger life contexts were proposed.
Back in 1992, Powell and Mainiero developed a conceptual model, namely Cross-
Currents in the River of Time, arguing that women are concerned with both their career and
their relationships but the degree of importance given to each domain is likely to differ over
time, and to subsequently influence women’s career decisions. Building on empirical
findings, O’Neil and Bilimoria (2005) proposed a three-phase model to explain women’s
career patterns over time. The first phase, idealistic achievement, occurs in early career stages
and is driven by women’s desire for success and career advancement. The second phase,
pragmatic endurance, happens in mid-career stages when women usually have professional
and personal responsibilities and try to reconcile the two. The third phase, reinventive
23
contribution, corresponds to advanced career stages where women are concerned with
contributing to both their work and families. While women’s motivations differ across
phases, success in both their career and relationships matter in each of them.
In a similar vein, Mainiero and Sullivan (2005) conducted multiple studies to develop
the kaleidoscope career model (KCM) that accounts for the differences in the way women
and men describe and build their careers. While their results showed that men were more
likely to follow a traditional career path (i.e., upward career progression in one industry),
women on the contrary often rejected the concept of linear careers with traditional career
success standards. Specifically, Mainiero and Sullivan argue that careers are not defined by
organizations anymore but by the worker’s own life choices and values, and thus their KCM
captures the influence of individuals’ life components on their career. According to the KCM,
individuals make career decisions based on three main motives that typically shift over the
course of a career, namely authenticity, balance and challenge. Authenticity refers to making
professional choices that allow an individual to be true to herself or himself, balance involves
the pursuit of an equilibrium between work and non-work domains and challenge designates
the need for an individual to perform a stimulating work that offer professional opportunities
(Sullivan & Mainiero, 2007). Typically, women and men tend to focus on challenge in their
early career, in mid-career men tend to value authenticity while women are more concerned
with balance, and finally, women direct their attention to authenticity in their late career
unlike men who tend to pursue balance (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005). When one parameter
moves into the foreground, the other parameters remain still somehow active but they recede
to the background.
The KCM is one of the most prominent models for the study of women’s careers and
its relevance has been tested empirically in different contexts. For example, studies have used
the KCM as a theoretical framework in the context of career transitions (Mainiero & Gibson,
24
2018) and more specifically women’s opting-out and opting-(back)in experiences (Cabrera,
2007, 2009; Zimmerman & Clark, 2016). The KCM has also been drawn on to explain the
different career patterns of dual career couples (Clarke, 2015) and the contrasting career
motives of different generations of workers (Sullivan, Forret, Carraher & Mainiero, 2009). It
has also been suggested as a framework to identify the sources of stress for women at work,
and in turn help reduce them (Sullivan & Mainiero, 2007). More recently the KCM has been
applied in the context of emigration (O’Connor & Crowley-Henry, 2020).
While simultaneously examining how women’s careers may differ from men’s,
research explored barriers to gender career equality. For example, scholars sought to answer
important questions such as ‘why are women underrepresented at the highest levels of the
hierarchy’. With the introduction of the glass metaphors, researchers started to investigate
phenomena explaining how women’s career advancement is restrained. The most well known
metaphor may be the ‘glass ceiling’ (Morrison et al., 1987), which refers to vertical
discrimination against women preventing them from accessing the highest organizational
positions. Once they breach the glass ceiling, women may also encounter the ‘glass cliff’,
described by Ryan and Haslam (2005) as the phenomenon by which women are only
assigned to executive roles in times of crisis, where chances of failure are higher.
More recently, scholars have started to explore the role of women’s physiological
changes in their career experiences. Gatrell and colleagues (2017) offer new perspectives on
how maternal bodies, which reflect women’s potential for childbirth, can explain the
underrepresentation of women at the highest levels of organizational hierarchies. Drawing on
Douglas’ reflections on the concepts of “taboo” and “social pollution” (1966), the authors
draw parallels between tribal communities and organizations to demonstrate how women are
ostracized from career-advancing positions. Specifically, Gatrell and colleagues suggest that
this happen for three reasons: equivocality, which refers to the fact that maternal bodies are
25
reminders of childbirth spilling over to the workplace, contextuality, which suggests that
maternal bodies belong to home rather than organizational settings and medicalization, which
implies that maternal bodies are seen as highly hormonal and are associated with a perceived
reduction in cognitive ability. Moreover, the authors argue that the association of negative
organizational outcomes with the maternal body is strongest during pregnancy and new
motherhood. Similarly, Grandey and colleagues (2020) identify menstruation, maternity and
menopause, which they refer to as the three Ms, as taboo topics in the workplace.
Consequently, the authors argue that the natural experiences of the three Ms throughout
women’s career life are associated with stereotypical beliefs and are often incongruent with
ideal worker expectations. These beliefs and experiences can harm women’s career progress.
3.2. Positioning my thesis in the literature on women’s careers
Despite the increased level of research in the field of women’s career studies over the
past two decades, there remain many unanswered questions. A substantial body of research
has explored the macro phenomena describing women's career barriers (e.g., the motherhood
penalty, the glass ceiling, etc.), however there is still a lot to unveil about the micro dynamics
behind these career penalties. In particular, research is lacking person-centric investigations
of women’s experiences at different turning points of their careers. Gaining knowledge on
women’s career experiences is crucial for retaining women in the workforce and helping
them progress in their careers. In my research, I seek to address this gap by investigating
women’s career experiences through different means, as detailed in the section that follows.
4. Content overview
This research explores women’s career experiences at two critical points in their
careers, namely the period of maternity leave and the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it
26
examines the influence of justice-related and interruption experiences on important work and
career outcomes.
This thesis is constituted by three distinct papers, including one integrative review
article and two empirical studies. The first paper (Chapter 2), entitled “Novel Perspectives on
Women’s Careers: A Review and Directions for Future Research”, provides an integrative
review of the literature on women’s careers. We focus on research published from 2009
onward as we build on the 2008 review by O’Neil and colleagues entitled “Women’s Careers
at the Start of the 21st Century: Patterns and Paradoxes”. With this paper, our aim is to
provide a fresh examination of the recent and quickly amassing research on women’s careers.
We reviewed 167 articles on this topic and conducted an inductive analysis (Thomas, 2006)
to categorize the relevant research articles. Our analysis yields five distinct perspectives on
the topic, from which we derive four directions for future research.
The second paper (Chapter 3), “(In)Justice Episodes around Maternity Leave: How
Women Going on and Returning from Leave Experience, Make Sense of, and React to
Justice-Related Experiences”, presents a longitudinal qualitative study on women’s personal
experiences at work at the time around their maternity leave. We conducted semi-structured
interviews with highly educated working women at three points in time from their pregnancy
disclosure up to their work reentry following maternity leave. We draw on the framework of
organizational justice (Greenberg, 1987) and adopt a person-centric approach (Weiss &
Rupp, 2011) to investigate women’s justice-related experiences at this critical transition time,
as well as their associated career attitudes and decisions. The findings show that women are
confronted with numerous injustice events around the time of their maternity leave, but also
to justice omissions that we define as the absence of action which in turn gives rise to an
unfairness assessment. Altogether, the interplay between injustice events and justice
27
omissions over time has important consequences on women’s career aspirations, attitudes and
decisions.
Finally, in the third paper (Chapter 4) “All at Home: The Gender Effect of Work and
Childcare Interruptions during Telework”, we present a diary study over five consecutive
days among teleworking parents during the first COVID-related lockdown in France (in April
2020). In this study, we investigate the impact of two types of interruptions, namely work
interrupting childcare and childcare interrupting work, on parents’ work engagement and
emotional exhaustion, via the mediating effect of career goal fulfillment. While we find that
childcare to work interruptions negatively affect both women and men’s career goal
fulfillment as well as the downstream outcomes of work engagement and emotional
exhaustion, our results also suggest that women and men experience work to childcare
interruptions differently. Specifically, we find that only women’s perceived balance
fulfillment is damaged by work to childcare interruptions, while men somewhat benefit from
these types of interruptions and see their daily levels of authenticity and challenge rise.
5. Thesis contributions
5.1. To research
5.1.1. Novel perspectives on women’s careers
The first paper (Chapter 2) takes stock of the recent literature on women’s careers and
its evolution over the past decade. Building on the review by O’Neil, Hopkins and Bilimoria
(2008), it offers an encompassing view of the evolution of the field and its current knowledge
by bringing together contributions from the management, applied psychology and career
disciplines. Our analyses enable the development of five distinct perspectives that summarize
and organize the literature on women’s careers in a clear and coherent way and help shed
light on important research gaps.
28
The major perspectives and their associated research gaps allowed for the
development of four directions for future research on the topic of women’s careers. Each
direction presents empirical and theoretical opportunities that can help move the field
forward. The first direction, greater account of time, stresses the need to embrace women’s
career temporal dynamics and to integrate subjective time in the study of women’s career
experiences. The second direction, greater intersectionality, recommends adopting an
intersectional lens (e.g., make comparisons across samples of women with different social
characteristics) to get more accurate representations of the careers of all women. The third,
integration of bias-reduction interventions, proposes to take concrete action against gender
biases and implement tailored interventions within organizations. Finally, the fourth
direction, need for adopting a holistic approach, encourages scholars to adopt a holistic
approach in their studies by integrating the five perspectives, in order to get a more
comprehensive understanding of women’s career experiences. Taken together, the distinct
perspectives and the four directions for future research highlight the important questions that
need to be answered as we look for steps toward closing the gender career gap.
5.1.2. Justice dynamics in the context of women’s careers
The second paper (Chapter 3) contributes to the literatures on women’s careers and on
organizational justice in several ways. First, it answers a call made a decade ago for the
investigation of subjective experiences within organizations (Weiss & Rupp, 2011) and
provides one of the first person-centric investigations of justice dynamics in the context of
women’s careers. Specifically, it shows how women personally experience, make sense of
and react to the treatment they receive at work at the time around their maternity leave. We
provide important information on the typical injustice events women are likely to experience
around their maternity leave and how such experiences can result in career responses over
time.
29
Second, the findings advance our understanding of justice episodes (Whiteside &
Barclay, 2015) by integrating a new concept, i.e., justice omission. While previous research
focused on justice judgments of entities and events, we find that individuals can also form
fairness assessments in relation to an absence of action, which we term a justice omission. In
particular, our results suggest a two-way relationship between events and omissions such that
often both stem from the same underlying issue, one can trigger the other over time, and
together they can form a justice episode.
Finally, this research helps us understand the role of motivated reasoning in justice
judgment formation, as we draw on system justification theory (Jost & Banaji, 1994) and
autobiographical memory (Brewer, 1986) in our analysis of the data. We find that when
confronted with specific (in)justice episodes, some participants provide justifications for
perceived unfair treatment. Noticeably, many women who engage in system justification do
so consistently over time, but despite their justification efforts they also tend to experience
decreased career aspirations and increased turnover intentions. In line with Barclay and
colleagues’ suggestion that memories are a key element of motivated justice reasoning
(2017), our findings suggest that women are likely to mobilize autobiographic memory to
make sense of the treatment they receive at work and therefore to retrieve past (in)justice
experiences to fit with present justice experiences. Memories of past injustice experiences
may also form the basis for anticipated injustice.
5.1.3. Work and career consequences of cross-domain interruptions
The third paper (Chapter 4) contributes to the literature on interruptions in several
ways. First, by drawing on the gender role theory (Gutek et al., 1991) it provides important
information on the underlying mechanisms that can explain why and how daily experiences
of work to childcare and childcare to work interruptions affect women differently from men.
Specifically, it highlights the importance of studying interruptions in the context of
30
individuals’ life and career goals. Second, it answers a recent call for the investigation of the
bright side of interruptions (Puranik et al., 2020) and provides evidence that interruptions can
be beneficial for some individuals in specific context. In particular, our findings show that
fathers’ perceived career goal fulfillment can benefit from work to childcare interruptions,
which in turn affect important work and well-being outcomes. Third, it contributes to the
literature on women’s careers by showing how the daily experience of interruptions between
work and childcare may constitute a push-out factor for women’s workforce participation
over time.
Overall, the constituting three papers of my thesis conjointly contribute to the
literature on women’s careers by providing conceptual clarifications and empirical
investigations of women’s career experiences at two critical career transitions periods.
5.2. To practice
This research has implications for organizations and managers wishing to improve
women’s career experiences and to make steps toward closing the gender career gap.
The first paper identifies important manifestations of biases within organizations and
it suggests that different groups of women face unique work experiences and challenge.
These findings shed light on the important issues managers need to pay attention to in order
to support all women’s career experiences and development.
The second paper informs us of the typical injustice events and justice omissions
women experience from the time they announce their pregnancy up to their work reentry
after maternity leave. While our listing of injustice events shares important information on
the practices and behaviors to be avoided by managers and colleagues, our description of
justice omissions brings useful clues on the actions organizations need to undertake during
this critical time period filled with uncertainty for women. In the paper, we offer 14 clear
suggestions of actions to implement to counter the injustice events and justice omissions that
31
we identify as the most common. For example, a booklet with all of the information related to
pregnancy, maternity and breastfeeding provisions can be distributed to employees following
their pregnancy disclosure. As such, we provide organizations and managers with important
tools to better handle the transition period of maternity leave.
The third paper suggests that under teleworking settings, interruptions between the
work and childcare spheres can be experienced differently by women and men. Thus, it is
important that organizations and managers take this information into consideration when
designing work tasks and work arrangements. Specifically, we encourage organizations to
provide flexibility to their employees, especially mothers, as it might help to reduce the
occurrence of childcare to work interruptions, which are associated with harmful work and
well being consequences. At the same time, if employees have more autonomy in their
working hours, they may better manage interruption experiences and diminish their negative
effects. In particular, it is important that employees and managers share information on how
and when they can be interrupted.
6. Declaration of contribution
Chapter 2 “Novel Perspectives on Women’s Careers: A Review and Directions for Future
Research”: The first paper has been co-authored with Prof. Marjo-Riitta Diehl. I am the first
author on this paper. A short version of this paper has been accepted for presentation at
EAWOP 2022 and the full paper is currently being prepared for submission to the Journal of
Vocational Behavior.
Chapter 3 “(In)Justice Episodes around Maternity Leave: How Women Going on and
Returning from Maternity Leave Experience, Make Sense of, and React to Justice-Related
Experiences”: The second paper was co-authored with my PhD supervisor, Prof. Marion
Fortin. I am the first author on this paper. This paper has been presented at several academic
32
peer-reviewed conferences including Academy of Management, European Academy of
Management, European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology, International
Society for Justice Research and to a research colloquium at Aston Business School. The
manuscript is currently being prepared for submission to Academy of Management Journal.
Chapter 4 “All at Home: The Gender Effect of Work and Childcare Interruptions during
Telework”: The final paper is the result of a collaboration with Prof. Marion Fortin, Dr.
Hayley German and Prof. Marc Ohana. I am second author on this paper. This paper has been
presented at the Academy of Management conference and at a research colloquium at Aston
Business School. The manuscript is currently being prepared for submission.
7. Conclusion of introduction chapter
Women have long been discriminated against at work and recent research suggests
that they are still faced with many challenges and several disadvantages throughout their
working life. One of the biggest challenges may be experienced in relation to maternity.
Maternity leave is a time associated with heightened uncertainty for women who have doubts
about how their supervisor will react to their pregnancy announcement, about what could
happen during their absence, and about their return to work experience. Women are likely to
experience (in)justice events and omissions at this critical time, which trigger career
responses over time. Challenges at work continue to arise when women look after young
children, with the manifestation of work-childcare interruptions. Overall, these justice and
interruption experiences are likely to result in harmful career outcomes for women.
In the following chapters, I present three distinct articles, which are the fruit of my
PhD journey. A summary of each paper is provided in Table 1 below. I provide a conclusion
to this research at the end of the thesis, and present its overall contributions as well as
research and practical implications.
33
T
hesis resea
rch q
uestio
n: H
ow
do w
ork
experien
ces influ
ence w
om
en’s ca
reer ou
tcom
es over tim
e?
ap
ers R
esearch
qu
estion
s T
heo
retical
gro
un
din
g
Meth
od
s C
on
tribu
tion
s to resea
rch
Pra
ctical im
plica
tion
s
1
How
has th
e literature o
n
and o
ur k
now
ledge o
f w
om
en’s careers ev
olv
ed
over th
e last decad
e?
- In
tegrativ
e literature rev
iew
- 1
64 articles fro
m 1
4 p
eer rev
iewed
academ
ic journ
als
- Dev
elopm
ent o
f five m
ajor p
erspectiv
es that
shed
new
light o
n th
e topic o
f wom
en’s careers.
The p
erspectiv
es inclu
de relatio
nal, d
ecision
-
mak
ing, g
ender b
ias, temporal an
d in
tersectional.
- Iden
tification o
f four d
irections fo
r futu
re
research to
move th
e field o
f wom
en’s careers
forw
ard
The research
iden
tifies importan
t man
ifestations
of b
iases with
in o
rgan
izations an
d th
eir associated
career co
nseq
uen
ces and th
us p
rovid
es
info
rmatio
n o
n th
e importan
t issues w
om
en face
at work
and th
at man
agers n
eed to
pay
attentio
n
to.
2
- W
hat ty
pes o
f justice-
related ev
ents d
o w
om
en
experien
ce at the tim
e
around m
aternity
leave,
and h
ow
do th
ey in
terpret
and m
ake sen
se of th
ese ev
ents?
- H
ow
do th
ese (in)ju
stice
experien
ces affect their
career inten
tions an
d
choices?
Org
anizatio
nal
Justice
(Green
berg
,
1987)
- L
ongitu
din
al semi-
structu
red in
terview
s around
matern
ity leav
e - 3
5 h
ighly
-skilled
work
ing
wom
en
- Iden
tification o
f typical ju
stice even
ts
enco
untered
at the tim
e around m
aternity
leave
and th
eir career conseq
uen
ces - In
troductio
n o
f a new
concep
t, justice o
missio
n
- Better u
nderstan
din
g o
f justice ep
isode tem
poral
dynam
ics with
the in
troductio
n o
f justice
om
issions
- Em
pirical in
vestig
ation o
f auto
bio
grap
hical
mem
ory
in ju
stice judgm
ent fo
rmatio
n
- Contrib
utes to
the k
now
ledge o
n m
otiv
ated
justice reaso
nin
g
The fin
din
gs h
ighlig
ht th
e typical in
justice ev
ents
and ju
stice om
issions w
om
en ex
perien
ce from
the
time th
ey an
nounce th
eir preg
nan
cy u
p to
their
work
reentry
after matern
ity leav
e. While th
e id
entified
inju
stice even
ts constitu
te usefu
l
info
rmatio
n o
n th
e practices an
d b
ehav
iors to
be
avoid
ed b
y m
anag
ers and co
lleagues, ju
stice
om
issions u
nderlin
e the actio
ns th
at are necessary
fo
r them
to u
ndertak
e durin
g th
is critical time
perio
d filled
with
uncertain
ty fo
r wom
en.
3
- How
are daily
cross-
dom
ain in
terruptio
ns
betw
een w
ork
and
child
care experien
ced b
y
telework
ing m
oth
ers and
fathers o
f young ch
ildren
? - H
ow
do th
ese ex
perien
ces affect their
career motiv
e fulfillm
ent,
wellb
eing an
d w
ork
attitudes?
Gen
der ro
le
theo
ry (G
utek
et al., 1
991)
- D
aily d
iary stu
dy o
ver 5
consecu
tive d
ays d
urin
g th
e C
ovid
-19 lo
ckdow
n w
ave in
Fran
ce (April 2
020)
- 3
39 telew
ork
ing p
arents o
f
young ch
ildren
- Interru
ptio
ns are ex
perien
ced d
ifferently
by
wom
en v
s. men
- C
ross-d
om
ain in
terruptio
ns h
ave im
portan
t career, w
ork
and w
ellbein
g o
utco
mes
- Importan
ce of stu
dyin
g th
e effects of
interru
ptio
ns in
the co
ntex
t of o
ne's life ro
les and
goals
- Contrib
utio
n to
the call fo
r investig
ation o
f the
positiv
e side o
f interru
ptio
ns
The resu
lts suggest th
at org
anizatio
ns n
eed to
pro
vid
e flexib
ility to
moth
ers as it mig
ht h
elp in
red
ucin
g th
e occu
rrence o
f cross-d
om
ain
interru
ptio
ns, w
hich
are associated
with
harm
ful
career, work
and w
ell bein
g co
nseq
uen
ces. At th
e
same tim
e, if emplo
yees h
ave m
ore au
tonom
y in
th
eir work
ing h
ours, th
ey m
ay b
etter man
age
interru
ptio
n ex
perien
ces and d
imin
ish th
eir neg
ative effects. In
particu
lar, it is importan
t that
emplo
yees an
d m
anag
ers share in
form
ation o
n
how
and w
hen
they
can b
e interru
pted
.
Table 1. Thesis overview
35
Abstract
Despite important advances in women’s career development over the past few decades,
recent data suggest that the progress toward closing the gender career gap remains slow and
might even be scaling back. Over the last decade, and in the recent context of the COVID-19
pandemic, organizations have witnessed a shift in workplace practices that are associated
with harmful consequences for women’s careers. These developments motivated us to take
stock of the current state of the literature on women’s careers. Obtaining a better
understanding of the underlying mechanisms putting women at a career disadvantage and
unveiling the unanswered questions on this important topic are critical to reducing gender
career inequality in the future. In the present research, we review 167 articles on the topic of
women’s careers from top-tier journals in the management, applied psychology and career
disciplines and categorize them into five distinct perspectives, namely, relational, decision-
making, gender bias, temporal and intersectional. We present the perspectives’ premises,
summarize the key findings for each perspective and highlight their associated major research
gaps. Based upon an analysis derived from these perspectives, we delineate four directions
for future research to advance the field on women’s careers.
Keywords: Women’s careers, career barriers, career development, gender career gap
36
1. Introduction
Recent years have seen many improvements in women’s career progress. For
example, the representation of women on boards of large, quoted companies increased from
12% in 2012 to 29% in 2020 (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2020). Additionally,
the #Metoo campaign has drawn attention to sexism in the workplace and has potentially
decreased sexual harassment against women (Johnson et al., 2019). At the same time, we
know that women encounter the glass ceiling relatively early on in their career development
(World Economic Forum, 2020), that they remain structurally underrepresented in top
decision-making positions (only 29% globally), and that a significant gender wage gap (40%)
persists (Grant Thornton, 2019). According to recent data, progress toward ending the gender
economic participation and opportunity gap is slowing down, and at the current pace, it will
take up to 257 years to close (World Economic Forum, 2020). Beyond the harmful economic
effects of not encouraging female participation in the labor force (Ferrant & Kolev, 2016) and
the harmful impact of gender discrimination on the women concerned (e.g., Vigod &
Rochon, 2020), gender diversity and equal career opportunities are issues of ethics and justice
(Terjesen & Sealy, 2016). Therefore, it is not surprising that the topic of gender equality in
the workplace continues to attract scholarly attention and that the literature on women’s
careers has grown rapidly (Connell, 2019; Joshi et al., 2015).
While recent investigations have yielded important and helpful insights about
women’s careers, this knowledge has evolved in a piecemeal fashion, covering a broad range
of distinct themes, approaches and theoretical lenses. Building on the review article
“Women’s Careers at the Start of the 21st Century: Patterns and Paradoxes” that was
published by O’Neil, Hopkins and Bilimoria in 2008, our goal is to take stock of how the
literature and knowledge on women’s careers has evolved over the last decade and to provide
novel perspectives on this important topic. Reviewing a total of 76 articles, O’Neil and
37
colleagues (2008) categorized the existing conceptual and empirical articles at the time into
four distinct patterns, namely, women’s careers are embedded in larger life contexts, arguing
that women’s careers and private life are more interconnected than those of men; families and
careers are central to women’s lives, presenting how women’s family responsibilities
influence their careers; women’s career paths reflect a wide range and variety of patterns,
suggesting that women’s careers are diverse and differ from men’s; and human capital and
social capital are critical factors for women’s career development, implying that women’s
career development is subjected to human capital (e.g., education, job experience) and social
capital (e.g., network ties) differently from men’s. The review also presents four paradoxes
regarding the discrepancies between available research and organizational practices.
Since O’Neil and colleagues’ review (2008), several positive developments have
taken place, as outlined earlier (e.g., the participation of women on company boards has
increased, and sexual harassment toward women has decreased). An increasing number of
initiatives have been implemented, at institutional levels and within organizations, to improve
gender equality at work (e.g., increased offerings of flexible work arrangements and women-
only networks). The COVID-19 crisis has also shifted workplace practices (Kniffin et al.,
2021), which have been shown to significantly impact women’s career experiences and
ambitions (Deloitte, 2021). In this context of societal and institutional change, the career
experiences of women have been a topic of prolific research over the past decade. However,
extant research remains scattered across disciplines, and an expansive overview of the recent
literature on women’s careers is lacking. Given these developments and observations, the
time is ripe for a high-level integration of the literature on women’s careers published in the
second decade of the 21st century. Specifically, our objective in this review is to bring
together the currently fragmented literature on women’s careers to examine what is currently
known about women’s careers and to evaluate how our knowledge on women’s careers has
38
evolved over the last decade. To take steps toward gender equality at work, we need to
advance our understanding of the mechanisms that undermine and restrain women’s careers
in the 21st century and to identify the critical questions that are yet to be answered.
Overall, with this review, we seek to provide an informative synthesis of the evolution
of research on women’s careers since 2008 to highlight important research gaps, delineate
clear directions to move the field forward and address some of the key challenges in gender
career inequality. We follow Sullivan and Al Ariss’s approach to career transitions (2021),
which outlines five theoretical perspectives that provide a clear and coherent overview of the
literature on career transitions, to offer insights into the literature specifically examining
women’s careers. By bringing together the management, career and applied psychology
disciplines, our analyses reveal five distinct perspectives that summarize the literature on
women’s careers over the last decade. These perspectives are relational, decision-making,
gender bias, temporal and intersectional. For each perspective, we start by defining its major
premise. Then, we review and categorize the key findings of the articles belonging to the
perspective, and we outline the major research gaps. In light of our analysis of these
perspectives, we develop an agenda for future research on women’s careers.
Our review contributes to the literature on women’s careers in the following ways.
First, we bring different streams of research together (i.e., the management, applied
psychology and career disciplines) to develop an encompassing view of how the literature on
women’s careers has developed over the last decade and to present its current stage. Second,
we organize the extant literature in five distinct perspectives and thus provide clarity to this
rather scattered field. Third, we identify new theoretical and empirical opportunities for
future research, suggesting how research on women’s careers can move forward. By
synthesizing insights on women’s careers from various perspectives, we hope to shift the
39
conversation on women’s careers toward a holistic understanding that recognizes women as a
group with many distinct voices and experiences.
2. Structure and approach of the review
Following the procedures recommended by Elsbach and van Knippenberg (2020), we
conducted an integrative literature review, which allows the development of novel insights on
a given topic by connecting different communities of practice (Cronin & George, 2020).
First, we identified key journals in the management, career and applied psychology
disciplines publishing literature on topics related to women’s careers (as described in Tang et
al., 2020). We included only articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals and had
thus been subject to the peer-review process. We included nine top-tier journals (Journal of
Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Administrative Science
Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of Business Ethics, British Journal of Management,
Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Relations) and 3 specialist journals (Journal
of Career Development, Journal of Vocational Behavior and Career Development
International). We accessed the journals using the Sage, JSTOR, PsycINFO, Emerald, Wiley
and Science Direct databases. In our search, we used combinations of the terms “women”,
“female”, “vocation” and “career” to retrieve relevant articles from the selected peer-
reviewed journals; for example, we combined “female” with “vocation” and “women” with
“career”. Articles containing these terms in their titles, abstracts or keywords were included
in the review sample. Given the large scope of research on women's work and career
experiences, it was necessary to define clear boundaries for the review. Thus, we limited our
search to studies that specifically examined careers and excluded studies that investigated, for
example, women’s leadership styles or women on boards unless the research explicitly
mentioned implications for careers. Further, as we used O’Neil and colleagues’ review
40
(2008) as a starting point for our review, we focused our search on peer-reviewed articles
published from 2009 onward. The initial search yielded 221 articles.
The first author then screened all of the retrieved articles to determine their relevance
for the review and to assess whether they met the three criteria set for inclusion. We included
empirical or theoretical articles that (1) were published after 2008; (2) had women-only
samples or mixed-gender samples where an effort was made to differentiate the results for
each gender; and (3) were directly relevant and offered insights into the topic of women’s
careers (this was already our focus in the initial search). The second author was involved in
the process; the first and second authors regularly met to discuss the progress in the review,
and any potential unclarities that remained were solved jointly. Overall, we found 145 articles
that matched our search criteria from the 12 journals previously identified (see Table 1).
Finally, we examined the reference lists of the articles to identify important research on the
topic that may have not been captured in the initial review search. Based on this step, we
decided to include in the sample two more journals that we noted repeatedly published
research on women’s careers, namely, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and
Psychology of Women Quarterly. This search yielded 18 additional papers that were included
in the sample. Using Web of Science, we also conducted a reverse citation analysis to ensure
that we had included all studies that had cited O’Neil et al.’s review (2008). As a result, we
identified four further studies that met our inclusion criteria, leaving us with a final sample of
167 articles.
Out of the 167 articles that met our selection criteria, 161 were empirical and 6 were
conceptual or theoretical. The topic of women’s careers was investigated qualitatively
(N=60), quantitatively (N=82) or using mixed methods (N=19). Additionally, whereas
several studies from our sample used a longitudinal design (N=19), most adopted cross-
41
sectional designs. The majority of the studies were conducted in North America (47%),
Western Europe (24%), or the Middle East (15%).
Table 1. List of journals and number of articles included in the review Management (21) Career (114) Applied Psychology (25)
Journal of Management (3) Journal of Career Development
(37)
Journal of Applied Psychology (2)
Journal of Business Ethics (1) Journal of Vocational Behavior
(29)
Personnel Psychology (5)
Administrative Science Quarterly
(1)
Career Development International
(48)
Psychology of Women Quarterly
(12)*
Journal of Organizational Behavior
(1)
Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology (6)*
British Journal of
Management (4)
Human Relations (11)
Following the procedure of Haffar and Searcy (2017), we then analyzed the content of
the retained articles, performing a descriptive analysis and a thematic analysis. First, we
identified categories to descriptively code our sample of articles. The descriptive codes
included year of publication, country where the study was conducted, sample characteristics
(job position and gender), theoretical framework used, method followed (qualitative or
quantitative), type of article (empirical, conceptual or review), and research field
(management, applied psychology or careers). Second, we conducted a fine-grained coding
of the articles in line with an inductive analysis (Thomas, 2006) to thematically categorize the
articles. As opposed to a deductive approach, which is restrained by preconceptions, the
inductive approach allows categories and theories to emerge from the data itself. Specifically,
we followed the steps outlined by Thomas (2006), reading through each article several times
and drawing categories. We then combined the codes we identified into broader themes. We
resolved minor disagreements and unclarities during the coding through discussion. Through
this analysis, we identified five major perspectives on women’s careers, namely, relational,
42
decision-making, gender bias, temporal and intersectional. The data structure of the review is
provided in the appendices (Appendix 1).
The relational perspective (47 studies) focuses on how women’s careers are
embedded in family and work relationships. The decision-making perspective (21 studies)
explores various factors that influence women’s career attitudes and decisions, from career
events to expatriation motives. The gender bias perspective (56 studies) examines the
prejudice and discrimination women face at work and how these influence their careers. The
temporal perspective (26 studies) brings insights into the temporal dynamics of women’s
careers, focusing on career stages and trajectories and critical periods for their careers.
Finally, the emerging intersectional perspective (17 studies) offers a glimpse into the plural
singularities of working women and how their social identities interact, shape and sometimes
slow down their careers. A summary of the five perspectives is provided in Table 2.
Although we conducted the analysis inductively, our analysis was informed by
previous research. Some of the perspectives we identified mirror Sullivan and Al Ariss’
(2021) theoretical perspectives on career transitions, such as the relational and decision-
making perspectives, which also broadly correspond to the patterns identified by O’Neil and
colleagues in 2008. For example, throughout their careers, women make numerous career
decisions that may result in actual career transitions (e.g., the decision to take parental leave
or use flexible arrangements). Additionally, career transition decisions and adjustments are
influenced by the non-work and work domains, as women’s career attitudes and decisions
often are. Further, O’Neil and colleagues’ review suggests that women’s family
responsibilities influence their careers, and we find that the role of different relations in
women’s careers continues to dominate the recent literature. Moving forward from the
perspectives presented in Sullivan and Al Ariss’ review (2021) and patterns proposed by
O’Neil et al. (2008), we identified three novel perspectives focusing on women’s careers,
43
including the gender bias, temporal and intersectional perspectives. These perspectives
capture new and unique insights into recent streams of research on women’s careers.
44
Tab
le 2. O
verv
iew o
f the fiv
e persp
ectives o
n w
om
en's careers
Persp
ectives
Ma
jor p
remise
Nu
mb
er o
f articles
Rep
resenta
tive ex
am
ples
Resea
rch g
ap
s
Rela
tion
al p
erspectiv
e W
om
en’s careers are em
bed
ded
in
family
, wo
rk an
d co
mm
un
ity
relation
ship
s.
51
L
ivin
gsto
n (2
01
4): C
areer neg
otiatio
n in
the h
ou
seho
ld
Ram
aswam
i, Dreh
er, Bretz &
Wieth
off (2
01
0): th
e
imp
act of m
ento
r's gen
der o
n p
rotég
é's career success
McG
inn
& M
ilkm
an (2
01
3): H
avin
g a fem
ale sup
erior
can en
han
ce jun
ior w
om
en p
rofessio
nals’ career m
ob
ility
Fo
cus o
n th
e attribu
tes of th
e men
tor/su
perv
isor b
ut little
is kn
ow
n ab
ou
t the im
pact o
f their attitu
des an
d
techn
iqu
es on
wo
men
’s career ou
tcom
es
Little is k
no
wn
abo
ut h
ow
caring
for an
elderly
can
imp
act wo
men
's careers
Decisio
n-m
ak
ing
persp
ective
Ex
plo
ration
of m
ajor facto
rs that
influ
ence w
om
en’s career attitu
des
and
decisio
ns.
22
F
ou
ad et al. (2
01
6): D
ifferences in
org
anizatio
nal su
pp
ort
and
com
mitm
ent b
etween
wo
men
wh
o p
ersist in
eng
enieerin
g an
d th
ose w
ho
do
no
t
Kim
et al. (20
19
): Ro
le of career ch
ance ev
ent in
career ch
ang
es.
Sav
ela & O
’Brien
(20
16
): female stu
den
ts are con
cerned
with
the fu
ture fit b
etween
their fam
ily an
d th
eir career
Little o
r no
exp
loratio
n o
f ho
w m
otiv
es and
wo
rk
exp
eriences in
teract and
imp
act wo
men
's career cho
ices o
ver tim
e
Main
ly fo
cus o
n w
om
en in
ST
EM
/male-d
om
inated
fields
Gen
der b
ias p
erspectiv
e W
om
en face p
rejud
ice and
d
iscrimin
ation
at wo
rk an
d th
ey
hav
e do
wn
stream career
con
sequ
ences.
53
G
loo
r et al. (20
17
): Career w
ithd
rawal fo
llow
ing
w
ork
place in
civility
becau
se of "m
ayb
e bab
y"
exp
ectation
s
Ho
ob
ler et al. (20
14
): Man
agers' b
iased ev
aluatio
ns
tow
ards w
om
en as a reaso
n fo
r wo
men
's absen
ce from
top
leadersh
ip
Blo
ck et al. (2
01
9): S
trategies to
nav
igate stereo
typ
e th
reatenin
g sy
stems
Em
ph
asis on
the ty
pes o
f gen
der b
iases enco
un
tered
with
in o
rgan
ization
s, yet little em
pirical in
vestig
ation
s of
ho
w to
redu
ce them
Tem
po
ral p
erspectiv
e W
om
en’s careers are in
terwo
ven
into
time.
24
M
ainiero
& G
ibso
n (2
01
8): Im
po
rtance o
f KC
M
param
eters in m
idcareer
Law
son
et al. (20
15
): Fam
ily g
end
er socializatio
n in
child
ho
od
and
gen
der o
ccup
ation
al attainm
ent in
yo
un
g
adu
ltho
od
Pau
stian-U
nd
erdah
l et al. (20
19
): Ho
w career
enco
urag
emen
t and
career mo
tivatio
n in
teract du
ring
the
transitio
n to
mo
therh
oo
d to
pred
ict turn
ov
er inten
tion
s
It is un
kn
ow
n h
ow
sub
jective tim
e can in
fluen
ce wo
men
's
career attitud
es and
decisio
ns
No
con
sideratio
n o
f past an
d fu
ture to
un
derstan
d
wo
men
's career dy
nam
ics
Lack
of lo
ng
itud
inal in
vestig
ation
s of critical p
eriod
s of
time in
wo
men
's careers
Intersectio
na
l persp
ective
Wo
men
’s plu
ral sing
ularities
interact an
d sh
ape th
eir career
pattern
s.
16
M
cClu
ney
& R
abelo
(20
19
): Co
nd
ition
s of v
isibility
can
be h
armfu
l to B
lack w
om
en's careers
Arifeen
& G
atrell (20
20
): 'Glass ch
ains' th
eoretical
con
struct
To
mlin
son
et al. (20
13
): Differen
t career strategies
betw
een W
hite an
d B
lack an
d m
ino
rity eth
nic w
om
en
Ov
erall, little ackn
ow
ledg
men
t of th
e mu
ltiple so
cial ch
aracteristics of w
om
en an
d h
ow
they
interact to
influ
ence th
eir career exp
eriences an
d ch
oices
45
3. Five distinct perspectives on women’s careers
We now present the five perspectives on women’s careers, namely, relational,
decision-making, gender bias, temporal and intersectional, in detail to provide a coherent
summary of the literature produced on women’s careers over the past decade. For each
perspective, we present its rationale and clarify how it relates to the findings of O’Neil and
colleagues (2008). We then examine the current literature and offer illustrative examples of
studies conducted on the topic. Finally, we identify research gaps and propose ways to
address them in the future.
3.1. The relational perspective
3.1.1. Perspective overview
As identified by Sullivan and Al Ariss (2021), the relational perspective on careers
examines the role of interpersonal connections in careers and, in the context of our review, in
women’s careers. Grounded in developmental psychology theories, research has shown that
women’s career development is greatly influenced by their relational experiences (Gilligan,
1982) and that their careers are socially embedded (O’Neil & Bilimoria, 2005). Unlike men,
women tend to make career decisions according to their relations to others (as illustrated, for
example, by research on kaleidoscope careers, Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005; Cross-currents in
the river of time, Powell & Mainiero, 1992).
The research we reviewed continues to show that women’s careers remain socially
embedded, as they are greatly impacted and sometimes restrained by women’s relationships
at home and at work. In line with O’Neil and colleagues’ claim (2008) that women’s career
development and satisfaction are influenced by both their personal and professional
connections, our review also provides evidence in this respect. Although O’Neil et al. (2008)
tended to focus on the influence of the parental role on women’s career outcomes, new
46
empirical research also examines the influence of spouses. Furthermore, when considering
the role of professional relationships in shaping women’s careers, the 2008 review focused on
social networks; however, new studies also integrate other conceptualizations and types of
work relationships, including mentoring and career referents.
3.1.2. Current literature
3.1.2.1. Family connections
Research published since 2008 has mainly focused on the extent to which women’s
relationship with their partner influences their careers. Several studies demonstrate how
negotiation experiences with a partner influence women’s career outcomes. For example,
Livingston (2014) drew on quantitative data to illustrate how career negotiation operates in a
household. She found that when women engaged in fierce negotiation strategies – thus
defying gendered societal norms – they tended to be penalized for doing so, as they were then
less likely to be in charge of the career role in the couple and they ended up in charge of most
of the emotional work at home. Conversely, when women engaged in cooperative
negotiations, their husbands tended to provide more emotional support in the household.
Similarly, Ullrich and colleagues (2015) drew on a dyadic design to examine career
negotiations among partners on whether to relocate for a job. Specifically, investigating the
role of spousal characteristics and attitudes in job-related relocation willingness, they
discovered that women were more likely to put their careers on hold in favor of their
husbands’ careers and that when they were offered an opportunity to relocate as employees,
they were more inclined to take into account their spouse’s job alternatives than male
employees. Finally, signs of social change can be seen in Clarke’s (2015) exploration of the
career decisions of Generation Y dual-career couples through the lens of the Kaleidoscope
Career Model. Although previous findings had suggested that dual-earner couples tended to
follow gendered career patterns, the author found that Generation Y couples engaged in dual
47
careers could follow different career trajectories. For instance, some women pursued alpha
careers, thus concentrating on their career, while their husbands followed a beta career
pattern, which implies a focus on work-life balance. Some couples also seemed to make
career choices according to both alpha and beta focuses. Taken together, these findings
suggest that women’s careers are closely linked to their partners’ and that their career
decisions are influenced, and sometimes constrained, by their spousal life.
Research has also widely demonstrated that having children has a significant impact
on women’s career aspirations (van der Horst et al., 2014), attitudes and decisions. For
instance, Stavrou and Ierodiakonou (2011) examined how the family and caregiving roles of
unemployed women in Cyprus impacted their flexible work arrangement intentions. Further
research has also illustrated how becoming a mother and having a family has implications
beyond simple career intentions, with mothers turning to self-employment (Lewis et al.,
2015), as already documented in O’Neil et al.’s review (2008).
3.1.2.2. Work relationships
More than ten years ago, mentoring was presented as an important determinant of
female protégés’ career development. In fact, O’Neil and colleagues (2008) proposed that
women are more likely to access senior leadership positions if their organizations offer them
both formal and informal mentoring. The current literature continues to suggest not only that
women are influenced by their familial relationships but also that their professional
connections hold important consequences for their career development. Indeed, studies reveal
that organizational members such as mentors (e.g., Ramaswami et al., 2010a), tutors (Cohen-
Scali, 2014), supervisors (Abalkhail, 2020) and career referents (Gibson & Lawrence, 2010)
influence women’s career outcomes differently than men’s, as depicted below.
The recent literature, however, is more detailed in examining the success factors of
mentoring. While protégés’ characteristics, such as feminine versus masculine identity
48
(Ortiz-Walters et al., 2010) and cultural traits (Ramaswami et al., 2014), have been shown to
influence protégés’ career attainment, mentors’ characteristics also seem to be important in
determining mentees’ career outcomes. For instance, both mentors’ and protégés’ genders
have been identified as predictors of protégés’ career attainment (Ramaswami et al., 2010a;
2010b). Ramaswami and colleagues (2010a; 2010b) conducted two separate studies in male-
dominated industries and investigated the moderating role of protégé gender in the
relationship between mentoring and career attainment. In both studies, they found that having
a senior male mentor was associated with higher career attainment for female professionals
than for male professionals. Specifically, women were more likely to have high
compensation, to have high satisfaction in their career progression and to access partner or
senior executive positions when having a male mentor. Against the backdrop of the salvo of
critiques received by a recent (and retracted) article 4 in Nature Communications that
suggested that working with female mentors has lower career impacts for female protégés in
academia, there is clearly a need to acknowledge the pervasiveness of patriarchal structures
in organizations. These structures may embed gender discrimination and explain these
findings, and they should raise concerns. Furthermore, although having a mentor seems to be
critical for women’s career development, there is evidence that women do not benefit from
the same mentoring experiences as men. For example, Terjesen and Sullivan (2011)
examined how mentoring experiences differ between men and women transitioning to
entrepreneurship and found that women were less likely than men to have a mentor in the
entrepreneurial environment that could provide support during this critical transition period
for their careers.
Research has also explored the role of female managers in the careers of other women
(subordinates, junior colleagues, etc.). The complexity of women-to-women work
4 AlShebli, B., Makovi, K. & Rahwan, T. RETRACTED ARTICLE: The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance. Nat Commun, 11, 5855 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038
49
relationships and experiences is likely to influence women’s career advancement (Abalkhail,
2020). Although there are often discrepancies between junior women’s expectations and
perceptions of the career support they receive from more senior women – such that junior
women expect senior women to engage in career assistance behaviors to a greater extent than
they actually do (O’Neil et al., 2018) – there is evidence that having a same-sex superior can
positively influence women’s intentions to remain in an organization (Chen et al., 2014) and
their likelihood of getting promoted (McGinn & Milkman, 2013). However, the opposite
happens when they are in workgroups with higher proportions of same-sex peers.
In addition, having a developed network may enhance women’s career progress as
well as their career satisfaction (Chang et al., 2020). In line with findings reported in O’Neil
and colleagues’ review (2008) suggesting that networks are critical for women’s careers even
though they are often underdeveloped, we noticed that women do not benefit from networks
in the same way as men. For instance, examining ‘why women build less effective networks
than men’, Greguletz and colleagues (2019) found arguments for both external and internal
networking barriers, including work-family conflict and homophily, as well as moral
considerations and gendered modesty. Gender role theory (Eagly, 1987) may also explain
why women have less effective networks than men. Building on this theory, Woehler et al.
(2020) developed a conceptual framework suggesting that the characteristics of men’s and
women’s networks typically differ. They argued that even when women happen to have a
network with similar characteristics as men’s networks, they do not benefit from the same
career success returns; this suggestion conflicts with previous findings indicating that women
benefit more from a male mentor than men (Ramaswami et al., 2010a; 2010b). The authors
explained that gender role expectations influence actors’ use of work and career-related
resources and the willingness of network contacts to share these resources in such a way that
it disadvantages women. Thus, networks might constitute an explanation for gender career
50
inequality. Taken together, these findings point to the structural dimension that puts women
at a disadvantage in terms of networking, while executive leadership and members of
women’s networks invoke women’s individual responsibility for their career advancement
(Greguletz et al., 2019; O’Neil et al., 2011). Additionally, women tend to value these
networks (Shortland, 2011).
Finally, the literature presents another major factor influencing women’s careers,
namely, career role models. There is evidence that having and interacting with career role
models can positively impact women’s leadership aspirations (Yeoward & Nauta, 2020),
enhance their entrepreneurial intentions (Austin & Nauta, 2016), and encourage them to take
on expatriate assignments (Shortland, 2014). Additionally, women may look up to career
referents to set their career expectations (Gibson & Lawrence, 2010). Interestingly, and
contrary to previous research, Gibson and Lawrence (2010) found that the gender of the
referent is less important than their career level. However, even when targeting career
referents at the same level as their male counterparts, women tend to have lower career
expectations. These findings show that referents’ career status is not the only factor
influencing women’s career goal setting.
3.1.3. Research gaps
Although research stemming from the relational perspective has become richer, we
identify two major gaps in the body of literature that draws on the relational perspective to
examine women’s careers. First, regarding personal relationships, scholars have tended to
focus on the influence of spouses and children on women’s career decisions and have paid
little attention to the other caregiving roles women hold. Family caregiving for an adult is
increasing because people live longer but with more care needs (Kingston et al., 2017), and
approximately 60% of caregivers are women (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2020); thus,
we suggest the need for research on how caring for an elderly can influence women’s career
51
choices. There is some evidence that female caregivers are more likely to experience negative
work conditions, which can induce career responses and result in reducing work hours,
resigning, or retiring earlier than expected (Lahaie et al., 2013). These findings suggest that
further research could provide insights into how the work experiences of female caregivers
influence their career attitudes and behaviors over time.
Second, regarding work relationships, there is increasing evidence of the influence of
specific attributes of a mentor, such as gender, on a protégé’s career success. However,
relatively little is known about the impact of mentoring attitudes, techniques and quality on
women’s career outcomes. Perhaps the difference between males’ and females’ mentoring
and their downstream career outcomes rely more on the techniques mentors use than their
gender. It is also possible that these differences result from an interaction between gender and
the techniques employed by mentors, whose effects may depend on the organizational
context and national culture. Patriarchal dynamics within organizations may also provide
interesting explanations for the double penalty women experience as mentors and mentees.
More studies are needed to determine why having a male mentor is associated with higher
career returns. Perhaps the different types of networks that men and women mentors have and
their ability and willingness to harness these networks can provide one explanation, or the
different types of “content” of mentoring may lead to distinct outcomes. Social gender
stereotypes may also help shed light on these findings. Perhaps the recommendations of male
mentors to both the mentee and the higher echelons of the organizational hierarchy are given
more weight and are seen as more legitimate than female mentors’ recommendations. Further
research examining the dynamics of mentoring may thus shed light on some of the
mechanisms undermining women’s career advancement.
52
3.2. The decision-making perspective
3.2.1. Perspective overview
In line with Sullivan and Al Ariss’ research (2021), the major premise of this
perspective is to shed light on the factors that influence women’s career decision processes.
Articles included in this perspective try to unveil some of the hidden linkages behind
women’s career patterns. In their 2008 review, O’Neil et al. present three conceptual
frameworks showing that women’s career choices are tangled up between their work and
private lives (i.e., Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005; O’Neil & Bilimoria, 2005; Powell & Mainiero,
1992). In contrast, research on decision-making processes produced after 2008 tends to focus
on the motives to pursue a career – especially in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) fields – on the major life events that produce career responses, and on
the influence of family factors on career decisions. Moreover, while O’Neil and colleagues’
review (2008) showed that the literature had mainly focused on examining the reasons for
women to engage in entrepreneurship, recent research has also started to investigate women’s
motives to undertake expatriation assignments.
3.2.2. Current literature
3.2.2.1. Career attitudes and decisions in male-dominated fields
The contexts in which women operate seem to have a significant impact on their
career attitudes and choices. Researchers have investigated the motives for women to choose
to pursue a career in a male-dominated field (e.g., Blondeau & Awad, 2018; Sáinz et al.,
2020) – where gendered norms may be even higher – as well as the reasons for them to
persist in versus leave this type of organization (Fouad et al., 2016). Studies also show that
women’s career attitudes seem to differ depending whether they work in a male- versus a
female-dominated field (Durante et al., 2012).
53
Recent studies have shown that women and men have contrasting motives for
pursuing a degree or a career in STEM. For example, Blondeau and Awad (2018) found that
only interest predicted women’s future expectations to pursue a career in STEM. Specifically,
women’s interest seemed to revolve around the techniques and processes linked to their
STEM field, whereas men’s interests were linked to specific objects of fascination since
childhood (Sáinz et al., 2020). Furthermore, other scholars have investigated women’s career
attitudes once they enter an engineering career, such as female engineers’ turnover intentions
(Singh et al., 2013). In a similar vein, Fouad and colleagues (2016) examined the differences
between women who persist in an engineering career versus women who decide to leave this
type of career. While the two types of women experienced similar self-confidence and
outcome expectations, the persistent women experienced different workplace support and
demonstrated higher occupational commitment than the leavers. Interestingly, women who
remained engineers were also less likely to be married and had fewer children (Buse et al.,
2013). In female-dominated domains, women tended to look for high-paying careers and
were likely to delay having a family (Durante et al., 2012).
3.2.2.2. Major career events
Major career events also seem to play an important role in the careers of women,
either as an antecedent of career outcomes or as a consequence. Indeed, over the past decade,
several studies have shown how major career events can impact women’s career attitudes and
behaviors. For instance, Cabrera (2009) investigated women’s career decisions after a career
break and found that the majority of the participants looked for balance in their lives when
returning to work. Their desire to find equilibrium between the professional and private
spheres influenced their career decisions such that they frequently opted for a protean career
orientation allowing greater flexibility (e.g., a part-time position or reduced work hours).
More recent empirical evidence suggests that other types of events, such as career chance
54
events and career shocks, can have an impact on women’s career development. A chance
event is often described as being unexpected and unplanned and having the potential to
significantly impact one’s career development in a positive or negative manner (Rice, 2014;
Kindsiko & Baruch, 2019). For example, Kim and colleagues (2019) provided evidence that
encountering a “chance event” such as receiving cancer treatment or being referred for a job
could lead women to engage in drastic career changes, including quitting their job, starting a
new career or enrolling in a doctoral program. Similarly, Nair and Chatterjee (2020)
investigated how a career shock (e.g., marriage, job relocation) could impact individuals’
career choices and decisions in the Indian context. The authors found that while women’s
career decisions were shaped by parental and spousal responsibilities, men’s career choices
were driven by their eldercare responsibilities. Interestingly, the authors outlined the
temporality of specific events and revealed how they generate certain types of outcomes; for
example, becoming a mother was associated with quitting the workforce for women.
The reviewed research suggests not only that career events may hold important career
consequences for women but also that women’s experiences at work can engender a major
career episode that holds important implications for their professional lives. Hwang and
colleagues (2011) longitudinally investigated the factors predicting industry-level career
changes of MBA graduates. They found that perceptions of career growth and career
advancement opportunity were the strongest predictors of industry shift and that women were
more likely than men to commit to this conversion.
3.2.2.3. Women’s careers are embedded in their family life
How women’s family considerations influence their important decisions is well
documented, as already concluded by O’Neil and her colleagues in their review (2008).
Following this line of research, several scholars have continued to investigate the
combinations of family and work criteria that can influence women when they make early
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career choices. For example, Flynn and colleagues (2011) noticed that women tend to value
the family friendliness of the recruiting organization in selecting their first academic
appointment, unlike men. Similarly, Savela and O’Brien (2016) showed that female students
are concerned with the future fit between their family and their career. Specifically, they
investigated how family factors such as “willingness to compromise career for children” and
“anticipation of work-family conflict” as well as instrumentality levels influence women’s
leadership aspirations and occupational engagement. They found that women who scored
high on instrumentality had greater leadership aspirations and occupational engagement, that
work-family interference anticipation was associated with high occupational engagement,
and that women who aimed to pursue a traditional career had lower anticipations of work-
family interference.
Complementing the studies described above showing that women already consider
their (future) family when making early career decisions, other studies have explored
women’s personal aspirations and experiences once they become mothers. For instance, one
and Ensher (2011) interviewed mothers of young children and discovered that they tended to
“opt in between”, meaning that they neither opted out of nor opted into the workforce but
instead made career decisions that allowed them to balance their professional and family
lives, such as taking a part-time position or relying on flexible schedules. Although this
finding may seem counterintuitive, research shows that the more ambitious mothers are, the
more likely they are to rely on flexible work arrangements and to work long hours (Dikkers
et al., 2010). In turn, this behavior positively relates to job and career satisfaction.
3.2.2.4. Self-expatriation motivations
Another stream of research has investigated the reasons why women decide to self-
expatriate – a topic that was less prominent in research at the beginning of the 21st century.
In a recent study, Wechtler (2018) analyzed online diaries (blogs) to determine the motives of
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childless women to self-initiate an expatriate assignment. The findings highlighted four main
motives for expatriation, including escape as a main motivation, followed by confrontation
with reality, identity reconstruction and the meaning of the expatriation experience to the self.
In an older study, Thorn (2009) also explored the motives of highly skilled women for self-
expatriation. Interestingly, the results showed gendered differences according to life stages.
In their early career stages, women tended to follow an exploration phase where cultural and
travel opportunities dominated. In the following stage, relationships tended to take a central
role, as this stage was often a time when they followed their partners or wanted to be closer to
their families.
3.2.3. Research gaps
Although scholars adopting the decision-making perspective have tended to examine
the role of motives in women’s career decisions, much of the research continues to be
dominated by decisions that are not related to work and primarily concern family. Less is
known about the potential impact of different work experiences on the decisions women
make for their careers.
Furthermore, the majority of the reviewed literature has focused on the career-related
experiences of women in STEM or male-dominated fields. However, given that the majority
of working women work in female-dominated jobs or more gender-balanced work, it is also
important to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence their decisions to work
in specific jobs, to remain in or leave these jobs, and to change their level of career
ambitions. Interestingly, we see more women opting to join the booming social business
scene (Garcia-Lomas & Gabaldon, 2020). Thus, research on career decisions involving
changing sectors or changing from a regular employment relationship to entrepreneurship is
also needed.
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3.3. The gender bias perspective
3.3.1. Perspective overview
Building on Acker’s research (1990) stating that organizations are not gender neutral,
the gender bias perspective is concerned with the prejudice and discrimination women face at
work as well as the downstream career consequences of these forces. As suggested by Acker
(1990), gender is inherently embedded in organizational processes, such as in the
representations of the ideal worker, in the division of labor, or in the interactions between
female and male colleagues. As a result of the segregation operating in organizational
structures, women are adversely affected by prejudices at work.
Despite having been published more than 30 years ago, Acker’s research (1990)
remains highly relevant today. Indeed, there is evidence that gender bias in the workplace
remains, including workplace sexism (Manuel et al., 2017) and sexual harassment, which can
hold important implications for women’s career attainment (McLaughlin et al., 2017).
Moreover, a recent report shows that biases toward women in organizations have worsened
during the COVID-19 crisis, reducing the chances that women are hired or promoted and
increasing performance standards for women (YPO, 2021).
Much of O’Neil et al.’s (2008) observations based on their review remain relevant
today. Research shows that the glass ceiling that was a major issue at the beginning of the
new millennium continues to prevail today, constraining women’s career advancement. Back
in 2008, the authors emphasized the persistence of the traditional male model within
organizations where only upward career mobility is rewarded. Somewhat disappointingly,
our review also provides evidence that women still suffer from organizational patriarchal
structures today. Similar to O’Neil and colleagues’ research (2008), our review unearths
evidence that women are not rewarded for engaging in work best practices and can even be
penalized for their high potential.
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3.3.2. Current literature
3.3.2.1. Workplace mistreatment
Recent studies have investigated how women are confronted with the most severe
forms of workplace mistreatment and how these experiences have important consequences
for their careers. For example, Leaper and Starr (2019) investigated female undergraduates’
experiences of gender bias and sexual harassment and found that women overwhelmingly
reported having experienced sexual harassment or gender bias at least once in the past year.
The results also indicated that being sexually harassed by instructors negatively impacted
STEM motivations and career aspirations. Similarly, Fernando and Prasad (2019) showed
that early- and midcareer women face sexual harassment in academia in the UK and shed
light on the mechanisms organizational members (e.g., colleagues, managers, HR) use to
silence the victims. The authors found that victims were led to react to organizational
silencing by reluctant acquiescence. Workplace incivility is also likely to be encountered by
early-career women as a result of “maybe baby” expectations held by supervisors and
colleagues, and it can prompt career withdrawal among these women (Gloor et al., 2018).
3.3.2.2. Biased assessments
Some studies have also explored seemingly subtler forms of gender biases in
organizations. For instance, Hoobler, Lemmon and Wayne (2014) examined one potential
reason women do not access the higher levels of the hierarchy, namely, managers’ biased
evaluations of women. The authors found that both male and female managers systematically
perceived female subordinates as less career-driven than their male counterparts and that
these assessments influenced subordinates’ perceived opportunities for organizational
development. In turn, when subordinates received organizational developmental
opportunities, they were more likely to present managerial aspirations. Similarly, Bono and
colleagues (2017) examined leaders’ perceptions of the derailment potential of their
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managers. Their findings suggested that women were less often viewed as having ineffective
interpersonal behaviors than men, but when they were, the consequences of this perception
were more damaging. These findings are even more concerning because when leaders
perceived a manager as likely to derail, they tended to withdraw their supervisory mentoring
and sponsorship, which are critical for women’s career advancement. Sadly, even when
women’s career motives and achievements are recognized, they can be detrimental to
women’s future performance ratings (Inesi & Cable, 2015). Across four studies, the authors
showed that evaluators, especially male evaluators with high social dominance, gave lower
performance evaluations to female subordinates with strong competence signals.
3.3.2.3. Problem of (in)visibility
The representation and objectification of women by men are known to be critical for
women’s careers and to influence their career attitudes (Garcia et al., 2016). Recent studies
demonstrate that women have to navigate between different strategies to manage their hyper
(in)visibility in organizations. For example, Bennett and colleagues (2019) explored female
composers’ strategies to manage their gender identity in a male-dominated environment.
They revealed that many women follow passing tactics to hide their gender identity at work,
namely, fabrication, where they provide false information about themselves, and
concealment, where they limit the information about themselves made available to others.
The identity strategies used by women at work may depend on their career advancement:
Fernando et al. (2019) suggested that women adopt different visibility strategies according to
their career stage. For example, women in their early career tended to use tactics of
enhancement (embracing the stigmatized identity) or confirmation (recognizing stereotypes
and using them), while women in their later career followed logic of assimilation (acting
strategically masculine). The authors argued that some of these approaches reinforce gender
stereotypes within organizations and constrain women’s career development in fine.
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3.3.2.4. Stereotype threat
Research has also documented how stereotype threat restrains women’s careers.
Through the prism of hypervisibility or invisibility at work, Block and colleagues (2019)
investigated the strategies used by women who navigate stereotype-threatening systems.
Although previous research has examined women’s strategies to manage their gender and
professional identity, this study explored how women engage in cognitive and emotional
labor to understand the reasons for their underrepresentation in male-dominated fields. The
authors found that women differed vastly in their strategies to manage their (in)visibility.
While most (especially early-career women) accepted the dominant discourse that women are
underrepresented because of their lack of ability, some strongly rejected it and others (mostly
senior women) were more resilient and decided to focus on the career goals they had set for
themselves.
Building on social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 1994), other studies have
shown that stereotype threat damages women’s pursuit of STEM careers by affecting their
academic self-efficacy (Cadaret et al., 2017), their career goals (Lin & Deemer, 2019), and
their career intentions (Deemer et al., 2014). Stereotype threat also influences the way
undergraduate women conceive the glass ceiling (Ezzedeen et al., 2015). Their perceptions
resulted in different career intentions: some expressed their desire to prioritize family over
their careers, others were prone to sacrifice family over their work, and a few wished to have
it all.
Given that women are confronted with stereotype threats throughout their entire
careers and that these threats can be associated with damaging work and career
consequences, it is important to explore solutions to reduce the occurrence of such threats.
Shapiro and colleagues (2013) investigated the effectiveness of stereotype threat
interventions for individuals who are known to suffer from stereotypes (i.e., women and
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Black college students). They found that these interventions could be effective, especially for
women’s STEM career interests, but needed to be tailored to the types of stereotype threats
experienced. For example, role model interventions were effective at reducing group-as-
target stereotype threats, and self-affirmation interventions were suited for addressing self-as-
target threats.
3.3.2.5. Gendered occupational and market segregation
Considering that market segregation and occupational segregation are still prevalent
in the global workforce (World Economic Forum, 2020), research has continued to
investigate this division in different contexts, such as expatriation (Tharenou, 2010) and,
more recently, investment management (Cooper et al., 2020). Scholarios and Taylor (2011)
explored gendered role segmentation in call centers and provided evidence that women were
overly presented in mass production roles, as opposed to managerial roles where men
prevailed, even when they had the same education level as their male counterparts. Unlike
men, women did not benefit from having domestic responsibilities, either; in contrast, their
supervisory career support decreased as their domestic responsibilities increased.
Although the literature tends to advocate for less gender segregation in managerial
roles, women accessing these positions may in fact reinforce this exact segregation, as argued
by Cardador (2017). Based on qualitative data collected on both female and male engineers,
the author suggested that women accessing managerial roles as opposed to technical roles
(which are more valued and overwhelmingly occupied by men) may reinforce negative
gender stereotypes about female engineers and sustain gendered career patterns. Taken
together, these findings suggest that more attention should be given to the most desired
occupation across sectors. While there are many reasons to encourage the promotion of
women to managerial positions, this may not always be the most appropriate path for women
to advance in their careers in the long term and access the top of the hierarchy. Moreover,
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when women manage to access leadership positions in their organizations, they may be in a
critical position associated with detrimental consequences for their careers. Indeed, the glass
cliff phenomenon (Ryan & Haslam, 2005) underlines that even though women are said to be
more risk averse, they end up in risky leadership positions. For instance, Darouei and Pluut
(2018) conducted three studies in which they found that women with low career self-efficacy
tended to assess a risky job offer as being a promotion and were therefore more likely to
accept such an offer.
3.3.3. Research gaps
Research on gender bias in women’s career experiences has investigated the prejudice
women face at work in terms of outcomes (e.g., accessible occupations), procedures (e.g.,
biased assessments) and interactions (e.g., harassment) and has provided an extensive body of
literature on the topic. However, relatively little is known about how to effectively reduce the
occurrence of such prejudice. Some studies have started to examine ways to reduce gender
biases at work (Shapiro et al., 2013), but there is little empirical investigation of the
effectiveness of interventions aimed at countering these biases. Reducing the occurrence of
gender biases within organizations seems paramount if we want to help female talent remain
and progress in organizations.
3.4. The temporal perspective
3.4.1. Perspective overview
The key focus of the temporal perspective is to illustrate the role of temporal
dynamics in women’s careers. We can conclude that over the years, the literature on
women’s careers has shifted from being rather static to being more dynamic. In their review,
O’Neil and colleagues (2008) described that women’s careers are part of women’s larger life
constraints and developments. Based on three major conceptualizations of women’s careers,
namely, the ‘cross-currents in the river of time’ framework (Powell & Mainiero, 1992), the
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women’s career development model (O’Neil & Bilimoria, 2005), and the Kaleidoscope
Career Model (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005), the authors illustrate how women’s career
development strategies and career decisions are conditioned by women’s larger life contexts
over time. Whether in phases (O’Neil & Bilimoria, 2005; Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005) or in a
time flow (Powell & Mainiero, 1992), careers are interwoven into the fabric of time. Given
this observation, it seems surprising that a large part of the literature on careers has neglected
the inherently temporal dynamics of careers. For example, most of the empirical work
described in O’Neil et al.’s review (2008) was cross-sectional. Since 2008, the literature has
moved beyond the simple conceptualizations and cross-sectional investigation of (time in)
women’s careers, and we observed several insights that draw on temporal treatments of
women’s careers in empirical studies during the past decade. Some authors explored the
career and work experiences of women at specific points in time, while others investigated
the role of career events longitudinally.
3.4.2. Current research
3.4.2.1. Women across career stages
Following the traditional conceptualizations of careers, authors have investigated the
careers of women through the prism of life and career stages. In this section, we focus on
three distinct career stages: early career, midcareer, and late career.
Studies have usually examined each career stage separately, and topics covered across
waves differ in nature. In the early career stage, the career and work experiences of women
were explored in different contexts (e.g., female psychologists in clinical settings; Scalise et
al., 2019) and timing (e.g., in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis; Simosi et al., 2015).
Studies tended to examine the internal and individual factors and understandings that could
explain women’s career trajectories. For example, Giraud and colleagues (2019) studied the
role of early career values and individual factors in explaining the objective career success
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(i.e., income) of business school graduates. The results suggested that female graduates
tended to earn less than their male counterparts and that they were more likely to consider
intrinsic career values when making job decisions than men, who tended to prioritize
extrinsic career values. Hüttges and Fay (2015) explored the link between work values and
subjective career success and found that scoring high on extrinsic reward-oriented work
values was associated with higher supervisor support and subjective career success for men
than for women.
Research has also studied how early-career women view their careers. For instance,
drawing on interviews with 20 young female professionals, Harman and Sealy (2017)
challenged the traditional concept of career ambition and provided evidence that early-career
women identified themselves as ambitious in broader and more positive ways than the
traditional career literature suggests. Kelan (2014) investigated early career professionals’
work experience narratives and showed how age and gender interacted in these narratives.
Specifically, the findings suggested that women perceived that the biological clock was a
possible explanation for different career patterns between men and women, that career
success relied on individual rather than societal structures, and that gender inequality
belonged to a former generation and would no longer affect them.
In the midcareer stage, authors were concerned with women’s personal experiences at
work and of work. In an ethnographic study, Maddox-Daines (2016) explored the career
experiences and aspirations of 13 female managers in a higher education institution in the
UK. Drawing on interviewees’ midcareer “process of discovery”, the author found that
women tended to look for balance and authenticity in their professional lives, as suggested by
research on the Kaleidoscope Career Model (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005). Similarly,
Mainiero and Gibson (2018) investigated the importance of authenticity, balance and
challenge parameters for women and men in the midcareer stage. The results suggested that
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unlike men, women experienced an increased need for balance in the full midcareer stage as
well as authenticity in the late midcareer stage. The desire for a challenge, however,
decreased similarly for both women and men over time. Interestingly, both papers moved
away from the traditional representation of career stages based on age and instead
incorporated women’s perceptions and experiences to determine such stages.
Focusing on the late career stage, authors have looked at the influence of career
aspirations and past career and life experiences on retirement concerns, decisions and
experiences. For example, Birkett and colleagues (2017) explored the retirement expectations
and experiences of elderly individuals using retrospective life course data. Although women
and men tended to have different career trajectories, when they did follow similar career
paths, they did not approach and navigate retirement in the same way. Depending on their
past career trajectories, women were more likely than men to pursue a paid or voluntary work
activity once retired or to use their retirement to spend time with their family or communities.
Similarly, Newton and Stewart (2010) examined how past experiences impacted women’s
concerns and aspirations at 62 years of age, a time when women often prepare for retirement.
Specifically, the authors used three-wave longitudinal data to investigate how women’s
involvement in social projects, including a family or a career at T1, led to concerns about
identity, intimacy and generativity at T3. They found that at age 62, women with careers
were most concerned with identity, whereas women with family commitments but no career
were most concerned with generativity. Women combining a family and a career were found
to be as concerned with their identity as their generativity.
August (2011) also uncovered findings in line with the idea that women’s concerns
and aspirations tend to evolve in a distinct way in the late career stage. Drawing on
longitudinal interviews with women in their late career stage, she investigated the relevance
of the Kaleidoscope Career Model to study women’s late career experiences pre- and post-
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(official) retirement. While the author found that all three parameters of the model were
relevant to women in their late career stage, she also uncovered additional meaning
underlying authenticity, thus broadening our understanding of the kaleidoscope career model.
Indeed, among more traditional views of authenticity, women in this sample perceived
authenticity as taking care of the self, as self-acceptance, as negotiating end-of-life issues,
and as finding deeper levels of meaning in work, thus linking their new concerns with their
career aspirations. Taken together, these findings suggest that women’s evolving career
experiences and aspirations over time influence their retirement modalities.
3.4.2.2. Women’s career trajectories
Some studies performed longitudinal investigations of women’s vocational evolution
and experiences from childhood to early employment. For example, Lawson, Crouter and
McHale (2015) longitudinally examined the role of childhood experiences (e.g., parents’
attitudes and household work share) in the gendered occupational attainment of men and
women later in life. They found that spending more time with their fathers during childhood
was associated with attaining less gendered occupations for women as opposed to men.
Lawson and colleagues (2018) also explored the gendered vocational development of women
from childhood to young adulthood and showed that women tended to have less gender-
typical aspirations during childhood compared to their occupations during their first years of
employment. Klug, Drobnic and Brockmann (2019) investigated employment insecurity
following the transition from school to work. Although they found that women tended to
encounter fewer obstacles than men straight after leaving education, insecurity increased
once they became mothers. Thus, these findings offer further evidence of the motherhood
penalty. Following this logic, Evers and Sieverding (2014) examined the career trajectories of
medical graduates over a 15-year period and discovered that women earned significantly less
than men at T2. One plausible explanation for this gap was that women interrupted their
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career for a longer time than men and that the number of children predicted both the
likelihood and the length of career interruptions. Adding to these findings, Biemann and
colleagues (2012) longitudinally examined employment characteristics over a 20-year period
from the early career years to establishment career years. The results showed that women
were more likely to follow boundaryless careers than men. Specifically, the results provided
evidence that when they got married and had children, women ended up in nontraditional
career paths that followed both part-time employment patterns and fragmented career
patterns. Interestingly, Dlouhy and Biemann (2018) conducted a longitudinal study on
occupational mobility development and found that occupational turbulence (number of
occupational transitions) was less important for women than men over a 15-year period. The
authors argued that these results might be explained by the fact that women are aware of the
higher costs for them to change occupations as opposed to men and therefore are less likely
to take the plunge.
3.4.2.3. The critical period of pregnancy in women’s careers
Given the well-documented impact of children on women’s careers (e.g., Correll et
al., 2007; England et al., 2016), it is not surprising to see that some scholars decided to pay
specific attention to women’s work experiences during their transition to motherhood.
Contributing to the opting-out or pushed-out discussion, researchers have been concerned
with the reasons why women quit the workforce. For example, Paustian-Underdahl and
colleagues (2019) examined how career encouragement and career motivation interact to
influence women’s turnover intentions and intentions to return to the workforce. The results
showed that women perceived decreased career encouragement over the course of their
pregnancy. Interestingly, in contrast to widely shared assumptions, women’s career
motivation increased over the course of their pregnancy. Overall, the authors found that
decreased career encouragement could lead women to opt out of their careers through
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reduced career motivation. Similarly, a longitudinal study (Jones et al., 2020) investigated
another factor that is seemingly positive but that may encourage women to quit the workforce
following childbirth: help received during pregnancy. The results suggested that as the
average amount of help received during pregnancy increased, women’s postpartum intentions
to quit their careers increased through decreased self-efficacy. Spector and Cinamon (2017)
also intended to shed light on women’s career decision process during their pregnancy. The
authors used vocational and maternal exploration processes to better explain how women
make career decisions throughout their transition to motherhood. They found that
organizational support enhanced maternal exploration, which in turn decreased well-being
and the likelihood of modifying work patterns (e.g., workload or job). Taken together, these
studies illustrate that complex mechanisms involving multiple actors are at play in the
evolution of women’s career decisions during pregnancy.
3.4.3. Research gaps
While several studies have adopted longitudinal designs, relatively little is known
about the temporal dynamics of women’s careers. For example, more research is needed on
how past experiences and anticipations can influence career attitudes and decisions in the
present (e.g., Birkett et al., 2017). Moreover, the literature on women’s careers has tended to
explore time through an objective lens, i.e., clock and calendar time, and little is known about
how subjective (psychological) time influences women’s career attitudes and behaviors.
Furthermore, although there remains little doubt that women experience numerous
prejudices over the course of their careers, we lack studies that investigate the temporal
dynamics behind these events. There is little knowledge about when typical unfair or
discriminatory events happen, how many or what types of events need to take place before a
career response is triggered in time, and how immediate such career responses are. Ballinger
and Rockmann (2010) refer to anchoring events in social exchange relationships whereby a
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singular event can alter a relationship quickly, dramatically and durably. Similarly,
researchers could study specific career events – positive or negative – that may be considered
turning points for women’s careers, including maternity leave, a miscarriage, a promotion, an
experience of discrimination, etc., and investigate how they affect and alter women’s career
attitudes and decisions over time. Overall, more longitudinal investigations are needed to
fully account for women’s career dynamics.
3.5. The intersectional perspective
3.5.1. Perspective overview
The intersectional perspective is grounded in the plural singularities of working
women. Studies following this line of thinking have investigated how different aspects of
women’s identities combine to influence their career and work experiences. Originating in
the feminist and antiracist literature of the late 1980s, the term intersectionality was first
introduced to shed light on the oppression experienced by Black women in society, and it
suggested that discrimination is a complex and multilayered phenomenon that includes the
intersection of several aspects of a person’s social identities (Crenshaw, 1989). While
Crenshaw originally developed this framework considering the intersection between gender
and race, other intersections have been studied over the years in the management discipline
(e.g., religion, gender and ethnicity, Essers & Tedmanson, 2014; age and gender, Jyrkinen &
McKie, 2012).
Already in their 2008 review, O’Neil and colleagues drew attention to the fact that the
majority of samples in extant studies mainly included white, highly educated female
professionals and therefore neglected a substantial part of the female workforce. Thus,
previous findings on the topic are likely not generalizable to the majority of women’s careers.
However, intersectional samples have received increasing attention in recent years, and in
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this section, we present illustrative examples of studies that have adopted an intersectional
lens.
3.5.2. Current research
3.5.2.1. Intersectionality as a source of career barriers
There is evidence that women with two or more minority or typically discriminated-
against social characteristics – in terms of sexual orientation, ethnic origin or religion – face
additional career barriers. For example, Kameny and colleagues (2014) discovered that
women and/or people of color who work in behavioral sciences in the USA experience
additional workplace barriers, such as institutional and cultural barriers. Beyond employees’
personal experiences and perceptions, Kamenou et al. (2013) investigated employers’
perceptions of ethnic minority women employed in Scotland and showed that these
perceptions constituted career constraints for these women at the individual, organizational
and contextual levels. McCluney and Rabelo (2019) illustrated another major concern for
Black working women: the conditions of visibility. The authors demonstrated how four types
of (in)visibility, namely, precarious visibility, invisibility, hypervisibility, and partial
visibility, are imposed on Black women. Unlike previous research advocating for visibility to
advance careers (e.g., Mainiero, 1994), the authors showed that visibility could be harmful to
Black women’s careers and offered practical ways to reduce these tensions in organizations.
Other intersectionalities have also been examined. For example, Marks, Tate and
Taylor (2020) examined the role of social class in the relationships among educational
barriers, career barriers and coping self-efficacy. They found that the presence of meaning in
life did not moderate the relationship between educational barriers and coping self-efficacy
when they controlled for social class; however, when they did not control for social class, the
relationship was significant. Parnell and colleagues (2012) showed that bisexuals and
lesbians experienced additional barriers “related to sex discrimination, career–child conflict,
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and choosing nontraditional careers”. Women with disabilities have also been shown to
experience unique career challenges, as depicted by Lindstrom and colleagues (2019). The
authors provided support for the development of curricula that address the career
development needs of women with disabilities and showed that these types of programs can
enhance women’s personal empowerment, self-realization and self-efficacy.
Furthermore, the intersection of gender and religion has been shown to present unique
challenges for women’s careers. Arifeen and Gatrell (2020) developed a new theoretical
construct, namely, ‘glass chains’, which sheds light on the internal and personal barriers to
British Pakistani Muslim women’s career ambitions. Drawing on interviews with 37 highly
educated religious women, the authors emphasized the role of the ‘ethical self’, often related
to faith and family values, in women’s career development, and how staying true to one’s
ethical self may constrain women’s career ambitions. Similarly, Syed, Ali and Hennekam
(2018) used a qualitative approach to investigate the multilevel factors that influence gender
equality in Saudi Arabia, such as religio-cultural factors, the power of wasta, family honor,
social class, family status and individual identity. The findings showed how different macro-
and meso-level factors, including societal norms and religious beliefs, impacted Saudi
women’s careers and underlined the importance of women’s agency and resilience.
3.5.2.2. Intersectionality as a determinant in women’s career strategies and development
Additionally, the intersection of several characteristics that are part of one’s social
identity provides unique challenges that are likely to trigger different career meanings and
strategies. Drawing on interviews, Tomlinson and colleagues (2013) examined how White
women and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) women in legal professions differed in their
career strategies. They found that BME tended to assimilate, unlike White women, who were
more likely to play the game and to reform the system. Yang (2014) also found unique career
meanings and patterns for Hmong American women, for example, they were strongly
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committed to helping others and their communities in their careers. Furthermore, Kitchenham
and Domene (2019) explored the unique meaning behind the career development success of
women who were raised in out-of-home care settings in Canada. They found that career
success for these women was associated with economic security, a supportive work
environment and a suitable career fit.
3.5.2.3. Intersectionality and occupational motives and interests
Women’s career scholars also shed light on the role of intersectionality in women’s
occupational motives and interest. In a recent study, Goldfarb (2018) investigated the motives
behind Haredi women’s occupational choices. The results revealed four main occupational
motives: intrinsic motives, calling motives, extrinsic motives relating to job conditions and
extrinsic motives related to the effect of choices on society. Above all, female interviewees
indicated that the most important motive for them was to let their husband study Torah. Thus,
the study uncovered the role of religion in ultra-orthodox women’s occupational decisions
and their broader career development. Sanchez and colleagues (2017) explored the factors
that influence women and underrepresented racial/ethnic minority medical students’ interest
in academic careers. Using mixed methods, they found several factors that were critical to
their academic interest, including institutional culture and climate, influential others such as
professors and principal investigators, and the timing of exposure to academic medicine.
3.5.3. Research gaps
Although an increasing number of scholars have integrated the intersectional
perspective into their research, we still lack studies that investigate the personal experiences
of women who have more than one social characteristic that may put them at a disadvantage
in their careers. We believe that there is much to uncover about this very complex and
multilayered phenomenon, from the perspectives of employees themselves but also from
employers’ and managers’ point of view, using dyadic or multilevel research designs.
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4. “Looking ahead”: A path forward for research on women’s careers
Stemming from the five perspectives described above and the identified research
gaps, we propose an agenda for future research on women’s careers. In the following
sections, we delineate four directions to move the field forward, and we illustrate ways to
overcome the research gaps. The four directions include (1) providing a greater account of
time in empirical examinations and conceptualizations of women’s careers; (2) unpacking the
role of women’s intersectional identities in their career development; (3) adopting an
intervention perspective to reduce gender biases that are harmful to women’s career progress;
and (4) taking a holistic approach to study women’s careers.
4.1. Greater account of time
First, our review reveals that the incorporation of time in studies on women’s careers
remains relatively rare. We echo the numerous calls in the management literature to further
integrate temporal considerations in conceptual frameworks, research designs and research
questions (e.g., Cole et al., 2016; Fortin et al., 2014). Out of the 167 studies we reviewed,
only 18 adopted longitudinal designs; however, research suggests that careers are inherently
dynamic. Indeed, a career is defined as “the pattern of work-related experiences that span the
course of a person’s life” (Greenhaus et al., 2010, p. 10); therefore, longitudinal
investigations of women’s careers are needed to fully capture and understand the dynamics of
their career experiences. For instance, women may encounter different types of career events
across their career stages, which may produce long-term career effects. Perhaps an early
career event will engender a series of career decisions that will alter women’s career
progress. Moreover, the timing of their reactions to such events may differ; reactions may
occur immediately or be delayed and manifest only once a threshold is reached. Adopting a
truly temporal approach would help obtain a better understanding of these experiences and
their downstream career outcomes for women. For instance, future research could answer
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important research questions, including how past experiences influence women’s future
career decisions or how women’s work experiences upon their return to work following
childbirth influence their career progress. The examination of work experiences at critical
career points may shed light on the factors that impact women’s career development in the
long run.
In a recent paper, Grandey and colleagues (2020) suggested that women face unique
career challenges at different points in time due to objective body changes. Specifically, the
authors argued that women will experience the “3 Ms” over their life span, namely,
menstruation, maternity and menopause. The 3Ms and their associated stigmas negatively
influence women’s career advancement because they violate ideal worker expectations. Of
interest, Grandey and colleagues underlined the fact that each life phase intersects with
different career phases: menstruation is associated with the entry career phase but span most
women’s careers, maternity usually occurs in the early-mid career phase, and menopause
happens in the mid-late career phase. Each phase comes with its unique challenges at work,
as women experience discrepancies between their body changes and organizational
expectations over time. Thus, we propose that each phase, which is so unique to women’s
careers, needs to be empirically and carefully examined. Women’s work experiences across
phases are likely to differ, and these evolving work experiences can have direct implications
for women’s career outcomes.
Complementing an objective temporal approach, future studies could also integrate
subjective time in their investigations. Subjective time manifests in different forms across
individuals and refers to how individuals personally experience time (Tang et al., 2020). We
suggest that this personal approach to time has the potential to shed light on important
mechanisms at stake in women’s careers. Specifically, studying the intersection of objective
and subjective time could help us understand how and why women make certain career
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choices at specific points in time in their careers, as both types of time happen simultaneously
(Shipp & Jansen, 2021). For example, women’s temporal orientation is likely to influence
their choices throughout their careers. Indeed, we can expect that a woman who is short-term
oriented will make different decisions than one who is long-term oriented because the former
is concerned with immediate career consequences, whereas the latter is concerned with future
career outcomes. For example, a woman who is long-term oriented might refuse to take a
part-time position when returning to work after maternity leave because she fears the
potential negative career consequences associated with this decision, while a woman who is
short-term oriented might be seduced by this option, which may facilitate her work/family
balance at the time of her return. In addition, the integration of subjective time in studies on
women’s careers could allow researchers to investigate new and important research
questions, such as the following: How do perceptions of past experiences influence women’s
career aspirations? How does women’s perceived control of time influence their career
attitudes? How do expectations influence women's career behaviors?
4.2. Greater intersectionality
A concern highlighted in our review, in line with O’Neil and colleagues’ research
(2008), is that studies continue to draw vastly on samples lacking diversity and use them to
form the basis of generalizations to all women’s careers. Indeed, many studies in this review
relied only on samples of highly educated women and therefore failed to provide insights into
the career experiences of different groups of women. We encourage scholars not only to
adopt an intersectional approach methodologically but also to integrate intersectionality in the
theories and frameworks they use when studying women's careers. In doing so, researchers
can inform us on the differences and similarities in organizational outcomes for different
categories of women (Atewologun, 2018); therefore, they are likely to provide more accurate
representations of women’s career experiences. For example, it is likely that some women are
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more likely to experience certain types of discrimination than others. Furthermore, this
approach could be used to make comparisons across samples and move beyond the sole
representations of oppression to explore when intersections provide advantages. In doing so,
scholars will be able to answer research questions such as can – and, if so, when and how –
do intersections provide career advantages versus penalties. Perhaps being a woman with
specific social characteristics (e.g., White middle class) could provide some advantages in
specific contexts. At the same time, sexual orientation, race and religion, which have become
more visible in society in recent years, may result in extra penalties for women in many
contexts. Further, it appears that some typically discriminated-against attributes are studied
more than others. For example, there is evidence that overweight women face adverse
discrimination in the workplace (Roehling, 2002), but they constitute one of the understudied
groups in career research.
4.3. Integration of biased-reduction interventions
Our research overviewed the many ways in which gender bias can manifest at work
over the course of a woman’s career, such as sexual harassment (e.g., Fernando & Prasad,
2019) and biased assessments (e.g., Hoobler et al., 2014). However, there is little research on
ways to reduce all forms of gender biases in organizations, as suggested above. Given the
influence of specific biases on women’s career outcomes, it is paramount to take action. In a
recent conceptual paper, Kossek and colleagues (2017) highlighted several interventions that
may help attenuate explicit and implicit gender biases within organizations. The authors
provided examples such as “increasing the proportion of women in leadership roles, using
cluster hiring to reduce tokenism and stigmatization, leadership development promoting
equality in selection and appraisal, and reducing ambiguity in evaluation and rewards”. We
propose that for researchers to identify the most appropriate interventions, they need to
identify companies that are (almost) gender equal and unpack their most critical practices for
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women’s career advancement; researchers also need to run experiments on the effectiveness
of different types of interventions at different career points across individuals and
organizations. Once the most appropriate practices are identified, the following step would be
to implement them. Finally, scholars should assess the effectiveness of tailored interventions
to reduce gender career inequality and make adjustments.
While there is a strong consensus on the need for interventions to promote gender
career equality within organizations, the form and timing of the application of these
interventions may differ across contexts, organizations and groups of individuals.
Specifically, women at specific career stages may require different sets of interventions.
Research suggests that women are faced with different types of biases across their career life;
therefore, different arrangements might be required at different points in their careers. For
example, there is evidence that women of reproductive age may suffer from the “maybe
baby” expectation of colleagues (Gloor et al., 2018), while older women are more adversely
affected by age discrimination than older men (Neumark et al., 2019). Additionally, in line
with the call to integrate greater intersectionality within research studies, different groups of
women may need different sets of interventions. Indeed, as suggested by Shapiro and
colleagues’ research (2013), not all women necessarily encounter the same type of workplace
biases; therefore, bias-tailored interventions are required. For example, recent studies show
that Asian American women have been victims of racism and discrimination at work since
the COVID-19 outbreak (Croucher et al., 2020), while other studies indicate that Black
women are disproportionately more likely to be sexually harassed at work than women from
other racial and ethnic groups (Rossie et al., 2018).
4.4. Need for adopting a holistic approach
Finally, we echo the suggestion stated by Sullivan and Al Ariss (2021) in their review
on career transitions: a holistic approach is needed to obtain a comprehensive understanding
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of women’s career experiences. Specifically, we encourage scholars to integrate all or several
of the five perspectives we identified in future studies to spark knowledge on the dynamics of
women's careers. While we organized the extant literature into five distinct perspectives for
the sake of clarity, we recognize that the perspectives are interconnected and overlapping.
Indeed, we suggest that the five perspectives can provide insights and value concurrently, and
the factors identified in each perspective can interact over time. For instance, experiences at
work and relationships simultaneously influence the decision-making process over time, and
these experiences might differ for women with different social characteristics. As such,
several of the articles we reviewed could in fact fall under several perspectives: some of the
studies in the relational and decision-making perspectives were interrelated, as professional
and family links can conjointly influence one’s career choices. For example, Savela and
O’Brien’s research (2016), which examined the roles of instrumentality and work-family
expectations in predicting leadership aspirations and occupational engagement, could be
categorized as pertaining to both the decision-making and relational perspectives. Moreover,
some studies from the gender bias perspective had implications for how people make career
decisions.
Over time, professional and personal connections, as well as prejudicial experiences at
work, are likely to influence women’s career attitudes and decisions. The nature of women’s
relationships with family and work may differ, and thus, their social links may have distinct
career impacts. Notably, different categories of persons may have contrasting career
experiences. Specifically, some categories of women may be more likely to experience
gender bias at work than other women. For instance, recent data suggest that LGBT+ women
and women of color have been more likely to face challenges at work, such as being
confronted with inappropriate comments about their communication style or being subjected
to sexual jokes, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (Deloitte, 2021). In adopting
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a holistic approach to women’s careers, scholars can provide important insights into the
career experiences of women and thus help us develop a better understanding of the
dynamics behind gender career inequality.
5. Limitations
With this study, we aimed to provide a comprehensive review of the extensive
literature on women’s careers published since the review by O’Neil and colleagues that
appeared in 2008. We used an inductive approach, analyzing 167 publications that revealed
five distinct perspectives that map the current knowledge on women’s careers. These
perspectives allowed us to examine the emerging trends, explore research gaps, and
recommend a future research agenda. However, many important aspects remained outside the
scope of this review. For example, we limited our search to papers that explicitly aimed to
advance the understanding of women’s careers. We recognize that this approach may have
excluded some papers with indirect implications for careers, e.g., papers focusing on women
on boards. Furthermore, we did not systematically review the methodological aspects of the
studies included, nor did we attempt to offer a comprehensive theory-based model on
women’s careers. Recognizing the limitations of this review, we hope that future research
will overcome them, taking this review as a starting point.
6. Conclusion
Since O’Neil and colleagues’ review in 2008, some progress – albeit slow – has been
made in reducing gender inequality at work, work practices have evolved, and a substantial
body of literature on women’s careers has been published. Given these recent developments,
there was a need to take stock of recent research on the career experiences of women. Thus,
we reviewed research on women’s careers published in top-tier management, applied
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psychology and specialist career journals. We classified these articles into five distinct
perspectives following an inductive approach. New research has examined previously
neglected aspects of women’s careers, such as the career impact of work experiences during
pregnancy, and has started to conduct truly temporal investigations of their careers and to use
subjective measures of work and career outcomes. Our review provides a fresh look at the
literature on women’s careers and offers several directions for future studies wishing to
investigate women’s career experiences.
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CHAPTER 3. (In)justice episodes around maternity leave: How
women going on and returning from maternity leave experience,
make sense of, and react to justice-related experiences
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the following venues:
Desjardins, C., Fortin, M. (2021). How fairness experiences at work around maternity leave
are linked with evolving career experiences and career motives of new mothers. Paper
presented at the symposium “Women’s careers in the 21st century: New perspectives and
insights”, Academy of Management, online.
Desjardins, C., Fortin, M. (2021). Fairness experiences around maternity leave: Investigating
the evolving experiences and career attitudes of new mothers. Paper presented at the
symposium “Dynamics of organizational justice perceptions around three pivotal periods for
careers”, International Society for Justice Research, online.
Desjardins, C., Fortin, M. (2021). Maternity as tipping point: A longitudinal interview study
with women around the time of their maternity leave. Paper presented at Aston Business
School Research colloquim, online.
Desjardins, C., Fortin, M. (2021). How fairness experiences at work around maternity leave
are linked with evolving career experiences and career motives of new mothers. Paper
presented at WHU-LUMS-TSM joint workshop, online.
Desjardins, C., Fortin, M. (2021). L’expérience du congé de maternité: Le rôle des
perceptions de justice sur les aspirations et choix professionnels. Paper presented as part of
the symposium “Regards croisés sur la carrière professionnelle des femmes: Un parcours
comportant de nombreux défis”, 31st AGRH Congress, online.
Desjardins, C., Fortin, M. (2020). An investigation of career motives and justice dynamics at
the time around maternity leave: Presentation of preliminary findings. Paper presented at
European Academy of Management, online.
Desjardins, C., Fortin, M. (2019). Looking forward, looking backward: Different perspectives
of fairness on maternity leave. Paper presented as part of the symposium “Women's Career
Journeys: The impact of work and life events”, 19th EAWOP Congress, Turin, Italy.
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Abstract
A substantial body of research shows that becoming a parent and spending time on maternity
leave are associated with severe career penalties for women, especially if they are highly
educated. In the present research, we investigate what happens during this crucial period of
time from women’s own perspectives by conducting a qualitative longitudinal study among
35 highly skilled women from the moment following pregnancy disclosure up to several
months after their return to work after maternity leave. We take a person-centric
organizational justice perspective to gain insights into women’s evolving experiences at work
and to investigate how justice-related events at the time around maternity leave may impact
women’s career attitudes and decisions. Overall, our findings suggest that there are a number
of typical and recurring injustice events that women may experience at this critical period of
time. Beyond events, our respondents also report justice omissions, which we define as an
absence of action giving rise to a fairness judgment. We draw on the term justice episodes to
describe how justice events and omissions interlink over time, whereby injustice events could
trigger a justice omission and a justice omission could result in a series of injustice events.
Over time, women’s (in)justice experiences have important implications for their career
aspirations, career attitudes and decisions. Taken together, these findings highlight the
importance of and provide concrete advice for promoting fair practices for supporting women
at this pivotal time for their careers.
Keywords: injustice event, justice omission, justice episode, maternity leave, working
mothers
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1. Introduction
There is overwhelming evidence that maternity is a critical time and often a turning
point in women’s careers (for a review, see Grandey et al., 2020). Following the birth of a
child, women are perceived as less committed to their work and less promotable than women
without children (Correll et al., 2007); they are less likely to become managers, and their
earnings tend to drop (Kleven et al., 2019). A recent stream of research has shown that
women may start to experience differences in treatment during pregnancy, which can
influence their career attitudes and trajectories. For example, interpersonal experiences at
work during pregnancy, such as others’ work-interfering help, can impact women’s intention
to quit the workforce postpartum (Jones et al., 2020). Perceived (lack of) career
encouragement might also explain women’s turnover intentions during pregnancy (Paustian-
Underdahl et al., 2019). Finally, a lack of organizational support upon return from maternity
leave has been found to have effects going beyond the transition back to work for both
women and their partners (Little & Masterson, In press).
Given that work experiences during the transition to motherhood may play a pivotal
role in how women continue their careers, we need to develop a better understanding of how
women experience and make sense of the treatment they receive at work around the time of
their maternity leave and how this experience affects their career ambitions and decisions
over time. In the present research, we adopt an organizational justice lens and choose a
person-centric approach (Weiss & Rupp, 2011) to investigate women’s work experiences
during the critical period of maternity leave. Women’s experiences of (in)justice events at
that time and their perceptions of them may explain some of the hidden mechanisms behind
women’s career patterns following childbirth.
Specifically, we seek to investigate the evolving justice experiences and related
reactions of highly educated women at work at the time around their maternity leave. By
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doing so, we aim to extend the literature on women’s careers as well as on organizational
justice in several ways. First, we provide an overview of the typical injustice events that
women encounter at work around this critical time, thereby extending our knowledge on
women’s personal work experiences from the time they announce their pregnancy up to their
return to work after maternity leave. Second, we introduce a neglected justice phenomenon,
namely, justice omissions, which refers to the absence of action that gives rise to unfairness
judgments. Such omissions often become visible only after the passage of time and
sometimes in the context of events triggering the salience of the omission, especially under
conditions of heightened uncertainty. We describe the temporal dynamics of interrelated
justice events and omissions as justice episodes (Whiteside & Barclay, 2015), which refer to
a situation in which a single justice event occurs, and unravel additional subevents and entity
assessments. Our analysis of justice episodes sparks another central contribution of the
present work, namely, the role of autobiographical memories in justice judgments.
Specifically, we examine how, when and why women recall events from earlier phases of
their work experience and how these memories influence their present fairness assessments.
Finally, we specify how the justice dynamics described above influence women’s career
attitudes and decisions at this critical period for their careers, with concrete implications for
organizational practice and future research.
2. Theoretical background
2.1. (Justice) Experiences at the time around maternity leave
Pregnancy is known to be one of the most challenging times for women in their
careers (King & Botsford, 2009). Numerous studies suggest that many women face prejudice
throughout their pregnancy and after childbirth upon return to work. For instance, pregnant
employees are likely to experience negative stereotypes at work, such as being viewed as
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incompetent (Masser et al., 2007), as well as discrimination, including lower pay (Budig &
England, 2001). Women exposed to these pressures sometimes react by trying to prove their
commitment to work in unhealthy ways, for example, by being present outside of work hours
and even when they are unwell, a phenomenon that has been called “pregnancy
presenteeism” (Gatrell, 2011). There is evidence that the experienced prejudice becomes
more pressing over the course of pregnancy (Lavaysse et al., 2017). It is therefore not
surprising that pregnancy disclosure is often associated with heightened concerns and
uncertainty for expectant workers: Research shows that women’s concerns about the
treatment they will receive at work during their pregnancy can result in anticipated
discrimination and in turn shape women’s disclosure behaviors such that when anticipated
discrimination is moderate or high, women tend to engage in signaling rather than revealing
strategies (Jones, 2017) (i.e., rather than purposefully communicating their pregnancy,
women tend to “test” their supervisor and coworkers by sending hints to assess their reactions
because they want to gather information before revealing their pregnancy).
Beyond what is known about experiences during pregnancy and upon reentry, there is
growing evidence of the pivotal long-term effects that pregnancy and maternity leave can
have on women’s careers. In particular, highly educated women are known to pay a high
price for going on maternity leave (England et al., 2016), typically falling behind their male
or childless colleagues in terms of numerous career outcomes, until the end of their working
lives (Eurofound, 2015, 2012). Furthermore, mothers may suffer from maternity-related
prejudice throughout their whole career lifespan (Kahn et al., 2014), despite recent evidence
suggesting that having children can in fact be beneficial for workers’ performance (Dumas &
Perry-Smith, 2018).
Beyond the well documented discrimination and disadvantages that women
experience during pregnancy and when they have a child, there is also evidence that women’s
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career ambitions and attitudes often shift at the time around childbirth (e.g., Cabrera, 2007;
Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005; Yates, 2020). According to the media, when they become
mothers, some women decide to opt out of organizations for family reasons, including to
raise children (Belkin, 2003; Story, 2005). While some of these publications seem to imply
that women’s changing life priorities are responsible for such shifts, recent research hints at a
link among work experiences during pregnancy, work reentry and subsequent career
decisions: Little and Masterson (In press) highlight the role of perceived organizational
support for stress and work-family conflict experienced by returning mothers and their
partners, and Jones et al. (2020) illustrate that interpersonal experiences at work (including
work-interfering help) during pregnancy can affect women’s turnover intentions when
returning to work postpartum. This recent work underlines the importance of studying how
women personally experience and make sense of the treatment they receive at work at the
time around their maternity leave, not only during pregnancy but also upon their return to
work. To date, relatively little is known about the underlying mechanisms behind women’s
changing career attitudes and decisions and how eventual career attitude shifts are linked to
experiences at work from pregnancy and beyond. Such knowledge is crucial for practitioners
and policy makers who wish to improve gender career equality.
To analyze women’s work experiences and reactions at the time around maternity
leave, we draw on the organizational justice framework. We choose this framework because
justice assessments are central to how people make sense of their work environment, and
justice judgments have been shown to be a robust predictor of work attitudes in a variety of
settings (Colquitt et al., 2001). Of particular relevance to our chosen research focus is that the
power of justice is particularly high in uncertain times, when there is “unpredictability of
future events or the inconsistency between important cognitions, experiences, or behaviors”
(van den Bos & Lind, 2002, p. 5). Uncertainties (whether or not they are work related)
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heighten people’s sensitivity to justice and fairness (van den Bos & Lind, 2002), and justice
and fairness have also been shown to help people deal with uncertainty (Lind & van den Bos,
2002). Indeed, maternity leave is associated with unpredictability in a number of ways.
Women know that during their absence, the job may change, others may take over some of
their responsibilities, and they may become out of touch with their networks. At the same
time, they often have nagging doubts regarding how they can reconcile their changing family
situation with work demands upon return. Therefore, women are likely to be particularly
attentive and sensitive to any (in)justice events they may encounter around the time of their
maternity leave. In line with our focus on evolving experiences and attitudes around the time
of maternity leave, we focus on specific justice events, as research shows that anchoring
events in the context of social exchange relationships can alter and have long-lasting
consequences on relationships (Ballinger & Rockmann, 2010) and related justice judgments
and reactions to these justice experiences, as they unfold around the time of this critical
career transition.
2.2. About justice events
A justice event is a specific incident that “can give rise to a fairness judgment, often
related to one or more types of justice” (Jones & Skarlicki, 2013, p. 139). Justice events can
be related to outcomes, procedures and work interactions (Rupp & Paddock, 2010).
Specifically, they pertain to the perceived fairness of outcomes (distributive justice), of
processes and procedures to allocate resources (procedural justice), of interpersonal treatment
(interactional justice) and of the provision of information and explanation in time
(informational justice). Many studies have investigated the perceived fairness of specific
types of work events, such as the fairness of layoff procedures (Wiesenfeld et al., 2000),
performance evaluations (Greenberg, 1986), and recruitment processes (Madera, 2012).
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Several theoretical advances have been made to suggest how justice events aggregate over
time. We highlight two seminal models here.
The first model by Jones and Skarlicki (2013) conceptualizes how justice events
influence entity fairness perceptions over time. Specifically, Jones and Skarlicki suggest that
justice events can trigger different cognitive processes to make a fairness judgment
depending on whether the event is considered consistent or inconsistent with the expectations
one holds from the perceived source of the event (perpetrator), i.e., the entity involved. For
example, is a rude remark something one would expect from this manager? When the event is
deemed consistent, it is unlikely to trigger deeper sense-making activity and unlikely to
change the entity justice judgment. However, when the event is perceived as inconsistent, the
individual is likely to engage in sense-making activities to find an explanation for why this
event happened and what it implies for the entity involved. In turn, entity fairness perceptions
may be reassessed.
The second dynamic model of organizational justice was developed by Rupp and
Paddock (2010), who built on affective events theory (AET, Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) to
develop a multilevel model of organizational justice. AET suggests that work events give rise
to an affective reaction, which in turn influences one’s attitudes and behaviors. In particular,
justice-related events have been demonstrated to elicit an affective reaction (e.g., Rupp &
Spencer, 2006; Spencer & Rupp, 2009). Thus, the main tenet of Rupp and Paddock’s (2010)
model is that discrete justice events relating to work outcomes, procedures and interactions
trigger affective reactions that influence the formation and change of fairness perceptions
about specific entities over time. These perceptions in turn form the basis for an
organizational justice climate.
Going beyond the processing of justice events as they occur, individuals have the
ability to mentally time travel (Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007, p. 299), which allows them to
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“mentally project themselves backwards in time to re-live or forwards to pre-live, events”.
All discrete (in)justice events are stored in the individual’s memory, and most can be
retrieved. However, the same event might be recalled differently as time goes by or not
recalled at all, depending on present justice experiences and perceptions. Remembering past
events may also trigger the anticipation of future justice events. In turn, these anticipations
can influence the formation of fairness perceptions of specific justice events in the present.
Autobiographical memory (Brewer, 1986), defined by Fivush (2011: 560) as a “form of
memory that moves beyond recall of experienced events to integrate perspective,
interpretation, and evaluation across self, other, and time to create a personal history”, allows
individuals to try to build continuity between the experience of past, present and future
justice events.
This is particularly relevant in the context of ongoing work relationships, in which
justice events at work tend to happen (Ballinger & Rockmann, 2010). This is illustrated by
research suggesting how past unfair (versus fair) experiences with a supervisor can influence
the perceived fairness of subsequent neutral communication with the same supervisor or a
new supervisor (van den Bos et al., 2005). In this research, following unfair experiences with
a supervisor, subordinates were more likely to react negatively to messages communicated by
the old supervisor as opposed to a new supervisor. In contrast, those who experienced fair
events in the past were likely to react more positively to the messages coming from the old
supervisor than the new supervisor. Additionally, subordinates tended to react more
positively to neutral communication from a new supervisor when they had previously
experienced unfairness.
Moreover, research illustrates that the memory of past justice events can be
reconstructed to align with present justice experiences. For instance, Lilly, Virick, and
Hadani (2010) explored the direction and evolution of justice perceptions over a two-year
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period, and while they found no variation in interpersonal justice of an event over time, they
discovered that subordinates with a low level of procedural justice perceptions at time 1 had
increased procedural justice perceptions over time. The authors argue that this fluctuation
could be explained by the interference of work decision outcomes such that individuals
remodeled their memories of past justice experiences to create consistency with their current
justice assessment of the work situation.
Furthermore, there is evidence that individuals' anticipations of justice events can
influence their justice perception formation. Indeed, anticipated justice experiences can
impact experienced justice events in the present (Shapiro & Kirkman, 2001). Research
suggests that the relationship between anticipatory interpersonal and informational justice
and experienced justice is strengthened when an individual experiences high levels of
perceived uncertainty (Rodell & Colquitt, 2009). The practical relevance of justice
anticipations is illustrated by Bell, Wiechmann and Ryan (2006), who surveyed job
applicants about their expectations of justice in a selection process and found that justice
expectations were directly related to applicants’ subsequent attitudes and intentions.
The full importance of justice events for employees and for organizations can,
however, only be understood when considering the accumulation of justice events over time.
For instance, Robbins, Summers, and Miller (2000), based on their finding of ten-month lag
effects of procedural justice on turnover intentions, argue that reactions to (in)justice events
may manifest only retrospectively once individuals have repeatedly experienced unfair
procedures or interpersonal treatments and a threshold has been reached. However, Robbins
et al. (2000) did not find the same pattern for distributive justice. Reactions to distributive
justice in the form of turnover intentions tended to be more instantaneous.
We conclude that although scholars have explored some of the dynamics behind
justice events, both conceptually (e.g., Jones & Skarlicki, 2013; Rupp & Paddock, 2010) and
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empirically (e.g., Ambrose & Cropanzano, 2003; Lilly et al., 2010), we lack person-centric
investigations of such events, especially around critical career transitions. Currently, little is
known about how justice events at work are personally experienced, made sense of, and
remembered over time. Gaining a better understanding of individuals’ “lived-through
experience” (Weiss & Rupp, 2011) of (in)justice events could help us better understand the
temporal dynamics that translate specific injustice events into various work- and career-
related outcomes over time.
Maternity leave is a time when women experience important work events, including
pregnancy disclosure and workplace reentry, yet comprehensive investigations of women’s
perceptions of such work events at this critical period of time are lacking; these perceptions
may hold important implications for women’s career outcomes. Specifically, in the present
research, we investigate women’s experienced (in)justice events at the time around their
maternity leave to obtain a better understanding of how their experiences, sense-making,
attitudes and reactions evolve during this critical time for their careers.
Therefore, we start our research with the following questions:
Research question 1: What types of justice-related events do women experience at the time
around their maternity leave?
Research question 2: How do women interpret and make sense of (in)justice events at the
time around their maternity leave?
Research question 3: How do women’s personal experiences of (in)justice events at the time
around their maternity leave affect their career intentions and choices?
We choose a longitudinal person-centric approach to investigate these questions.
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3. Method
3.1. Sample
For our study, we recruited employed women in France who were pregnant or
enrolled in an adoption process and who were planning to return to the same organization
after maternity leave. In line with our focus on the experiences of highly educated women,
we looked for participants who had a higher education degree. We recruited participants by
using social media platforms (Facebook and LinkedIn), posting flyers in places such as
echography centers and nursery stores, and contacting potential participants via personal
networks. Women who expressed interest in participating in this study were directed to
complete a prescreening questionnaire to determine their eligibility. Eligible respondents
were contacted via email to arrange participation and were given further information about
the study, including a consent form to be returned. All interviewees gave their consent.
Before the first interview, participants were also asked to answer a prestudy questionnaire.
For their participation, they received a 10€ gift voucher per interview and an additional 10€
for completing four interviews, allowing them to receive 50€ worth of gift vouchers for full
participation5.
Overall, we interviewed 35 working women. A variety of profiles were represented,
including employees in both the private (N=26) and public (N=9) sectors working in diverse
industries, such as retail, banking, higher education, aeronautics, consultancy and medical
research. Their organizational tenure ranged from seven months to ten years, and their job
tenure ranged from four months to ten years. Thirteen of the participants had managerial
responsibilities over at least one subordinate. Sixteen interviewees were first-time mothers,
5 We only present the first three rounds of interviews in this paper.
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thirteen were second-time mothers, five were third-time mothers and two were fourth-time
mothers. The participants were between 26 to 41 years old.
3.2. Study design and data collection
We conducted a series of semistructured interviews with each participant from the
time before going on maternity leave up to several months after their return to work.
Specifically, participants were interviewed at three points in time: after their pregnancy
disclosure and before their departure on maternity leave (time 1), before their return to work
(time 2), and finally a month or so after their return (time 3). In France, maternity leave is
mandatory and remunerated, and it typically lasts 16 weeks.
Given that the interviewees were scattered all over France and that we wished not to
inconvenience our pregnant participants, most interviews were conducted online or on the
phone. Overall, the interviews lasted from 15 minutes to just over one hour. At time 1, the
mean length was 39 minutes and 45 seconds; at time 2, it was 33 minutes; and at time 3, it
was 31 minutes. Interviews with all participants were conducted in French by the first author,
except for the interview with one participant who preferred to be interviewed in English.
Interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis by an external transcriber. To ensure
accuracy, a sample of transcripts was checked by the researchers by listening to the original
tapes and going over the corresponding transcripts.
The interviews were semistructured, with a predefined set of core questions.
Additional questions were added to obtain more detailed descriptions of specific events or
attitudes. Themes discussed during the interviews included work relationships with
supervisors and colleagues, work and childcare arrangements and career aspirations. These
themes were addressed across the three waves of interviews to identify any changes that may
have occurred over time. Specifically, we attempted to elicit accounts of specific events at the
three time points of data collection by asking tailored questions. For example, all
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interviewees were asked to recall and describe the event of announcing their pregnancy at
work during the first interview. Similarly, during the third wave of interviews, we questioned
them about any incidents with a supervisor or colleagues that may have occurred since their
return to work. Interviewees were not specifically asked about their views of fairness or
justice, but justice-related issues and experiences emerged naturally as the working mothers
explained their work experiences and arrangements.
3.3. Coding process
We conducted directed content analysis, which allows the validation or conceptual
extension of a theoretical framework or theory (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). As recommended
by Miles and Huberman (1994) and using a deductive category application approach
(Mayring, 2004), a provisional “start list” of codes was created based on the research
questions and interview guides. This initial list of codes included cross-wave categories such
as work events, work relationships, career aspirations, work arrangements and childcare
arrangements. New codes were identified as we went through several full sets of interviews
(i.e., including wave 1, wave 2, wave 3). We met at several points in time through the coding
process to make adjustments to the coding list and recoded all interviews after no more new
codes emerged. All interviews were thematically coded using NVivo 12.
Following the procedure by Gioia, Corley, and Hamilton (2013), we identified first-
order concepts in interviewees’ narratives that we then translated into second-order themes.
For example, one participant reported an episode with her supervisor who denied a promised
salary increase: “But of course, since I went on maternity leave, a raise was out of the
question”. We labeled this as a “distributive injustice event”. We then looked for patterns
across themes and combined them into aggregate dimensions. For instance, the second-order
themes Justification, Evolving career aspirations and attitudes, and Career withdrawal were
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assembled to form the aggregate dimension “Responses to injustice”. Our overall data
structure is depicted in Figure 1.
Given the longitudinal design of our study, the data were analyzed using two
approaches: first at the between-person level, i.e., across participants, and second at the
within-person level across the waves of data collection, allowing the investigation of the
participants’ evolving fairness experiences and career motives, career attitudes and career
decisions. To analyze change across waves, we assembled specific categories (e.g., career
aspirations) in chronological order and coded them accordingly as recommended by Saldaña
(2003).
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Figure 1. Data structure
1st order concepts
Distributive and
procedural events
Justice
episodes
2nd
order themes Aggregate dimensions
§ But of course, since I went on maternity leave, a raise was out of the question.
§ They didn't ask me how I wanted to split the load, or what I wanted to keep, and they decided in my absence.
Justice-related
mental time
travel
Interpersonal and
informational events
Distributive and
procedural omissions
Interpersonal and
informational omissions
Repeated event
Responses to
injustice
Evolving career
aspirations and attitudes
Career withdrawal
§ We quickly get the remark, "You're already leaving at this time?"
§ We've had several meetings on salary increases, they've never talked about that.
§ I feel that when I announced my pregnancy, there was no one who did anything...
§ I was supposed to have my HR interview, but she didn't call me back at all.
§ I emailed them just to see how I was doing with my accounts, etc., and I never heard back from them.
§ We are not necessarily very aware, we don't really know how it works, we really have to go and search.
§ There had been precedents during the lockdown § My supervisor told me that she didn't take a parental leave
or anything when she had her children
§ Once they did a trick on me too... § It was the last few months that made me change my mind.
(New) recalled event
§ I think there will be remarks like there were during my pregnancy
§ I have this comment in my head, I wonder what they will tell me Anticipated (in)justice
events and omission
Justification
§ It may have caused me to stop [working] earlier than expected, but that's my fault, it's up to me to deal with it
and know my body § There was a big conflation, and I think it's probably due to
clumsiness
§ To not leave home in the morning with a gut feeling § I have a hard time accepting the behavior they had, because
it's a lot of stress and you don't need that. So if I can change jobs, I will change jobs
§ My decision is made, I will leave § I had made the decision to stop working for this
organization, and that I wanted to resign
§ Knowing pretty much the department's schedule, I don't think it's going to happen
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4. Findings
In the following sections, we begin by presenting the type of injustice events
interviewees experienced at the time around their maternity leave, from the time following
their pregnancy announcement and before going on maternity leave to up to three months
after their return to work. Next, we introduce the concept of justice omissions that emerged
from our data and present its interconnectedness with injustice events over time. We also
review the types of omissions participants encountered across the three waves. Then, we
explore our participants’ “mental time travel” (memories and future expectations) at the time
around their maternity leave and its role in forming justice judgments and anticipations.
Finally, we discuss how these justice experiences were linked with career responses among
our respondents and present a model that emerged from these findings.
4.1. Injustice events at the time around maternity leave
While participants shared different narratives about their maternity leave, most
reported having experienced injustice events during this period of time that could be critical
for their careers. Overall, 31 out of our 35 interviewees reported at least one injustice event.
A total of 134 events were reported (across the three interview waves).
Following the dimensions of the classical framework of organizational justice
(Colquitt, 2001), we categorized each justice event according to their distributive, procedural,
interpersonal or informational nature. Often, the events recounted by our participants
represented more than one dimension. Specifically, we found that distributive and procedural
issues were tightly linked in our dataset. For example, the allocation of bonuses often entailed
distributive and procedural concerns. Similarly, interpersonal and informational issues were
typically connected, as personal encounters related to both interactions and communication of
information. For this reason, we decided to organize injustice events faced by women across
waves into two main categories, as depicted in Table 1: The first category includes
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distributive and procedural events, and the second includes interpersonal and informational
events. Notably, some events include both distributive/procedural and
interpersonal/informational aspects.
Across waves, many of the injustice events reported concerned flexible work
arrangements. We also noticed that at time 1, following the pregnancy announcement and
before maternity leave, events were often related to a lack of consideration of women’s
constraints during pregnancy, as well as interpersonal offenses. While in most cases, the
direct supervisor was the perpetrator of the injustice event, upper management was also
mentioned by the participants, especially in the case of informational injustice events.
Colleagues were the third source of injustice events, typically in relation to interpersonal
interactions.
Distributive and procedural injustice events. As depicted in Table 1, we identified a
considerable number of distributive and procedural events in participants’ narratives of their
personal experiences at work at the time around their maternity leave. At time 1, typical
distributive and procedural events were related to work arrangements. Many of the
participants wanted to take advantage of a labor agreement provision granting pregnant
women the right to leave work one hour early each day. However, most of the interviewees
could not exercise this right because of their workload, as illustrated by Julie6: I am entitled,
normally, legally, to one hour a day. Let's be honest, I don't take it. And yet, in the letter I
sent to announce my pregnancy, I had indicated that I wanted to take the different
arrangements that were possible (...) in spite of everything, for him [supervisor], everything
must continue as before, so the workload remains the same. Another example was provided
by Mary who said: You see even now, pregnant, I was supposed to finish at 4:30 pm, and
sometimes they schedule meetings at 6:00 pm, so you don't finish at 4:30 pm.
6 We use pseudonyms to protect our participants’ identities.
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At time 2, typical events included descriptions of sidelining attempts and of
promotions and bonuses that were not granted. For example, Manon was told that she would
not receive her promised salary increase: We agreed on a percentage of increase, and for me,
it was good. The next week, she [supervisor] called me back to tell me that it wasn't possible,
that we weren't going to do that, and that we would renegotiate when I get back from
maternity leave. Similarly, Alice described, I was supposed to become an expert consultant
because I am a senior consultant (...) I ticked all the boxes, and normally, I was supposed to
get paid 170 euros extra per month. And in fact, I didn't get it, but at the last moment (...)
they never talked about having to be the best consultant to get a salary raise. We had several
meetings about salary raises; they never talked about that.
At time 3, typical injustice events referred to project and task reallocations and
sidelining, restrictions in work arrangements, and missed pay raises. For instance, Elisabeth
discovered that some of her work projects had been reallocated to colleagues: To see that
there are projects that I had initiated personally and that now, it is completely the
responsibility of someone else... I was told that they did not need me anymore; it is a little
hard. Similarly, Gabrielle noticed that her supervisor and her colleague were trying to
remove her from a project she also originally initiated: At the moment, there is an attempt to
remove me from certain projects, and I do not like that at all. In addition, she added, It
surprises me, but not so much, explaining that it had already happened to her in the past.
Interpersonal and informational injustice events. The participants also reported
numerous interpersonal justice events during the maternity leave period (see Table 1). We
noticed that many of the participants were confronted with guilt-inducing remarks from their
supervisors, particularly before their maternity leave (i.e., time 1). An example was provided
by Mary, who reported what happened when she returned to work following a pregnancy-
related sick leave: She [supervisor] couldn't stand the fact that I was on sick leave; she was
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pressuring me to know when I could start again. She really wasn't correct, and when I came
back, I got some really unacceptable remarks, like I only thought of myself, I was selfish to
have been off, stuff like that. Another example was given by Ines, who described how a
member of the upper management suggested that mothers are responsible for the penalty they
face once they return to work following childbirth: I just remembered something my director
told me, but this is a classic example of a man's attitude: it's the women who put up barriers,
who themselves think they are not capable because they have a family life, because the job is
hard. Moreover, several interviewees faced sexist comments from their colleagues or upper
management relating to the belief that participants would not return to work after their
maternity leave. For example, Charline said, "I have colleagues who will make remarks such
as "So, when do you lay?", but they are 40 or 50 years old, they are not on the same team as
me; I meet them at the coffee machine... The ones who say, "Well, we won't see you anymore!
You're going to stay at home!"
While women had less contact with their colleagues and their supervisors during their
maternity leave, some participants still reported interpersonal justice events during the time 2
and time 3 interviews. Julie’s narrative provided an example of perceived unfair interactions
with her supervisor and upper management regarding the fact that she was not able to find a
childcare arrangement during the COVID-19 pandemic: They think that we could have found
a nanny; that's clearly what we were told. That's why they refused my spouse's work
arrangement request. They feel that we could have found another form of childcare while
waiting for the nursery. When returning to work, many interviewees also had to face
comments from their colleagues or supervisor regarding the work arrangements they had
taken. For instance, Clémence’s colleagues regularly made remarks related to the fact that she
now worked part time: But my colleagues tease me a bit when I leave at 2 pm, like "I'm going
to have kids too" or "It's cool to have kids", that kind of thing. Some colleagues even
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commented on the perceived character of the baby of an interviewee. Elisabeth recalled a
moment when she was teleworking, and her colleagues asked to see the baby on camera
during an online meeting: My colleagues wanted to see the baby on camera, and if you put a
baby in front of a computer, she or he is not very smiley, and they said, "She's not smiley, like
you".
A few informational events were also reported by the participants, especially during
their maternity leave. For example, Manon described a conversation with her supervisor
about the leave pension: At the time of this discussion about the salary, she [supervisor] had
said to me, "You have to realize that your leave, we pay half of it, so it's expensive for us",
and I know that's not true7.
7 In France, the maternity leave pension is in fact funded by the national health insurance
office (i.e., CPAM), and companies do not pay for it.
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Table 1. Type of injustice events encountered across waves
Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3
Distributive and
procedural
injustice events
- Yearly (12 months)
objectives are set for the
year despite the employee
going on maternity leave
because the supervisor
expects the interviewee to
work during her leave
- Supervisor refuses telework request or accepts
it only with heavy
counterparts
- Supervisor pushes the
employee to overwork
during her pregnancy
- Meetings are set outside of
legal working hours
- Interviewee cannot avail of
pregnancy-related legal
right because of intense workload
- Expected promotion not
given
- Supervisor refuses
employee’s leave request
- Supervisor imposes leave
days during the COVID-19
pandemic under the pretext
that the person has children
- Interviewee is asked to
work during a pregnancy-related sick leave
- Supervisor micro manages
interviewee following a
pregnancy-related sick
leave
- There is a lack of
transparency on bonus and
promotion allocation and
distribution
- Expected promotion or/and
salary increase are not given
- Job position is modified
without consideration or consultation of the absent
employee
- Interviewee is required to
work while on leave
- Interviewee’s job position is
advertised on recruitment
websites
- There is a lack of
transparency on organizational childcare
attribution
- The interviewee is forced to
take vacation days at specific times of the year
- Promised recruitment of
support staff is denied
- Supervisor is reluctant to
accept work arrangement
request (part-time position)
- Upper management and
supervisors refuse that the
interviewee telework upon
her return to work and during
one of the COVID-19 related
lockdown
- The interviewee is ousted
from some important projects
that she used to lead
- Task and project are
(re)allocated without
consideration or consultation
of the returning employee
- The interviewee is sidelined from projects
- Supervisor restricts the
application of telework
arrangements, even though it
goes against legal worker
rights (instead of one
day/week, her supervisor
only allows her to telework
one day/month)
- Important meetings are
scheduled when the interviewee is on leave (part-
time position) or outside of
legal work hours
- Promotion is not granted due
to maternity leave
- Bonus is not granted due to
maternity leave
- Bonus allocation procedures
are changed
- Heavy organizational
procedure to get promoted
- Upper management
pressurizes the employee to
change departments
- Interviewee is the only
person from the board who is
not offered the same status as
the other (male) board
members
Interpersonal and
informational
injustice events
- Supervisor makes
unpleasant remarks
following a pregnancy-
related sick leave
- Colleagues and supervisor
harass the interviewee
following a pregnancy-
related sick leave
- Supervisor does not
acknowledge pregnancy
and corresponding legal/contractual provisions
- Supervisor and colleagues
make benevolent sexist
remarks
- Supervisor expresses her
- Supervisor communicates
misinformation on maternity
leave pension
- Supervisor provides no
explanation on the fact that
the interviewee’s job position
was advertised on
recruitment websites
- Upper management send a
coercing message to justify
imposed leaves or telework
refusal
- Upper management blames
the interviewee for not
having found a childcare
option yet
- Supervisor makes a remark
on telework arrangements
- There is a lack of
transparency on telework
arrangement options
- Supervisor and HR manager
makes fun of employees who
telework
- Supervisor, colleagues and
clients make comments on the interviewee’s part-time
arrangements
- Colleagues make patronizing
remarks on working mothers’
ability to adequately balance
work and family
- Colleagues makes an
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doubts regarding the fact
that the interviewee can
take care of a child
- Supervisor and colleagues
make remarks on the fact
that the interviewee leaves
work on time
- Supervisor makes
unpleasant remarks on
teleworking arrangements - Supervisor makes a
disdainful remark on the
interviewee's work
- Supervisor and upper management have an
inappropriate reaction to
pregnancy announcement
- Supervisor repeatedly
insists that interviewee
justify why she cannot
attend specific events
- Upper management,
supervisor, colleagues
make sexist remarks
- Supervisor coerces
interviewee regarding her maternity leave within the
first weeks of
announcement
- Supervisor blames the
interviewee for intending
to take a parental leave or
for taking a part-time
arrangement
- Supervisor pressurizes
interviewee not to take a
parental leave
- Information communicated
by HR staff on maternity
leave modalities is
insufficient
- Supervisor or colleagues
solicit the interviewee during
her leave
- Supervisor harasses
interviewee with 15 calls
within a day
- Supervisor's secretary calls
the interviewee to find where
she is because the
administration forgot she was
on maternity leave
unpleasant comment on
interviewee’s baby
- Colleagues blame the
interviewee for being absent
for so long
- Supervisor makes sexist requests and comments
- Supervisor blames the
interviewee for returning to
work full-time
- Upper management likes to
reaffirm their power over
interviewee's work
arrangement requests
- Colleagues make
inappropriate remarks on
interviewee’s lack of childcare solution during the
pandemic
- Supervisor requests that
interviewee’s partner take
care of the child
- Upper management blames
the employee for resigning
from her job
- Upper management blames
interviewee for conversations
she shared with colleagues
- Supervisor laughs at the
interviewee who feels
emotionally overwhelmed
- Colleague blames the
interviewee for not making
enough progress on a project
Upper management makes
sexist remark on mothers
- Colleagues comment the fact
that the interviewee leaves
work earlier than them
4.2. Justice episodes: How injustice events and justice omissions are interwoven over
time
We noticed that justice manifestations at work at the time around maternity leave
could take more subtle forms than observable injustice events. We term such types of justice
manifestations justice omissions and define them as the absence of action from an entity,
giving rise to a fairness assessment. We observed that omissions were particularly salient
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before the participants went on maternity (time 1) and upon their return to work (time 3).
Nineteen of the participants reported omissions with regard to the allocation of outcomes,
procedures, information provision and work interactions. Table 2 presents illustrations of the
justice omissions encountered across waves.
Our data show that justice omissions are typically linked to justice events: We found a
two-way relationship that materializes over time such that (in)justice events can trigger a
justice omission, and a justice omission can trigger one or a series of injustice events.
Specifically, we discovered that injustice events and justice omissions can stem from the
same underlying issue but manifest differently over time and, as such, can form a justice
episode. One example of a typical justice omission reported by several interviewees at time 1
involved the lack of recognition of the participants’ pregnancy, as Elisabeth described: I feel
that when I announced my pregnancy, no one did anything. This identified justice omission
later resulted in a distributive injustice event for the interviewee: I continued to work on my
projects, alone, and in May-June, I had a two-week sick leave, precisely because I
overworked. Similarly, Mary described that her supervisor failed to adjust her work deadlines
following pregnancy-related sick leave, which led her to work extra hours to complete her
work on time: When I came back, no file was advanced. Except for the deadlines, they did not
adjust them compared to my colleagues. So, I had to work like crazy when I came back.
Likewise, experiencing an injustice event could shed light on a more insidious justice
omission. For example, Charline first described a procedural injustice event: I was told at the
beginning of the week that I had to train him, while I am leaving for my maternity leave on
February 1st. That is to say, in 2 weeks. She found it upsetting that her supervisor did not
make arrangements beforehand and as such pointed out a justice omission from her
supervisor: I thought it was a pity that there was not more anticipation. When you get
pregnant, you usually tell your employer after four months, or five at the most, so they have
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quite a lot of time to anticipate the absence. Importantly, not only was the event seen as an
injustice, but our respondents also judged the omission as unjust on its own. Furthermore,
Andréa emailed the HR department during her pregnancy to request a scheduling adjustment
that is part of labor agreements for pregnant employees in France. She did not receive any
answer and therefore could not benefit from this arrangement. In any case, I can’t take it until
someone writes back to me. She deplored the lack of consideration from the organization: We
have the impression of not being considered very much.
Several interviewees bemoaned the lack of guidance upon their return to work. For
instance, Sarah was disappointed that her HR contact did not schedule a meeting upon her
return to work: I was supposed to have my HR interview, but she didn't call me back at all. I
was the one who had to tell her that an interview was necessary... Because it's been 7 months
since I left, and I've had a lot of trouble finding a time slot. She shared the difficulties she
faced when returning to work and working reduced hours: I only worked 3.5 days a week
from my return to work until the vacations, and it was complicated because I was asked to do
the same amount of work as before, in a shorter period of time, and I was not efficient. Due
to this lack of adjustment and communication of her new arrangements to her clients, she
received a complaint from her client: He said, "But she is working part time?!" Her return-to-
work experience generated high levels of stress for her and pushed her to overwork: I get to
work much earlier. I leave, well, at the same time as before, but I get to work earlier. I don't
take much of a lunch break between 12 and 2 pm. Finally, many of the omissions identified
when interviewees returned to work were linked to the lack of communication on possible
maternity-related work arrangements and on the important events that occurred at work
during the absence of the participants because they were on leave for several months.
Gabrielle deplored this: We didn't do what I would have thought was the right thing, which is
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"Tell me what happened during the last 5 months, sparing me what I need to be spared, of
course, but tell me what happened".
Overall, most of the justice omissions identified were concerned with the lack of
consideration of the new constraints associated with pregnancy and maternity, as well as with
flexible work arrangements. The main sources of such omissions were the supervisor, upper
management and the HR department. As described above, justice omissions interacted with
injustice events over time such that a justice omission could lead to injustice events and an
injustice event could later result in a justice omission. Together, these interactions between
events and omissions formed a justice episode, as they originated from the same underlying
issue.
Table 2. Type of justice omissions encountered across waves
Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3
Distributive and
procedural justice
omissions
- Supervisor does not
anticipate or organize the interviewee’s
maternity leave
- Supervisor does not
adjust the interviewee’s
work deadlines after
pregnancy-related leave
so she needs to work
very long hours
- Supervisor does not
consider pregnancy
constraints in task appointments
- Supervisor fails to
extend the interviewee’s
teleworking
arrangements and thus
she needs to renew her
requests continuously
- Workload and work
objectives are not adjusted to interviewee’s new work
arrangements
- Supervisor does not
consider interviewee’s
constraints when imposing
work arrangements (e.g.,
forced telework)
- Supervisor does not
consider interviewee’s
constraints in task allocation
- In the context of an office move during maternity
leave, failure to provide IT
equipment for the
interviewee
- Supervisor fails to schedule
a return-from-leave
appointment
Interpersonal and
informational justice
omissions
- HR does not answer the
interviewee’s questions
on pregnancy and maternity related
provisions
- Upper management
provides no answer on
email announcing
pregnancy
- There is a lack of
- There is no discussion of
job position modification
between the supervisor and the concerned employee
- Upper management does not
communicate any
information on maternity
related provisions
- The supervisor does not
introduce the returning
employee to new colleagues
- Supervisor provides no
information to the returning
employee on things that
happened at work during
maternity leave (e.g.,
organizational changes)
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communication and
transparency regarding
pregnancy and
maternity related
provisions
- Upper management fails
to consider the pregnant employee
- There is no discussion
with supervisor on
pregnancy-related
arrangements
- Supervisor does not inform
clients that interviewee
works part time now
- There is no communication
on breastfeeding
provisions, on maternity-
related legal and contractual provisions
- Upper management forgets
to include the interviewee
in emails and only
communicates with her
supervisor and colleagues
- Supervisor is not concerned
about the daily life
experiences and health of
interviewee and her child
4.3. Justice memories and anticipations
The participants engaged in autobiographical memory and shared life narratives that
connected their past, present and future to form a coherent whole (Fivush, 2011).
Specifically, we found that the women’s present and anticipated experiences at work were
influenced by their memories from past justice experiences. Participants’ narratives
accounted for both backward and forward mental time travel (Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997).
We uncovered two main types of past time traveling in our data: While several women
repeatedly mentioned the same specific events across waves, others retrieved justice events
that happened in the past only in the later phases of data collection, as if these events only
became relevant retrospectively. Some of the retrieved events even happened prior to the
study, and some happened during pregnancy (i.e., relating to time 1) but had not been
reported by the participant during the interview at time 1.
Across waves, interviewees reported unfolding events of an interpersonal, procedural,
and distributive nature. For example, at time 2, Manon described a series of injustice events
(including interpersonal, procedural and distributive aspects) that happened at time 1 and
altered her perceptions about her supervisor’s fairness: There had been precedents during the
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lockdown. I had found that she was not a good person, and I did not want to continue
working with her. Another example was provided by Clémence, who remembered at time 3 a
remark her supervisor made about a requested work arrangement before going on maternity
leave: My supervisor just told me that she didn't take a parental leave or anything when she
had her children. In line with Rupp and Paddock’s (2010) model, these accounts confirm that
events and entity fairness are closely linked in the participants’ minds.
One interviewee (Alice) started to recall events at time 2 as she experienced important
injustice events of a distributive nature during her maternity leave. Specifically, when she
determined that she would not be granted the promotion she was expected to receive, she
retrieved from her memory additional injustice events that occurred before she went on
maternity leave. She received a bonus but was asked to reimburse part of it back to the
organization: Once they played a trick on me too... in fact, they set up a work challenge that
lasted 3 months (...) every month there were 3 winners. I won all 3 challenges. In December,
they called me in, and the N+2 told me, "I'm going to tell you something; you're not going to
be happy... you see, the challenges? In fact, we had a tax audit, and we hadn't deducted the
payroll taxes... now we have to pay back the taxes, so we're going to deduct them from your
pay”. After evoking several present and past events that she or one of her close colleagues
experienced, she concluded, That's why. They couldn't get me to change my mind. She was
aware that the perceptions she used to have of her organization had totally shifted: I thought
to myself, "She [interviewer]'s going to think I'm completely incoherent or bipolar. It was the
last few months that made me change my mind. Indeed, and in coherence with Jones and
Skarlicki’s model, a more effortful processing appears necessary if the event is deemed
inconsistent with the previous judgment of the entity. However, adding to the mechanisms
that Jones and Skarlicki (2013) described in their model, the participants engaged in active
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memory search to find additional past events that conformed with a possible new entity
evaluation.
Some interviewees started reporting injustice events that happened in the past,
especially interpersonal events, before returning to work, and they used them as a basis to
form predictions about future interpersonal treatment. For example, Zoé remembered a
statement by the CEO of her company regarding the COVID-19 work arrangement for a four-
day work week: He said, "And then, how do people come back to normal work settings? It
won't be possible, they [employees] will be used to having a lot of free time!" I told myself
that this was such a far-fetched thought. Hearing this remark created a lot of uncertainty for
this participant who started to anticipate unfair interpersonal treatment upon her return to
work (time 3): I have this comment in my head. I wonder what they will tell me. Similarly, at
time 2, Anna recalled an event that had happened during her pregnancy but that she had not
mentioned at time 1. She, however, used this event as a basis for forming expectations about
the treatment she would receive from her supervisors once she returned to work: I think there
will be remarks like there were during my pregnancy, a little sexist. Like "If you get upset, it
is the hormones; it's because you're pregnant", that kind of thing.
New injustice events could also lay the ground for injustice anticipation. For example,
Elisabeth’s colleagues made an unpleasant remark on her baby’s attitude upon her return to
work, as described above. The interviewee was very upset by this comment but refrained
from sharing her thoughts because she anticipated additional unfair treatment: I'm really
pissed off. But again, I let it go, because, honestly, there's no point in it... I think that at work
it’s sometimes better to let it go, because if you get angry, and even more so when you're a
woman, they're going to say, "That one, she's hysterical; she's on her period".
Interestingly, mental time travel could also be observed in relation to justice
omissions. During her maternity leave, Andréa anticipated a justice omission about not
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having a return-from-leave interview planned with her supervisor upon her return: My
supervisor, I think she'd like to. But, knowing pretty much the department's schedule, I don't
think it's going to happen. At time 3, this anticipated omission became an actual omission,
which left the participant feeling out of place: At the beginning, you feel a little bit like you're
on the sidelines. I think I'm okay now, but it took me a good month to feel like I belonged
again. In turn, this experience translated into different injustice events including the lack of
transparency in task allocation and inappropriate schedules of team meetings: I'm not there,
[so] we ask another person (...) the person who is there can inherit a file, and because I'm
necessarily less there, I end up with fewer [files]. This example provides evidence that justice
omissions can also trigger mental time travel. Specifically, it offers an illustration of the
interconnectedness of anticipated omissions, justice omissions and injustice events and
explains how they are likely to unfold over time.
The ability to mentally time travel is critical for understanding the dynamics
underlying justice episodes. We noticed that autobiographical memory functions could link
different injustice events and justice omissions together into one episode in the participants’
minds -- even when these events and omissions may not have seemed interconnected for an
outsider. For instance, through mental time travel, additional injustice events from the past
were sometimes woven into the same justice episode retrospectively when interviewees
looked back at their past justice experiences to align them with present experiences.
Therefore, our findings suggest that justice experiences that belong together as a justice
episode can change over time. Moreover, a justice episode could also be extended forward
when future justice omissions and events were already anticipated, as suggested above.
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4.4. Responses to (in)justice experiences
4.4.1. Justification of injustice episodes.
Perhaps surprisingly, not all reported injustice events and episodes seemed to trigger
negative judgments and attitudes toward the source of the injustice (typically the supervisor
or the organization). Indeed, some interviewees attempted to justify interpersonal, procedural
and distributive injustice events at the time around their maternity leave. For example,
Charline faced sexist remarks from her coworkers during her pregnancy (i.e., at time 1), as
highlighted in the section “Interpersonal injustice events”, and she tried to find excuses for
her coworkers’ behaviors: It makes me laugh. Often, they are old people. They have forgotten
that women have finally gained some rights. Additionally, during her pregnancy, Sophie was
pushed to overwork before going on maternity leave. Far from having resentful feelings
toward her organization, she blamed herself: It may have caused me to stop [working] earlier
than expected, but that's my fault; it's up to me to deal with it and know my body.
Additionally, prior to disclosing her pregnancy, the same interviewee had been offered a
promotion opportunity. However, her supervisor retracted his offer upon her pregnancy
announcement, and she made sense of this event as follows: I lost that opportunity... let's say
I put it off, not because my manager tells me I'm not capable, that's not what he says at all.
It's just a timing issue. While many participants provided explanations for justice-related
episodes, only one participant showed that she was conscious of the fact that she used
justification to make sense of her supervisor’s managerial practices during her pregnancy.
Regarding being asked to work by her supervisor while on sick leave during her pregnancy,
Zoé said, I think it's a pretty unique situation for the company. The managers are a bit
stressed, well... I am trying to excuse them. During maternity leave, i.e., time 2 in our
interview schedule, two participants even engaged in justification of anticipated (in)justice
experiences when returning to work -- we could term such a phenomenon “anticipated
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injustice justification”. For example, Barbara feared future treatment by her supervisor, but
she was also resigned: Since she doesn't have children, I am wondering: "Is she going to be
tough?". But I understand. I understand because I was in the same position before. In a
similar vein, one interviewee anticipated a justice omission at time 2. Andréa anticipated that
she would not have a return-from-leave interview planned with her supervisor when returning
to work and in anticipation tried to provide an explanation: My supervisor, I think she'd like
to. But, knowing pretty much the department's schedule, I don't think it's going to happen.
We noticed that interviewees provided justifications at time 3, particularly when they
reentered their organization after maternity leave. They included explanations about
procedural, interpersonal and sometimes distributive injustice events. For example, Andréa
saw that her former projects and work tasks were reallocated by her supervisor to a new
colleague, and she explained, I think she [supervisor] wants to make sure I'm paying attention
and keeping my balance. But it feels like "I'm putting other people in charge". Similarly,
Clémence gave a justification for her supervisor’s unpleasant comment when she could not
come to work because her baby was sick: I know she was a little stung when I called her and
told her I couldn't come to work. But deep down, she didn't really mean it. Sarah even made
sense of how not being offered additional work responsibilities could actually be beneficial
for her: I tell myself that not having responsibilities is not a big deal; I feel like it’s even
better!
While many of the participants who tended to justify specific injustice events by their
supervisors and colleagues continued to provide potential justifications across waves, a few
interviewees stopped providing justifications for their supervisors’ perceived unfair practices.
For example, Gabrielle tried to provide an explanation for an injustice interpersonal event
that occurred at time 1 when her supervisor made an inappropriate remark on teleworking
arrangements: There was a big conflation, and I think it's probably due to clumsiness.
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However, we noticed that she no longer provided such justifications at time 3 when
encountering similar remarks. It is possible that participants who stopped making excuses for
unfair treatment had finally adjusted their entity justice judgments; therefore, the experienced
injustice events were no longer in dissonance with their entity justice evaluations. This seems
to be an important extension of the processes underlying event and entity justice dynamics
described by Jones and Skarlicki (2013).
Eva provided an example of how justification of injustice events may unfold over
time. At time 2, she saw her job offered to her replacement, and she reacted as follows: That
kind of atmosphere doesn't suit me. When someone makes a decision about my job without
informing me, I don't appreciate it. While she felt very disappointed at time 2, she offered
justifications for this same injustice event at time 3: I realized that he [supervisor] had
absolutely no idea what my work was about. Out of panic, he made decisions that he thought
were right. He didn't mean it badly. In doing so, this participant tried to make sense of the
injustice event that had happened during her maternity leave and to find explanations, as she
planned to remain within her organization for a few more years. However, despite the
explanations described above, the event that occurred at time 2 was associated with future
turnover intentions for the participant: It's pretty heavy; it's a lot of stress, a lot of hours, a lot
of work... it's very interesting, but it's interesting as long as you learn. If I'm done learning, in
3 years, there's no point in putting up with it.
Importantly, and as illustrated by Eva’s narrative, we noticed that injustice event
justification was associated with substantial evolution in career aspirations and attitudes over
time for the participants. For instance, some interviewees described a drop in both career
aspirations and expectations at time 3. Specifically, Zoé reported at time 1, I'd like to stay in
this field, grow in skills, and get management responsibilities (...), [to be] in charge of a
small team. However, at time 3, when asked about her current aspirations, she answered, The
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main objective for now is not to be on the job market in 2021, so it's a very short-term
aspiration, for now. Several interviewees also mentioned turnover intentions upon their
return to work (i.e., at time 3). For example, Andréa clearly expressed her desire to find a
new job when interviewed upon her return to work: to change jobs, to find something that is
more motivating on a daily basis.
4.4.2. Evolving career aspirations and attitudes.
We found several patterns in our data in terms of career responses over time and in
relation to justice episodes. Some of our respondents also made explicit links between the
(in)justice episodes they encountered and specific career responses. A first overall pattern
that we noticed was a decrease in career aspirations across the waves of data collection for
many participants. For example, to the question of what her career aspirations were for the
future, Gabrielle gave the following answer at time 3: to not leave home in the morning with
a bad gut feeling. Meanwhile, at time 2 she still wanted an exciting job, nice colleagues, and
a satisfying salary. Her answer at time 3 came after she felt left out of work projects and had
several altercations with her supervisor, particularly about teleworking and project
assignments. Similarly, Elisabeth also experienced injustice events at time 3, including being
sidelined from work projects and having to deal with sexist remarks from colleagues and
supervisors and reproaches from colleagues for time spent on maternity leave. When she was
asked about her career expectations upon returning to work (i.e., time 3), she said,
Professionally, I would like to continue doing what I am doing today. As long as I'm given
little things to do, I'm fine. However, at time 1, she mentioned that she desired to take on a
few bigger projects and have a small team. Similarly, we noticed a decrease in career
aspirations for one participant who encountered a justice omission at time 3. Although during
pregnancy and maternity leave, Sarah reported that she was looking for a job that is
interesting, where I am not bored, at time 3 she stated, Right now, it's about getting back on
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track. I'm looking at the short term now. At this same period of time, she complained about
the fact that her supervisor failed to adjust her workload although she had worked part time
since returning to work.
Beyond withdrawal from career aspirations, our analyses also suggest that injustice
episodes could lead to more immediate withdrawal attitudes within the current role and even
withdrawal from the job altogether. Eva provided one example. During her maternity leave,
her replacement had been offered her job by her supervisor, as described earlier. In response
to this event, Eva mentioned her desire to require teleworking arrangements: I also think that,
in relation to everything that happened during my replacement, the lack of communication,
etc., I was a little bitter. And I wanted to try this opportunity [teleworking], this right that we
have, to know if it was really good or not. Additionally, several participants reported
intentions to quit their jobs with their current employer as a result of injustice episodes.
During her pregnancy, Mary encountered different types of injustice events, including
distributive, procedural and interpersonal injustice. In particular, she faced harassment by her
supervisor and colleagues following pregnancy-related sick leave. She clearly made the link
between these events and her intention to quit her organization: I have a hard time accepting
the behavior they had because it's a lot of stress and you don't need that. So, if I can change
jobs, I will change jobs. During her maternity leave, she planned to “take it easy” when going
back to work: Given the little understanding I received during my pregnancy, I feel I have
given enough, so for now, I will do the job, I will stay, but I will take it easy. At time 3, her
intentions to quit her job remained: I am looking more than actively to change [jobs]. In
addition, she described how her attitude to hours at work had evolved over the maternity
period: Before, it was fine for me to work Monday-Friday and to pick up my son at 6 pm.
Now, I don't even want to do that anymore. I even want to be able to stay with them on
Wednesday, at the end of the day, at 4:30 pm. In a similar vein, Elise experienced several
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interpersonal injustice events with her supervisor upon her return to work. Justice issues
revolved around the work organization within the team and the allocated workload. After
these events, Elise reported at time 3, I'm starting to think that maybe it would be good to
look [for a job] closer to home. In addition, she added, As long as my job was satisfying and I
was fulfilled, I was fine. But now, I find that it's becoming more and more ordinary. If it’s
going to be like that, I might as well be right next door. Finally, Andréa provided an
interesting example of evolving career aspirations and attitudes across the three waves: At
time 1 she indicated, My relatively short-term objective is to be able to supervise projects and
then to really experience management. However, at time 2, she mentioned, To take pleasure
in what I do. To have intellectual stimulation and to have the feeling to do something useful
and relevant. In addition, at time 3, when she saw important projects and tasks reallocated to
a new colleague, she struggled to find meaning in her job: From a professional point of view,
I already had a hunch, but it does make me want to find a job that has more meaning.
4.4.3. Career withdrawal as the ultimate response to injustice.
In addition to interviewees engaging in withdrawal attitudes following injustice
episodes, despite the relatively short timeframe of our study, we observed several actual
withdrawal behaviors over time. Indeed, for several participants, experiencing important
injustice events resulted in several forms of withdrawal behaviors. For example, Camilla had
high career ambitions at time 1 and was hoping to be offered her manager’s position when he
left; however, she was not interviewed for the job on the basis that she left work too early: I
had this conversation for the job. They went so far as to put a number on it. They said, "Well,
no, you should stay until 7:30 pm”. In response, she decided to request a part-time
arrangement during her maternity leave: I decided to work part time; it's a right. They're
going to adjust my workload, they're going to take things away, and when I have to leave at
5:30 pm, I'm going to leave, and that's it. Lola also decided to take action after experiencing
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several injustice episodes with her supervisor. At time 1, she mentioned, In the future, I
would like to become a store manager. When she returned to work, she decided to request a
job transfer because of the complicated nature of the relationship with her supervisor: I
thought that by changing managers, it would be good for me to have a fresh start. She
mentioned, Staying in my current job suits me and being able to change stores, to see
something else, to have a new team, maybe a renewed motivation, that will allow me to
continue, for the moment, in this way.
A few participants even handed in their resignation. Indeed, it was the participants
who experienced the strongest forms of injustice who decided to leave their organizations.
For instance, Alice made the decision to apply for a new job during her maternity leave after
facing several injustice events as well as witnessing injustice to colleagues. At time 2, she
was denied a promised promotion and regretted the lack of transparency of promotion
attributions and of project allocation processes. She described not only her own injustice
experiences but also those that she witnessed; for example, one of her colleagues was
reprimanded for arriving 2 minutes late to work, which made her anticipate receiving the
same future treatment upon returning to work. She said, I applied somewhere else because in
terms of the range of hours and in terms of their ability to adapt to us and our family lives,
it's not easy with them. I had expectations, but now I understood how it worked. My decision
is made; I will leave. At time 3, Alice notified her employer of her resignation, and she
justified this decision as follows: The reason for my resignation was simply that I had asked
for a raise (which she did not receive). Again, she anticipated that injustice would occur
again in the future and declared, So I prefer to leave right now. Similarly, Manon experienced
a shift in her career aspirations after experiencing several injustice events, and she decided to
quit her job. At time 1 she mentioned, As I am about to have a second child, I tell myself that
I will stay in this job, as long as it allows me to be stable during the year to come, the
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maternity leave, the return of the leave, which is also a bit tiring… However, at time 2, her
promised salary increase was refused, and more importantly she saw her job advertised on a
recruitment website without being informed beforehand. Therefore, she took the decision to
resign: I didn't want to continue working with her [supervisor]. I had made the decision to
stop working for this organization and that I wanted to resign.
Taken together, these examples illustrate that injustice episodes can -- even over a
relatively short timespan from the announcement of a pregnancy until shortly after the return
from maternity leave -- lead to powerful career-relevant responses, as depicted in Figure 2.
Often, it is the accumulation of several events or omissions that individuals link together in
their mind, combined with the anticipation of future injustices based on these same events
and omissions, that appear to lead to the most powerful career responses, including reduced
career ambition, reduced commitment to the organization, reduced work hours, turnover
intentions, and ultimately resignation. While participants who provided justifications for
injustice events and justice omissions across waves tended to experience a decrease in career
aspirations and sometimes had turnover intentions at times 2 and 3, participants who engaged
in the most severe forms of actual career withdrawal behavior, such as reduced work hours
and resignation, never engaged in justification.
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Figure 2. Justice episode dynamics around maternity leave and career-related responses
Pregn
ancy
Matern
ity leave R
eturn
to work
(In)Ju
stice episod
e
Career resp
onses
Ch
ildb
irth
Tim
e
Recalled past injustice
episode
Experienced (in)justice
episodes E
xperienced (in)justice episodes
Experienced (in)justice
episodes
Withdraw
al attitudes
Withdraw
al behaviors
Career aspiration
drop C
areer aspiration drop
Withdraw
al attitudes
Withdraw
al behaviors
Career aspiration
drop
Withdraw
al attitudes
Recalled past injustice
episodes
Anticipated justice
episode
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5. DISCUSSION
The aim of this study was to explore women’s personal experiences at work at the
time around their maternity leave and the consequences of such experiences on career
outcomes. While there is little doubt that women experience a motherhood penalty (e.g.,
Correll et al., 2007; Heilman & Okimoto, 2008), we know surprisingly little about what
happens during the transition period to motherhood from women’s own perspectives. In our
study, we chose an organizational justice perspective to address this gap and adopted a
person-centric approach to qualitatively and longitudinally investigate the justice experiences
of women at work around the time of their maternity leave. Overall, our findings suggest that
maternity leave is a time when working mothers are likely to experience a number of
“typical” injustice events and justice omissions that in women’s minds are woven together,
forming justice episodes. These episodes, and how they are made sense of, can lead to
subsequent career responses. Our research offers important theoretical and practical
implications that we discuss thereafter.
First, our study is one of the first to provide a person-centric description of the
experiences faced by women at work around the time of their maternity leave. We present
women’s accounts of the typical injustice events they encountered around this important
career transition. Specific injustice events following pregnancy disclosure (time 1) typically
differed from events encountered during maternity leave (time 2) and upon return to work
(time 3). Experiences of such injustice events at this critical time period were shown to
trigger specific career responses over time, from reduced career aspirations to turnover
intention and actual resignation. This finding suggests that typical “patterns” exist across very
different organizational contexts. While the existence of some of these patterns is daunting,
the silver lining is that such shared patterns are an obvious opportunity for creating
organizational guidelines and codes of conduct and providing training for front-line managers
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and HR staff. For example, one of the recurring issues upon return to work is the restriction
of teleworking requests and implementation, which could be easily avoided by providing
greater flexibility in work arrangements for returning employees.
Furthermore, our findings add to our understanding of the justice dynamics at the time
around maternity leave by describing the interplay of injustice events and justice omissions
over time. Justice omissions, which have previously been neglected by research, are
important justice manifestations that take more subtle forms than observable injustice events.
We found previous theoretical work that hinted at the possibility of such dynamics: Fortin
and Fellenz (2008) drew on Lukes’ (2005) power exercise framework to identify three
categories of managerial practices that shape and manage employees’ fairness perceptions.
The second category, “preventing”, suggests that (in)justice may also manifest in more subtle
forms and thus may not be directly perceptible. For instance, “issues that are not talked
about” (p. 422) may prevent employees from taking action and thus are likely to go unnoticed
by classical survey research approaches. Nevertheless, the authors expected that these
manifestations would likely result in attitudinal responses (Fortin & Fellenz, 2008). Despite
this observation, the literature has largely neglected the investigation of such justice
manifestations that are less salient than justice events at first glance but that – intertwining
with injustice events – can create powerful justice episodes leading to important
consequences. Our findings highlight the importance of studying justice omissions over time
and provide more concrete information on the type of justice omission likely to be
experienced by women at the time around maternity leave, when they might occur, and how
they are made sense of.
We argue that the interplay of justice omission and injustice events forms a justice
episode. Whiteside and Barclay (2015) introduced the term justice episode to describe the
phenomenon by which an initial justice event can trigger new events and entity assessments.
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We propose that justice episodes may also involve justice omissions. Whiteside and Barclay
(2015) stated that a justice episode “often involves a series of transactions with the
environment that are all organized around a central theme” (p. 37), and our findings suggest
that injustice events and justice omissions usually stem from the same underlying issue. They
are temporally intertwined; for example, injustice events can trigger the perception of justice
omissions, and justice omissions can bring about or enable injustice events. Importantly, not
only the injustice event but also the justice omission may be viewed as unfair. This
observation holds important implications for our understanding of the emergence of injustice
experiences over time, and our knowledge on justice dynamics is likely to remain incomplete
if we neglect justice omissions.
This study contributes to the helpful foundations of Rupp and Paddock (2010) and
Jones and Skarlicki (2013) in their models of justice dynamics by shedding light on the
mechanisms underlying event and entity justice dynamics. As suggested by Jones and
Skarlick (2013), individuals engage in sense-making activities when they gauge a specific
justice event as being inconsistent with their expectations of an entity. Our results suggest
that individuals may use their autobiographical memory and retrieve past (in)justice events to
make sense of a new event. Over time, this is likely to result in a reassessment of the fairness
of an entity to bring consistency between injustice experiences and the entity fairness
evaluation. Finally, we provide empirical insights into the interconnectedness of events and
entity evaluations. In line with Rupp and Paddock’s (2010) model, we found evidence that
injustice events and entity assessment are closely linked in the participants’ minds and have
important career implications.
Our research sheds light on the motivated nature of temporal justice dynamics in the
context of career transitions by providing accounts of participants’ system justification at
times around their maternity leave. System justification theory suggests that people are
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motivated to view the system (i.e., organization) they work for as fair (Jost & Banaji, 1994).
Therefore, employees are typically motivated to provide justifications for unfair treatment,
even when they are disadvantaged, because they want to believe that their system is fair (Jost,
2019). Our study offers insights into when and how women engage in system justification.
Specifically, we provide information on the specific injustice events and justice omissions
that triggered system justification for our participants and how their system justifications
evolved over time and within persons. In line with system justification theory, we noticed
that participants who engaged in justification tended to view their supervisors as fair and did
not wish to “unsettle” this reassuring belief. However, our findings show that despite
engaging in system justification to provide plausible explanations for perceived unfair
treatment from a supervisor, the participants’ career aspirations and attitudes could still suffer
from the experience of injustice events and justice omissions over their maternity leave
period. That is, while some participants engaged in system justification across waves, they
also experienced a decrease in their career aspirations and increasing turnover intention over
time; other participants stopped relying on system justification after experiencing a series of
injustice events and justice omissions, which also resulted in decreased career aspirations and
turnover intentions. Indeed, as suggested by system justification and motivated justice
theorizing (Barclay et al., 2017), when evidence of the unfairness of the system becomes so
blatant that it cannot be ignored, then the motivated belief that the system is fair (the illusion
of objectivity) cannot be upheld.
Our research also provides one of the first person-centric studies of autobiographical
memory dynamics (or mental time travel), which plays an important role in motivated justice
dynamics at work. Such possibilities are theoretically raised by Barclay et al. (2017), who
suggest that memories are an important part of motivated justice reasoning. Our empirical
results indeed show intimate linkages among injustice events, justice omissions, justice
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memories and anticipations of justice treatment. They also provide information on how one
triggers the others. Specifically, our findings suggest that new injustice events can trigger
memories of past injustice events and/or justice omissions and that past injustice events
and/or justice omissions can be used to anticipate future justice experiences. As sequences of
events and omissions are woven together through autobiographical memory functions,
sometimes previous events are “added” to the sequence of elements that make up a justice
episode (e.g., remembering something that one’s manager said long before the maternity
leave started). Therefore, justice episodes not only extend into the future but also can extend
into the past as memories are added that fit into current motivated sense-making activities.
For example, when injustice episodes triggered withdrawal attitudes and, in particular, the
wish to quit the organization, the participants became motivated to justify this decision and
attitude and reinforced their new injustice assessments of the organization or supervisor by
remembering past experiences, which were often seemingly unrelated.
Furthermore, our research also contributes to the literature on discrimination at the
time around pregnancy announcement and extends our knowledge of the typical
discriminatory events that women face and the strategies that they use to disclose their
pregnancy. While Jones (2017) investigated the role of anticipated discrimination in
employees’ pregnancy disclosure strategies and subsequent experienced discrimination, we
explored women’s justice experiences, which involved perceived discrimination and their
consequences on women’s career attitudes, not only during pregnancy but also during
maternity leave and upon reentry. Our findings reveal that whereas women perceived
discrimination while pregnant (e.g., pregnancy-related harassment), they also did so upon
their return to work. These experiences had direct implications for women’s career behavior
withdrawal. Taken together, our findings might provide a reflection on how the
organizational justice and discrimination literature can be cross-fertilized. In particular, our
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research offers a salient illustration of how injustice events, which often involve
discrimination, and justice omissions can form the breeding ground for discrimination.
Finally, this study sheds light on what happens at the critical point of maternity leave
at a micro level and from the subjective viewpoint of the persons involved. This information
is helpful to explain some of the macro trends that have been observed by sociologists and
labor economists, as mentioned in the introduction – widening the “gender scissors” around
the birth of a first child (e.g., Kleven et al., 2019). Indeed, the career reactions we observe
(both attitudinal and behavioral) are very powerful, even though we examined only a short
time window in our study. Specifically, they relate mainly to withdrawal, and we know that
concrete withdrawal decisions in mid-career (e.g., reducing hours, reducing ambitions,
decreasing responsibilities) can lastingly change the course of a career (Williams et al.,
2013).
6. Practical implications
Given that justice experiences at the time around maternity leave have damaging
consequences on women’s career attitudes and decisions, organizations that want to retain
women and wish to promote gender equality need to promote fair and supportive practices,
especially around the time of maternity leave. The identified typical injustice events
encountered by women across the three waves of data collection offer concrete guidelines on
the practices to avoid during the maternity leave period. A surprising number of the observed
injustices are actually prohibited by law in the European Union and in France as part of the
legislation on discrimination and harassment. Other practices and omissions did not
correspond to legal or contractual requirements and rights. A very first step may therefore
simply consist of thoroughly informing managers of these legal frameworks and signaling the
importance of adhering to them.
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Beyond providing information on practices to avoid when managing an employee at
the time around her maternity leave, our study also offers concrete suggestions of actions to
implement during this critical period of time for the careers of women. As an initial step, we
suggest that women have to be provided with all necessary information regarding the legal
dispositions available during their pregnancy (time 1) and regarding breastfeeding
arrangements upon return to work (time 3). Furthermore, many interviewees complained
about the lack of anticipation of their maternity leave; therefore, we encourage managers to
take the time to organize, conjointly with the employee, her absence to reduce uncertainty
levels associated with maternity leave. Upon return to work, many returning employees
decide to take advantage of specific work arrangements, such as part-time work, but these
arrangements are rarely associated with a workload adjustment; therefore, managers need to
make an effort to align the workload to mothers’ new work arrangements.
Moreover, given that maternity leave is a time when women’s central career motives
may change, we encourage managers to organize a return-to-work interview with the
returning employee to identify her possibly changing career motives that may require
adjustments in terms of work arrangements and yearly objectives. This interview will also be
an opportunity for exchange with the returning mother to identify her current career goals and
interests and reduce the likelihood of making assumptions about her life and career priorities,
which very often originate from gender role beliefs (Eagly & Wood, 2016) and can be a
source of damaging career consequences for working mothers.
Table 3 presents a concise summary of the typical injustice events and omissions we
observed in the present study, with concrete and practical propositions that organizations and
managers may wish to implement to counter each of them.
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Table 3. Propositions to counter the most common (in)justice events and omissions around
maternity leave
Common injustice events Related propositions During pregnancy
Meetings set outside of working hours
Interviewees cannot take pregnancy-related
provisions because of intense workload/
Employees are pushed to overwork during
pregnancy
Telework requests refused
Sexist remarks related to maternity
1. Schedule meetings only between 9h30am
and 5pm
2. Adjust employees’ workload following
pregnancy disclosure so that they can
take advantage of pregnancy-related
provisions and so that their work activities are in line with medical
recommendations during pregnancy.
3. Offer and facilitate flexible work
arrangements to employees throughout
their pregnancy to facilitate pregnant
women’s work.
4. Provide voluntary training to all
employees to bring awareness on the legal framework surrounding interactions
at work and encourage for the fair
treatment of all employees, mothers included. Organizations can also consider
displaying posters to highlight the
punishable nature of these remarks.
During maternity leave
Lack of transparency on promotion and bonus
allocations/Missed promotions and bonuses
Being contacted by colleagues and supervisor
while one leave
5. Communicate in advance clear and
detailed information on criteria to meet to
receive a bonus or to get promoted/ Strictly apply the provisions of the
Gender Equality Index (France), which
states that if raises were given during the
employee’s absence, she must also receive a salary raise upon her return to
work.
6. To avoid contacting the absent employee
while she is on leave, it is important to
anticipate and organize her departure.
Upon return to work
Restriction in teleworking requests and
arrangements
Projects and tasks reallocated without
consideration or consultation of the returning
employee
7. Offer and facilitate flexible work
arrangements to the returning employee
to help her balance her professional and family lives.
8. A conjoined organization of maternity
leave between the manager and the
employee could help anticipate issues of
this nature upon reentry. A return-from-leave interview may also provide an
opportunity to discuss project and task
assignments and make adjustments if
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Comments from colleagues and supervisors on
new work arrangements
necessary.
9. Voluntary training to employees and
managers could bring awareness on
work-family challenges and reduce biases towards working mothers.
Common justice omissions Related propositions During pregnancy
Lack of communication on important
information related to pregnancy and maternity
leave provisions
No anticipation and organization of maternity leave
No consideration of pregnancy in tasks appointments
10. Provide a booklet with all the
information related to pregnancy,
maternity leave and breastfeeding provisions following pregnancy
announcement.
11. Carefully and conjointly with the employee organize her absence during
maternity leave. This would help
reducing employee’s uncertainty as well as the likelihood of (in)justice
experiences to occur.
12. Align work tasks with recommended medical practices during pregnancy.
Upon return to work
Workload is not adjusted to the new work arrangements of the returning employee
Lack of communication on events and
organizational changes that happened during the
leave
13. Adjust workload to meet new work arrangements such that working reduced
hours is coupled with a reduced workload
(i.e., reduced-load work)
14. Schedule a return-from-leave interview
to communicate any important
information to the returning employee. This meeting can also be a moment when
to discuss the employee’s career
priorities and desires, and task and project allocations.
7. Limitations
Naturally, the present study has limitations, some of which indicate interesting
avenues for future research. First, although our sample presents some diversity in terms of
organization types (e.g., private versus public), industries and number of children, we can of
course not claim that our sample is representative of all highly skilled working women in
France and less so of all highly trained working women in the world. There is scope for a
greater diversity of profiles, organizations and cultures to be studied. For instance, even
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though we did not exclude same-sex couples from our study, we were not able to recruit
women in same-sex relationships, and similarly, even though we opened our study to women
who adopted children, none of our participants went through an adoption process.
Additionally, France is a country where pregnancy leave is relatively short but fully paid for
by the state, and maternity is highly regulated. It is likely that other legal and institutional
contexts will bring about different types of injustice events and omissions.
8. Conclusion
Researching women’s personal experiences at work at the time around maternity
leave is of paramount importance if we want to unveil the underlying workplace mechanisms
that put women at a career disadvantage once they become mothers. Our research sheds light
on the typical (in)justice episodes women face at work from the time they announce their
pregnancy up to when they reenter organizations following maternity leave and provides
meaningful information on how women experience and make sense of these justice
experiences over time. We find that injustice events and justice omissions have harmful
consequences on women’s career aspirations, attitudes and behaviors over time and as such
may reinforce gender career inequality in organizations. These findings hold significant
implications for organizations and managers wishing to better handle the period of maternity
leave for their female employees.
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CHAPTER 4. All at Home: The Gender Effect of Work and
Childcare Interruptions during Telework
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the following venues:
Fortin, M., Desjardins, C., German, H., Ohana, M. (2021). Double-disadvantage for female
teleworkers in times of COVID-19: How work-to-childcare interruptions affect women
differently than men. Paper presented at the symposium “Poorly understood challenges that
women face at work”, Academy of Management, online.
Fortin, M., Desjardins, C., German, H., Ohana, M. (2021). All at home: the gendered effect
of work and childcare interruptions during telework and the COVID-19 pandemic. Paper
presented at Aston Business School Research colloquim, online.
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Abstract
The general trend towards telework has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and
many parents have been teleworking and taking care of their children at the same time and in
the same space. One well-illustrated yet less-understood consequence of these new
arrangements has been an exacerbation of gender differences, even among dual-career
couples, in terms of both productivity and wellbeing. The present research sheds light on this
phenomenon by focusing on cross-domain interruptions between childcare and work. In a
daily diary study with 339 teleworking parents, we find that the career goals of men and
women and the downstream outcomes of work engagement and emotional exhaustion are
negatively affected by childcare-to-work interruptions. The effects of work-to-childcare
interruptions are, however, different for men compared to women, with only women’s
perceived daily balance being negatively affected by such interruptions. Interestingly, men
even benefit from some positive effects of these interruptions, which allows them to
experience more daily authenticity and challenge, while women do not. These findings
illustrate how the daily experiences of teleworkers contribute to growing gender gaps in
terms of career and wellbeing with important implications for organizations aiming to
promote gender equality.
Keywords: work interruptions; working parents; work-nonwork interface; telework; gender
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1. Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to the large-scale introduction of full-time
telework, which has eliminated the spatial and temporal separation between the work and
family spheres for teleworking employees. As schools have closed in many countries, parents
of young children have found themselves juggling childcare and work responsibilities. These
new arrangements have been found to exacerbate gender inequalities around the globe (Lokot
& Bhatia, 2020) because typically, women have handled most of the childcare—even among
dual-earner couples (Feng and Savani, 2020; Shockley et al., 2020). Researchers have linked
this observation with stronger declines in productivity (Lee & Tipoe, 2020) and mental health
(Bilodeau et al., 2020) for women than for men.
Although there remains little doubt that the pandemic has affected work, career and
health outcomes for both men and women, we need to understand the mechanisms that
explain how and when telework can be harmful versus rewarding for parents. Investigations
of the experience of mothers and fathers in telework can help us understand precisely why
and how new ways of work affect men and women differently, not only in the context of
COVID-19 but also beyond. Such knowledge is important for organizations and researchers
who wish to promote gender equality at work and who aim to protect the wellbeing of
working parents.
The present research was conducted during the first COVID-19 wave in France (i.e.,
in April 2020), when childcare institutions were closed and many employees switched to
100% telework arrangements. We investigated the daily experiences of teleworking mothers
and fathers of children aged six years and younger with a focus on interruptions between the
work and childcare spheres. The temporal and spatial blurring of these two spheres is a petri
dish for interruptions, which are defined as the ‘unexpected suspension of the behavioral
performance of, and/or attentional focus from, an ongoing work task’ (Puranik et al., 2020, p.
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817). As the experience of being interrupted at work has been shown to vary from day to day
(Derks et al., 2021), we used a diary approach to capture daily cross-domain interruptions.
More specifically, we differentiate between daily perceived experiences of childcare
interrupting work, referred to as childcare-to-work interruptions (CWIs), and of work
interrupting childcare, referred to as work-to-childcare interruptions (WCIs).
The effects of interruptions need to be understood in the context of a person’s goal
system (Leroy et al., 2020). For example, interruptions can be seen as frustrations or
welcome breaks depending on one’s motivated interpretation of them. We are interested in
the effects of cross-domain interruptions on the perceived fulfillment of central work and
career goals. Specifically, we draw on the well-established career goal taxonomy developed
by researchers on the kaleidoscope career model (KCM) (Mainiero & Gibson, 2018, p. 363),
which differentiates between authenticity, balance and challenge. Authenticity refers to being
‘true to oneself and one’s values’; balance refers to meeting ‘demands and expectations from
both work and family domains simultaneously’, and challenge corresponds to seeking
‘stimulation, learning, and skill growth to increase personal capability’. In the present
research, we investigate the effects of CWIs and WCIs in telework and home childcare
situations on the daily fulfillment of these career goals. We further illustrate the practical
relevance of daily variations in interruptions and effects on career goals by including
downstream outcomes, namely, work engagement and emotional exhaustion.
Furthermore, drawing on the gender role perspective (see Gutek et al., 1991), we
argue that the relationship between interruptions and the fulfillment of career goals may be
different for men than for women. According to traditional role expectations, childcare
remains a more central role for women, who are often seen as neglecting their families if they
pursue an ambitious career. In contrast, men tend to be seen as caring breadwinners if they
focus on advancing their careers. Following this perspective, women may be less open to
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moving their attention away from their supposedly primary task—looking after their
children—therefore exacerbating the negative effect of WCIs on their experienced fulfillment
of daily work and career goals. Similarly, men may be less open to moving their attention
away from work, therefore exacerbating the negative effects of CWIs.
Our research makes several important contributions to the literature. While the
emerging literature on work interruptions has, to date, been dominated by within-domain
interruptions, our results underline the need to investigate cross-domain interruptions, which
may trigger somewhat different patterns of experiences and reactions. Although the pandemic
context of the present study —‘when work and home are in the same sphere for both men and
women’ (Shockley et al., 2020, p.2) — may seem like an extreme case, cross-domain
interruptions more generally gain importance in the context of flexible work arrangements
and telework (Delanoeije et al., 2019).
Furthermore, the investigation of cross-domain interruptions can shed new light on
both the positive and negative effects of interruptions. As Puranik et al. (2020) highlighted in
their recent review, while the downside of interruptions is well documented, the potential
‘upside’ of interruptions remains less understood (c.f., Crawford et al., 2010). A direct
consequence of cross-domain interruptions is that they draw one’s attention away from one
life domain and to another, with possible positive or negative effects on goal fulfillment in
both of these domains depending on one’s own motive structure and role understanding.
Finally, the present research also speaks to the observed phenomenon of increasing gender
gaps during the COVID-19 crisis. Our study suggests that the daily differences in how
interruptions during telework are experienced may explain downstream career and wellbeing
consequences for men and women. These findings have implications with regard to how
organizations support parents of young children and women’s careers.
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2. Theoretical background
2.1. Telework of working parents in times of COVID-19
Telework enables employees to perform their work outside of their employers’ office
using information technology to communicate and operate (Baruch, 2001). The use of
telework has increased dramatically over the past few decades (Allen et al., 2015), and there
is evidence that this trend is set to continue (Eavis & Haag, 2021). The lockdown measures
introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated this trend and provided a unique
teleworking context: many employees switched to working 100% from home. The most
extreme effects of such measures may be felt by those who care for young children as schools
and daycares closed in many countries.
Cross-domain interruptions between the work and home spheres (in both directions)
have been shown to increase in telework contexts (Delanoeije et al., 2019). We follow the
definition of Puranik et al. (2020), according to which the unexpected suspension of the
behavioral performance of and/or attentional focus from an ongoing task represent
interruptions. Our focus on cross-domain interruptions is important because they tend to incur
higher transaction costs than within-domain interruptions (Ashforth, 2000) and are one of the
features that differentiate traditional work environments from more flexible ‘alternative work
arrangements’ (Spreitzer et al., 2017). In our study, we focus on interruptions between the
work and the childcare spheres, which are two central domains for working parents with
young children. Cross-domain interruptions between these two domains are bound to arise
when parents are teleworking while their children are at home. First, when children are at
home, they demand parents’ attention and help, for example, when they are hungry or bored
or hurt themselves. For a working parent, this often requires a behavioral switch away from
work tasks. Additionally, children making noise or running around can lead to parents
becoming distracted, even when they continue their work task. Second, work also interferes
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with childcare. For example, in an attempt to meet their family demands, employees may try
to do some of their work outside of regular office hours, such as during early mornings or
after children’s bedtime (see Mustafa & Gold, 2013), yet their colleagues and supervisors
may contact them at other times. Given the widespread pressure to be responsive at all times
(Matusik and Mickel, 2011), parents may also feel the need to respond to ‘urgent’ emails and
phone calls even while performing family tasks. Even if parents do not respond behaviorally
to these interruptions, knowing that an answer is expected can distract their attention away
from their childcare.
We draw on boundary theory (Ashforth et al., 2000) to get a better understanding of
how boundary violations, materialized by cross-domain interruptions, may affect mothers and
fathers’ work outcomes. Boundary theory describes how individuals navigate between work
and family spheres by performing micro role transitions. The unique context of the COVID-
19 pandemic and the related work and family arrangements have created greater permeability
between work and family boundaries and have therefore favored cross-domain interruptions
(Kossek et al., 2012). In particular, when individuals face “spatial/time constraints, meaning
contradictions and dual commitments” (Ashforth et al., 2000, p.481) because they are
involved in the work and the family roles simultaneously, interruptions costs are higher
(Burke, 1991). For example, teleworking parents under lockdown have to care their children
during working hours and thus perform dual commitment, they are also confronted to spatial
and time constraint because they usually cannot simultaneously be in a work meeting and
care for their children, at the same time they are likely to experience meaning contradiction
because they face discrepancies between their work and parent identities. In conclusion,
teleworking parents in times of lockdown experience multiple cross-domain interruptions
between work and childcare and the unique characteristics of these interruptions are likely to
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impact parents’ work outcomes. In the present research, we consider how CWIs and WCIs
affect important outcomes through their effect on the daily fulfillment of career goals.
2.2. Career goals - long term and daily
Our focus on the fulfillment of career goals is particularly relevant in the context of
understanding how the daily experiences of teleworkers may translate into career outcomes
that can have lasting effects beyond the lockdown period. To categorize career goals, we
draw on the KCM (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005), which argues that people make career
choices according to three main goals: whether their decisions are true to who they are
(authenticity), their ideal work/life balance (balance), and the opportunities for work
challenges and career advancement (challenge). These three goals typically shift over one’s
career, like the changing colored patterns in a twisted kaleidoscope, with parameters gaining
importance or receding into the background at different times. Recent research has shown
that the satisfaction of core needs that people seek to fulfill at work and in their careers
fluctuates in a meaningful way on a daily basis and affects important wellbeing and
performance outcomes (De Gieter & Hofmans, 2018; Hewett et al., 2017; van Hooff
&Geurts, 2015). On a daily level, employees seek to fulfill their career goals through
corresponding behaviors and tasks. For example, working on a project with high visibility
and tight deadlines may bring about daily challenges, working on a daily task in line with
one’s core values can translate into experiencing authenticity, and being able to leave work
early to spend time with one’s children may help fulfill the balance goal.
2.3. Interruptions and career goals
CWIs and WCIs likely impact the fulfillment of individual career goals on a daily
basis. Generally, interruptions have psychological costs, such as increased effort expenditure
(Derks et al., 2021). One reason for this is that there are several cognitive demands linked to
such interruptions (Puranik et al., 2020). For example, interrupted employees need to keep
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the disturbed task in their memory and then require cognitive resources to retrieve it
(Altmann & Trafton, 2002). The switching from one domain to another also results in the
division of attentional resources, which leads to a high mental workload (Tan & Richardson,
2011) and the tendency to keep thinking about the disrupted task even after starting a new
task (Leroy, 2009). These additional demands also result in increased time demands and,
therefore, increased work load (Baethge et al., 2015).
In particular, CWIs and WCIs can be considered as barriers that obstruct career goal
attainment (Hirschi et al., 2019). Cross-domain interruptions under lockdown settings can
occur unpredictably and cannot always be acted on easily and as such may prohibit goal
fulfillment. However, and as suggested by Hirschi and colleagues (2019), the scope of the
inhibition of such a barrier will depend on both the nature of the interruption as well as on the
individual’s desired (work or family) goal. Thus, cross-domain interruptions are likely to
produce different work and career outcomes depending on one’s goal structure.
Specifically, the experience of CWIs can bring about additional cognitive demands
and attentional conflicts that are unrelated to the task at hand, preventing individuals from
feeling like they are ‘true to themselves’, or authentic, in their work role. Indeed, Mitchell et
al. (2008) found that work interruptions impeded self-regulation toward one’s work goals.
This mechanism may be reinforced by parents’ lingering thoughts about their children when
finally returning to work. The cognitive demands and attention conflicts linked with CWIs
also make it difficult on a daily level to fulfill the work goal of challenge, which typically
requires strong task focus and dedication. The satisfaction of challenge often resides in the
completion of complex tasks, and the literature suggests that these tasks are the ones most
likely to suffer from interruptions (Speier et al., 2003). Finally, because CWIs hinder goal
achievement in the work domain, they can lead to the perception of a failed equilibrium
between the two domains, i.e., a frustration of the balance goal. As Delanoeije et al. (2019)
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argue, frequent cross-domain transitions make it harder for employees to fulfill their work
tasks that day as the psychological and behavioral switches required for the transitions can
reduce the time left to fulfill work demands, thus making a successful equilibrium between
both domains less likely. Thus, we formulate
Hypothesis 1 (H1a-c): CWIs are negatively related to the daily fulfillment of (a)
authenticity, (b) balance and (c) challenge.
WCIs represent the opposite crossing of spheres: WCIs come from within the work
sphere and interrupt a sphere outside of work, i.e., childcare. WCIs also represent a
disturbance of balance between the work and family domains (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009), as
they cast doubt on whether the childcare space can be protected from work demands. As
employees need to interrupt their childcare to perform work tasks, this is costly in terms of
time and resources and hinders the fulfilment of the parent role, making a perceived
equilibrium between both domains less likely. We therefore propose
Hypothesis 2 (H2): WCIs are negatively related to the daily fulfillment of balance.
The relationship between WCIs, authenticity and challenge, however, may be more
complicated, with arguments for both a positive and a negative relationship between WCIs
and these career goals. Like all interruptions, WCIs come at a cognitive cost, resulting in
divided attention, additional time and effort required for memory storage and retrieval, and
high mental workload. These may make it more difficult for an employee to experience the
fulfillment of authenticity and challenge goals. Conversely, WCI interruptions bring attention
back from the nonwork domain to the work domain and may therefore reorient an individual
toward career-oriented behaviors, helping the individual recalibrate his/her attention and
behavior in such a way that his/her fulfillment of authenticity and challenge is more likely.
For example, being interrupted by the phone call of a supervisor who wishes to consult the
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employee on an urgent and complex work issue might contribute to the feeling of meeting
challenge goals on that particular work day. Similarly, WCIs may positively impact
authenticity fulfillment if the interruption triggers feelings of meaning and purpose. For
example, being asked for one’s help or expertise might bring additional meaning to one’s
work day, and this feeling is likely to translate into authenticity fulfillment. We therefore
formulate not a hypothesis but rather an exploratory question: are WCIs negatively or
positively related to the daily fulfillment of authenticity and challenge?
2.4. Interruptions and work engagement
Work engagement has been defined as a work-related state of mind distinguished by
its ‘vigor, dedication and absorption’ (Schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). In line with the findings
on goal satisfaction and work outcomes (for a review, see Van den Broeck et al., 2016), we
argue that work engagement is one of the likely daily outcomes resulting from the fulfillment
of career goals: when the goals of authenticity, balance and challenge are fulfilled, this results
in a positive spiral as employees are likely to further engage in their work to sustain such goal
fulfillment. This is supported by Ouweneel et al. (2012, p. 1133), who posit that individuals’
expectations of ‘their capabilities to control and achieve their work-related goals results in
more involvement at work’. For example, if parents’ desires for challenge and authenticity
are achieved, we expect that this positive psychological reward will encourage them to invest
more time, energy and dedication in their work. In contrast, following the logic of expectancy
theories of motivation (e.g., Vroom, 1964), if individuals’ career goals are unmet, they may
reduce work engagement since they see their investment as not leading to contentment with
their career goals.
Following this argumentation and H1, we suggest that career goal fulfillment
mediates the relationship between interruptions and work engagement. CWIs distract
employees from the pursuit of their career goals (i.e., the fulfillment of authenticity, balance
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and challenge goals) and therefore cause decreased work engagement: the more parents feel
interrupted by their children while trying to work, the less likely parents are to meet their
goals of authenticity and balance and challenge at work. This results in a negative spiral, with
work activities perceived as less instrumental to goal attainment, which in turn affects their
work engagement.
Similarly, we argue that WCIs have downstream effects on work engagement through
their effects on career goals. Frequent WCIs make parents struggle in their attempt to meet
the childcare expectations they set for themselves, affecting their fulfillment of balance. In an
attempt to rebalance, parents are likely to reduce their work engagement. For the career goals
of authenticity and challenge, if these goals are indeed better fulfilled because of
interruptions that are perceived as contributing to work goals, then we expect that this
fulfillment will result in higher work engagement. Conversely, if authenticity and challenge
are reduced as a result of interruptions that are seen as goal impeding, then we expect this
reduction to lead to lower goal fulfillment and, in turn, lower work engagement. Thus, we
hypothesize the following:
Hypothesis 3 (H3a-c): The daily fulfillment of (a) authenticity, (b) balance, and (c)
challenge mediates the relationship between CWIs and work engagement.
Hypothesis 4 (H4a-c): The daily fulfillment of (a) authenticity, (b) balance, and (c)
challenge mediates the relationship between WCIs and work engagement.
2.5. Interruptions and emotional exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion is defined as involving ‘feelings of being emotionally
overextended and exhausted because of one’s work’ (Maslach et al., 1986, p. 194) and is
often measured as the negative antithesis of work engagement (Maslach et al., 2001). In light
of the demonstrated potential negative health effects of telework (Mann & Holdsworth,
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2003), we include emotional exhaustion in our study as a result of cross-domain interruptions
in telework via career goal (non)fulfillment. As with work engagement, we expect that the
effects of CWIs and WCIs on career goal fulfillment will consequently be related to the level
of emotional exhaustion of the interrupted employee and that career goal fulfilment mediates
the relationship between cross-domain interruptions and emotional exhaustion. The
theoretical rationale is that CWIs, which require the cognitive transition from the role of
parent to that of employee and represent additional time pressures for parents, will interfere
with a parent’s pursuit of daily career goals, which, in turn, can increase the strain
experienced from daily job demands. Indeed, this line of reasoning is supported by a recent
longitudinal study by Giebe and Rigotti (2020), who find that time pressure thwarts
autonomy career goals, which leads to an increase in emotional exhaustion. Similarly, Haar et
al. (2018) find that daily need satisfaction mediates the relationship between family-work
conflict and burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism).
Specifically, the daily fulfillment of each of the three career goals considered in the
present study is expected to be negatively related to daily emotional exhaustion. First, when
WCI interferences lead to unmet balance goals (as argued above), parents are likely to
experience frustration in being unable to achieve their goals. Emotional responses are a
consequence of frustration with unfilled goals and lack of control over work (Maslach &
Leiter, 1997). Pines (1993) asserts that burnout, of which emotional exhaustion is a symptom,
can result when an individual’s work-related goals are obstructed (i.e., interrupted), and the
resulting failure can be perceived by individuals as a lack of personal accomplishment
(Snyder, 1994). If authenticity and challenge are fulfilled through WCIs, then we expect this
to result in lower emotional exhaustion. In contrast, if the fulfillment of these goals is
lessened, this can result in increased levels of emotional exhaustion. Therefore, we
hypothesize the following:
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Hypothesis 5 (H5a-c): The daily fulfillment of (a) authenticity, (b) balance, and (c)
challenge mediates the relationship between CWIs and emotional exhaustion.
Hypothesis 6 (H6a-c): The daily fulfillment of (a) authenticity, (b) balance, and (c)
challenge mediates the relationship between WCIs and emotional exhaustion.
2.6. Gender effects of cross-domain interruptions
As resources are limited, time spent focusing attention on one domain (work or
childcare) reduces the time spent on another domain (Hunter et al., 2017). The perception of
an interruption as goal obstructing will therefore also depend on the centrality of each
domain. Drawing on gender role theory (Gutek et al., 1991), we argue that CWIs and WCIs
may therefore have a differential effect on men’s versus women’s work experience.
Traditional gender roles suggest that fathers are the main breadwinners and mothers
the primary caregivers for children – a gendered pattern that is still visible today, even in
societies that are comparably lower in gender discrimination. For example, in their recent
study on Finnish and Canadian lawyers, Choroszewicz and Kay (2020) describe how –
despite the rise of the dual career couple – gender inequalities are reproduced. The findings
illustrate that a traditional professional model in which work prevails over family still persists
and that gender expectations among employees who wish to be seen as worthy of promotion,
and even legal rights such as parental leave and flexible work arrangements, are offered
differentially to men versus women. During the COVID-19 pandemic, gender roles have not
only persisted but become even more visible. Shockley et al. (2020) found that many dual-
earner couples have followed a traditional gender division of labor during lockdown, where
mothers have been in charge of most of the childcare. Similarly, Collins et al. (2021)
discovered that women have reduced their work hours four to five times more than men since
the closure of schools and daycares. We argue that such gender roles may not only have an
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effect on the time that men, compared to women, spend on childcare but may also have a
seemingly more subtle effect on their daily experiences of CWIs and WCIs.
We draw on the gender role perspective (Gutek et al., 1991) to understand how
women’s experiences with CWIs and WCIs may differ from those of men. This perspective
argues that gender role beliefs influence people’s perceptions of the social roles of women
and men, e.g., as parents and employees (Eagly & Wood, 2016). Traditionally, women are
expected to be the primary caregivers, while men are expected to be the breadwinners (Gutek
et al., 1991). Individuals typically internalize the societal beliefs that make up gender roles
and regulate their behaviors accordingly. This may affect how CWIs and WCIs are perceived
by men compared to women: previous research has suggested that interruptions have a more
negative impact on an individual to the extent that they are seen as less central to his/her role
(Rosen et al., 2019) and to the extent that they affect the domain seen as more central (Derks
et al., 2021). If men’s primary gender role is indeed focused in the work sphere, then
interruptions from the childcare sphere (CWIs) should be particularly troubling for them
because they perceive a goal obstruction away from their primary role (work). Similarly, we
reason that WCIs may have particularly negative effects on the perceived fulfillment of
career goals for women, whose primary gender role as caregivers is threatened by WCIs.
Women may perceive these interruptions from the work domain as a family sacrifice (Nsair
& Piszczek, 2021) and therefore find it more difficult than men to shift their attention away
from childcare tasks and are less likely to perceive the attentional diversion caused by WCIs
as welcome stimulation and instead perceive it as an obstruction to their primary role.
We therefore hypothesize the following:
Hypothesis 7 (H7a-c): The relationship between CWIs and daily fulfillment of (a)
authenticity, (b) balance and (c) challenge is moderated by gender such that it is
stronger for men than for women.
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Hypothesis 8 (H8a-c): The relationship between WCIs and daily fulfillment of (a)
authenticity, (b) balance and (c) challenge is moderated by gender such that it is
stronger for women than for men.
3. Method
3.1. Design, procedure and participants
In March and April 2020, participants were recruited via social media platforms
(Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn). Individuals were eligible to participate if they were 18
years old or older, had a higher education degree, lived in France, were employed,
teleworked full-time during the study period and had at least one child who was six years old
or younger. We chose participants with a higher education degree because the career
penalties of having a child have been shown to be particularly pronounced among highly
educated women (England et al., 2016). Furthermore, we chose parents of children of six
years or younger because in France, age six is when children move from the ‘maternelle’
(play school) to the more formal school and when they supposedly become more
independent. Overall, 367 respondents of the prescreening questionnaire fulfilled these
criteria and were invited via email to take part in our study. After completing a welcome
questionnaire, participants were sent a daily diary questionnaire during one work week,
Monday through Friday, at 4 pm each day to be completed before 2 am the next day. For
their participation in the study, participants could receive up to €60. The total number of
participants who took part in the study was 339. After removing participants with incomplete
data and those who answered fewer than three questionnaires, the final sample consisted of
287 participants who answered 1,309 daily surveys. Among them, 68% were female, and the
mean age was 37 years. On average, participants had 1.7 children.
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3.2. Measures
Survey items were answered on a 7-point scale, from totally disagree (1) to totally
agree (7).
CWIs and WCIs: were adapted from the perceived interruptions scale of Sonnentag
et al. (2018). The initial scale focused on interruptions caused by ‘emails and other online
messages’. We tailored the items to childcare and work interruptions. For CWIs, we used
three items, including ‘Today, my children disturbed me while I was working’. For WCIs, we
used three items, including ‘Today, my work disturbed me while I was looking after my
children’. Across the five days, the mean Cronbach’s alpha was .87 for CWIs and .77 for
WCIs.
The daily fulfillment of career goals was assessed using the authenticity, balance
and challenge scale developed by Sullivan et al. (2009). Each parameter was measured using
four items reformulated to capture the daily experiences of participants. Example items
included the following: for authenticity, ‘Today, while working, I made steps towards what I
want to accomplish in life’; for balance, ‘Today, I achieved balance between work and
family’; and for challenge, ‘Today, I was very goal directed’. Across the five days, the mean
Cronbach’s alpha was .77 for authenticity, .63 for balance and .77 for challenge.
Work engagement was measured on a daily basis to reduce memory and social
desirability bias (Kahneman et al., 2004). We used four items from Schaufeli et al. (2002),
which were reformulated to refer to the daily level. Items included ‘Today, I felt strong and
vigorous while working’. Across the 5 days, the mean Cronbach’s alpha was .88.
Emotional exhaustion was assessed using four items adapted from the Burnout
Inventory of Maslach et al. (1986), adapted to the daily level. Items included ‘Today, I felt
like I was at the end of my rope’. A daily measure of emotional exhaustion enables us to
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more accurately capture emotional states (Bolger et al., 2003), and across the five days, the
mean Cronbach’s alpha was .82.
Control variables: We controlled for age, whether the respondent perceived
himself/herself as the main breadwinner in his/her family, the number of subordinates, and
the number of children, as all of these variables may affect the experience of working at
home. Because the introduction of these control variables did not impact our results, for the
sake of parsimony, we did not include them in the final model (Becker, 2005).
4. Results
4.1. Analytic strategy8
Because our data have a nested structure (daily reports on the first level nested within
individuals on the second level), we tested our hypotheses through multilevel structural
equation modeling (MSEM) using Mplus 8. Prior to testing the hypotheses, multilevel
confirmatory factor analyses (MCFAs) were conducted to examine the measurement model
and to empirically distinguish the variables in our models. The parameters were estimated
using maximum likelihood estimation. The within part of the model included the
relationships between CWIs and WCIs and the career goal variables (authenticity, balance,
and challenge) with random slopes. The career goal variables were also related to work
engagement and emotional exhaustion to test the mediation hypotheses. The between part of
the model included gender to test for moderation. We calculated indirect effects to assess
mediation and estimated the distribution of each indirect effect with a 95% confidence
interval. Simple slope analyses for multilevel models were used to further explore the
interactions (Preacher et al., 2006).
8 We controlled for potential cyclical patterns in our data (Gabriel et al., 2019) and we found
no influence of the day of the week on our results, therefore we present them without
acknowledging the day of response.
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4.2. Variance decomposition
We first checked the intraclass coefficient (ICC1) of each of the variables assessed in
the daily questionnaires. The coefficients ranged from .42 (CWIs) to .60 (emotional
exhaustion), indicating that all variables varied substantially both within and between
persons. All intraclass coefficients are displayed in Table 1. Accordingly, our daily approach
was appropriate.
Table 1. Means, SDs, Intraclass Coefficients, and Correlations Variable Mean SD ICC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 CWI
3.70
1.73
.42
-
.66***
-.06
-.26
-.15
-.19-
.27
-.09
2 WCI
3.42 1.63 .50 .44*** - -.12 -.34 -.11 -.18 .47 -.09
3 Authenticity
3.36 1.27 .59 -.06* .01 - .22 .77 .75 -.15 .06
4 Balance
4.40 1.18 .46 -.19*** -.19*** .28*** - .25 .23 -.18 .03
5 Challenge
3.69 1.29 .51 -.11** -.00 .58*** .33*** - .78*** -.24 .17
6 Work engagement
3.95 1.35 .45 -.14*** -0.03 .49*** .16*** .54*** - -.31*** -.07
7 Emotional exhaustion 2.78 1.48 .60 .24*** .19*** -.14*** -.20*** -.16*** -.31*** - -.18
8 Gender 1.32 .47 - - - - - - - - -
Notes: ⁎⁎ p < .01. ⁎⁎⁎ p < .001. ICC=intraclass coefficient. Gender coding: Female=1 ; Male=2. CWI=
Childcare-to-Work Interruptions. WCI= Work-to-Childcare Interruptions.
4.3. MCFAs
We conducted MCFAs to examine the construct validity and independence of our
variables. The model contained seven factors: CWIs, WCIs, authenticity, balance, challenge,
work engagement and emotional exhaustion. The multilevel measurement model in which all
items of all variables loaded on their respective latent factors showed an acceptable fit to the
data (χ2 (556)=1906, p<.001, RMSEA=0.04, CFI=0.90, SRMRwithin=.05, SRMRbetween=.09).
Three additional MCFAs were conducted to examine the discriminant validity of our
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variables. We tested other models in which the items of the two perceived interruption
variables, the three career goal variables and, finally, the work and wellbeing outcome
variables loaded on a single factor. None of these three models showed an acceptable fit to
the data, and the seven-factor model had a significantly better fit than did these alternative
models (detailed results available upon request). The two perceived interruption variables, the
three career goal variables and the two work and wellbeing outcome variables can thus be
empirically distinguished despite their conceptual overlap.
4.4. Hypothesis testing
Figure 1 summarizes the unstandardized coefficient estimates of our mediation model.
Figure 1. Mediation model Notes: Dotted lines indicate a nonsignificant path (p > .05). Nonsignificant coefficients are not reported for
clarity. Loglikelihood = -13958.764. Akaike (AIC) = 28089.528. Bayesian (BIC) = 28534.752. CWI=
Childcare-to-Work Interruptions. WCI= Work-to-Childcare Interruptions.
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4.4.1. Perceived interruptions and career motive fulfillment
As shown, CWIs are negatively related to authenticity (=-.05, p<.05), balance (=-.09,
p<.001) and challenge (=-.09, p<.01), supporting H1a, H1b and H1c, respectively. WCIs are
negatively related to balance (=-.08, p<.01), supporting H2, whereas the relationships
between WCIs and authenticity and challenge are not significant.
4.4.2. Perceived interruptions, career goal fulfillment, and outcomes
All three career goals are significantly related to work engagement (authenticity =.32,
p<.001; balance =-.14, p<.001; challenge =.53, p<.001), and only balance and challenge are
related to emotional exhaustion (=-.11, p<.01 and =-.17, p<.001, respectively). In addition,
we tested for indirect effects from perceived interruptions on work engagement and
emotional exhaustion using the MODEL CONSTRAINT option in Mplus (see Table 2). The
indirect effects of CWIs on work engagement via authenticity, balance and challenge are -
.02, .01 and -.05, respectively, and significant, supporting H3a, H3b and H3c. In addition, the
indirect effects of CWIs on emotional exhaustion via balance (indirect effect = .011, p<.05)
and challenge (indirect effect =.015, p<.01) are significant, supporting H5b and H5c,
respectively. Consistent with the nonsignificant path between authenticity and emotional
exhaustion, the corresponding indirect effect of CWIs on emotional exhaustion was not
significant (p=.90). Thus, H5a is not supported. Regarding WCIs and consistent with the
absence of a relationship between WCIs and authenticity and challenge, only the two indirect
effects via balance on engagement (indirect effect = .011, p<.05) and emotional exhaustion
(indirect effect = .09, p<.05) are significant. Thus, H4b and H6b are supported, while H4a,
H4c, H6a and H6c are not.
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Table 2. Indirect Effects Path Indirect p 95% CI
effect Low High
CWI – Authenticity - WE
-.017
.023
-.033
-.002
CWI – Authenticity - EE
.000 .899 -.005 .004
CWI – Balance - WE
.013 .005 .004 .023
CWI – Balance - EE
.011 .016 .002 .019
CWI – Challenge - WE
-.048 .001 -.076 -.019
CWI – Challenge - EE
.015 .008 .004 .026
WCI – Authenticity - WE
.011 .223 -.007 .030
WCI – Authenticity - EE
.000 .899 -.003 .003
WCI – Balance - WE
.011 .023 .002 .021
WCI – Balance - EE
.009 .045 .000 .018
WCI – Challenge - WE
.016 .330 -.016 .049
WCI – Challenge - EE -.005 .336 -.016 .009
Notes: Confidence intervals not containing 0 are significant. CWI= Childcare-to-Work Interruptions. WCI=
Work-to-Childcare Interruptions. WE= Work Engagement. EE= Emotional Exhaustion
4.4.3. Gender effects of CWIs and WCIs on career goal fulfillment
We then tested a model that integrated gender as a moderator of the relationship
between perceived interruptions and career goal fulfillment. None of the interaction effects
between CWIs and the career goal fulfillment variables are significant (see Table 3).
Therefore, H7a, H7b and H7c are not supported. Contrary to CWIs, the interaction effects
between WCIs and authenticity, balance and challenge are significant (=.129, p<.05; =.127,
p<.05 and =.107, p<.05, respectively), supporting H8a, H8b and H8c. Following Preacher et
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al. (2006), we plotted these interactions. As presented in Figures 2 and 4, the relationships
between WCIs and authenticity and between WCIs and challenge are stronger for men than
for women. Simple slope tests reveal a significant positive association between WCIs and
authenticity for men (β=.126, p<.01) and a nonsignificant association for women (β=-.003,
p=.93). The same pattern is found for the relationship between WCIs and challenge, with a
significant positive association for men (β=.105, p<.05) and a nonsignificant association for
women (β=-.002, p=.96). The interaction effect between gender and WCIs on balance is
plotted in Figure 3, showing that the negative effect of WCIs is stronger for women than for
men. Simple slope tests reveal that WCIs are negatively related to balance for women (β=-
.123, p<.001) and that the effect for men is not significant (β=.004, p=.93).
Table 3. Interaction Effects Interaction Coefficient S.E. p
Gender x CWI on Authenticity
-.050
.043
.25
Gender x CWI on
Balance
-.031 .051 .54
Gender x CWI on Challenge
-.059 .047 .21
Gender x WCI on Authenticity
.129 .051 .01
Gender x WCI on
Balance
.127 .056 .02
Gender x WCI on Challenge
.107 .053 .04
Notes: CWI= Childcare-to-Work Interruptions. WCI= Work-to-Childcare Interruptions.
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Figure 2. Plots of the moderating effect of gender on relationships of WCI with authenticity
Figure 3. Plots of the moderating effect of gender on relationships of WCI with balance
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
WCI
Authenticity
WOMEN
MEN
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
3.9
4.0
4.1
4.2
WCI
Balance
WOMEN
MEN
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Figure 4. Plots of the moderating effect of gender on relationships of WCI with challenge
5. Discussion
Taken together, our findings suggest that interruptions to work can have both positive
and negative effects on parents’ daily perceived fulfillment of career goals and that gender
roles can influence the experience of such interruptions. We show how seemingly subtle
daily gender differences in how interruptions are experienced can provoke a double penalty
for women: women’s daily experience of balance is impacted more negatively by WCIs than
are those of men, and in addition, women do not benefit from the same motivational effects
of WCIs. Perhaps work interruptions can sometimes provide a welcome and stimulating
break from childcare activities, especially when looking after very young children. In this
way, our study also contributes a new aspect to the nascent research on work interruptions,
which to date has focused almost exclusively on the dark side of interruptions (for a recent
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
3.0
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
WCI
Challenge
WOMEN
MEN
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exception, see Puranik et al. (2020) who showed that the social interaction that is often linked
with the interruption can have benefits for wellbeing). Our study suggests that cross-domain
interruptions from the work to the family spheres can contribute to the perceived attainment
of career goals.
Women do not seem to experience this positive (perceived) goal attainment effect of
WCIs. In line with gender role theory, women may not welcome the attentional switch away
from childcare toward work. Future studies can investigate the precise mechanisms for this
gender difference: it is possible that emotional triggers, such as guilt, and behavioral
differences (e.g., types of childcare duties taken on by each gender) play important roles.
Furthermore, future research should also shed light on the effects of WCIs in the childcare
sphere (e.g., satisfaction with the parental role, relationship with child, or parental burnout).
Therefore, the present research highlights the importance of studying the effects of
interruptions in the context of one’s life roles and goal structure. It seems that the same type
of interruption can either facilitate or thwart career goals. This research could usefully be
extended by taking into account additional potential moderating factors, such as family
boundary management preferences, individual attributes such as trait polychronicity, or
interruption characteristics such as duration or complexity.
Interestingly, we do not find the expected gender differences for CWIs, the reason for
which may be that both men and women have equally strongly internalized the ‘ideal worker’
norm and, indeed, that working mothers are what some previous researchers have called
‘dual-centric’, placing ‘a high identity on both work and family roles and have dual
investment in each’ (Kossek & Lautsch, 2012, p. 159), therefore muting the differences
suggested by gender role theory in the work sphere. In our study, both men and women
showed significant negative effects of CWIs. These findings highlight the importance of
childcare arrangements for working parents. In our study, we do not focus on the absolute
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number of hours worked, but the present results suggest a larger penalty for the parent who
provides more childcare, i.e., the woman in most cases (Collins et al., 2021). To investigate
this issue in more detail, we also suggest that future studies measure the objective frequency
of interruptions.
Our study finds the expected downstream effects on work engagement and emotional
exhaustion, highlighting the important consequences that cross-domain interruptions can
have on performance-related outcomes and wellbeing. The different effects of WCIs
therefore put women at a disadvantage in terms of wellbeing and career progression. Perhaps
the experience of the (non)fulfillment of career goals constitutes a push-out factor for women
in the long term. Indeed, failing to fulfill important career goals on a daily basis may result in
goal reorientation for working mothers. Specifically, Hirschi and colleagues (2019) suggest
that if barriers constraining goal attainment, i.e., WCIs, are not malleable and they cannot be
compensated by other resources, individuals are likely to turn to action strategies associated
with goal withdrawal and to reorient their work and family goals. The risk is that women’s
reduced balance goal fulfillment will result in goal disengagement for them over time and
they may revise and adopt new work and family goals, associated with career decisions that
could be harmful for their careers. Gaining an understanding of these poorly understood
experiences will provide helpful knowledge on how organizations can better support working
mothers day-to-day, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but also beyond.
The present research illustrates the challenges inherent in new ways of working,
which often weaken boundaries between spheres of life. Our results suggest that cross-
domain interruptions are an important factor to be considered in work design and work
arrangements. The overall negative effects of CWIs suggest that in times of crisis—whether a
global pandemic or a family crisis—it is important to help employees more flexibly manage
their work time so that they are less affected by interruptions by children. Conversely, WCIs
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may sometimes have positive consequences in terms of the fulfillment of career goals. How
can organizations help all employees, especially women, benefit from these potential
upsides? Perhaps the positive consequences will become more likely when employees have
more autonomy in terms of work hours and when they can more proactively manage how and
when they are (and can be) interrupted, making them more open and ready to switch roles.
However, the present study also highlights the harmful effects of WCIs, especially through
their negative effect on balance, therefore suggesting that organizations and employees
should generally aim to limit cross-domain interruptions.
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CHAPTER 5. Conclusion
By integrating different streams of research, this thesis aims at better understanding
the work experiences of women, with a special focus on two important career transitions,
namely the Covid-19 pandemic and maternity leave. Specifically, this thesis draws on and
organizes the multidisciplinary literature on women’s careers and then contributes to this
literature via two empirical studies. The studies investigate how pregnant women and
mothers of young children experience and make sense of justice episodes and interruptions at
work, and how these experiences affect important work and career outcomes. Relying on
three distinct papers, this research addressed the following sub research questions:
Paper 1 (Chapter 2): How has the literature on and our knowledge of women’s careers
evolved over the last decade?
Paper 2 (Chapter 3): What types of justice-related events do women experience at the time
around maternity leave, and how do they interpret and make sense of these events? How do
these (in)justice experiences affect their career intentions and choices?
Paper 3 (Chapter 4): How are daily cross-domain interruptions between work and childcare
experienced by teleworking mothers and fathers of young children, and how do these
experience affect their career motive fulfillment, wellbeing and work attitudes?
Taken together, the three papers offer joint theoretical and managerial contributions that I
will detail in the following sections, after presenting a brief summary of each paper.
1. Synthesis of the papers
The first paper (Chapter 2) examines the evolution of the literature on women’s
careers over the past decade and provides insights on the current knowledge of this topic.
Building on the review by O’Neil and colleagues (2008), we conducted an integrative
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literature review on research looking at women’s careers, published after 2008 in peer-
reviewed management, applied psychology and career journals. From this review, we
developed five distinct perspectives that categorize the current literature and we identified
their associated research gaps. We also delineated four major directions for future research on
women’s careers.
The second paper (Chapter 3) draws on the organizational justice framework and
adopts a person-centric approach (Weiss & Rupp, 2011) to investigate women’s evolving
justice experiences at the critical period of their maternity leave. We conducted a series of
three semi-structured interviews with 35 highly educated women from their pregnancy
disclosure up to several months upon work reentry. We found that women typically
experience injustice events at this critical period of time, but also justice omissions, which we
define as an absence of action which in turn gives rise to a fairness judgment. Injustice events
and justice omissions are typically linked in our participants’ narratives such that one can
trigger the other, and as such form a justice episode (Whiteside & Barclay, 2015). Overall,
injustice experiences at this time of heightened uncertainty led to important career
withdrawal amongst our participants, including decreased career aspirations, increased
turnover intentions and several resignations during the course of our study.
Finally, the third paper (Chapter 4) investigates the influence of cross-domain
interruptions between the work and childcare spheres on parents’ career and work outcomes.
In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, we conducted a diary study among teleworking
parents of young children over five consecutive days and we explored the differential impacts
of interruption experiences on women and men. We found that the experience of work-to-
childcare interruptions differed for women and men. While men experienced a motivational
effect of work-to-childcare interruptions such that they saw their daily levels of challenge and
authenticity fulfillment increased, women did not. What is more, women experienced
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decreased daily balance fulfillment when confronted to work-to-childcare interruptions,
which had implications for their work engagement and emotional exhaustion.
2. Theoretical contributions
2.1. Contribution to the literature on women’s careers
This thesis makes several contributions to the literature on women’s careers. First, our
multidisciplinary literature review takes stock of the past thirteen years of research on
women’s careers, and its evolution over that time, thus providing an overview and
organization of the state of the art on the topic of women's careers. This work allowed us to
formulate suggestions on how to move the field forward by providing directions for future
research, including important research questions that are yet to be tackled. With these
perspectives and directions, we hope to inform women’s career scholars in the management,
applied psychology and career disciplines.
Second, by presenting one of the first person-centric (Weiss & Rupp, 2011) and
longitudinal investigations of women’s work experiences at the time around maternity leave
and when caring for babies, infants and pre-school children, this research contributes to
developing a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the gendered career patterns
that can be observed following childbirth (Coudin et al., 2019; Cukrowska-Torzewska &
Matysiak, 2020). Specifically, it highlights how organizational practices, and the way women
make sense of them, can constitute “push” factors that drive women out of their jobs and
organizations. While in the second paper (Chapter 3) we looked at injustice experiences that
often entailed severe forms of discrimination, more subtle work experiences, such as work-
to-childcare and childcare-to-work interruptions, could also induce harmful career
consequences for women as suggested in the third paper (Chapter 4).
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This research illustrates how work experiences even over relatively short time periods
can have meaningful and long-lasting impact on women’s careers. On a career scale,
maternity leave is a relatively short time, however our findings show that events and
experiences at this critical time point can lead to very powerful career responses and effects.
Even what happens at the level of the day can harm women’s career-relevant motive
fulfillment, wellbeing and job engagement, as suggested in Paper 3 (Chapter 4), which can
result in goal reorientation in the long term for women (Kirschi et al., 2019) and therefore
damage their careers.
This research illustrates the usefulness of the organizational justice framework to
investigate the link between work experiences and career decisions in the context of women’s
careers. In the longitudinal interview study (Paper 2), we found that both past, present and
anticipated justice experiences were directly related to women’s evolving career attitudes and
decisions. While most of our participants’ narratives provided evidence that injustice events
could lead to the most severe forms of career withdrawal over time, we noticed that justice
omissions, which were also considered unfair by the interviewees, could result in some form
of career withdrawal as well, such as a drop in career aspiration. Thus, the framework of
organizational justice can be usefully applied to new investigations of women’s work
experiences in order to better explain their career patterns.
Further, this thesis contributes to our understanding of women’s career decision
processes. Building on the concept of autobiographical memory (Brewer, 1986) that “moves
beyond recall of experienced events to integrate perspective, interpretation, and evaluation
across self, other, and time to create a personal history” (Fivush, 2011, p.560), this research
suggests that women can engage in mental time travel to inform (or justify) a career decision.
In particular, our findings suggest that women retrieve past events – which are not always
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related to current work experiences – to justify their work and career decisions, but also
anticipate injustice events to provide further explanations for their decisions.
Further, we provide insights on how the interaction of career motives and injustice
experiences can influence women’s career outcomes. As suggested by Kossek and colleagues
the (2017), “opting-out” and “push-out” factors that explain women’s career outcomes are
not mutually exclusive, but often coexist. While popular wisdom often suggests that women’s
career decisions following childbirth are largely informed by their changing career motives
and their desire to spend time with their newborn, our research details, examples, and
illustrates recurring patterns of how injustice experiences at work can lead to withdrawal
attitudes. For example, some women downgraded their ambitions from wanting managerial
responsibilities before maternity leave to simply wanting some individual work tasks
assigned to them when returning from leave, as a result of experiencing these injustice events
and justice omissions. It is important to note that many of our participants explicitly referred
to experienced injustice events to justify their withdrawal decisions. This research therefore
provides insights into how push and pull factors may interact over time, illustrating that
pushes (e.g., powerful injustice experiences) can lead to career motive shifts (e.g., decreased
challenge motive, increased balance motive), which, in turn, are likely to both pull and push
women out of jobs and organizations.
2.2. Contributions to organizational behavior
The second and third papers (Chapters 3 and 4 respectively) are particularly relevant
to the organizational behavior discipline. The second paper contributes to the literature on
organizational justice by exploring justice temporal dynamics at the critical time of maternity
leave. Thereby, it furthers knowledge on the notion of justice episodes (Whiteside & Barclay,
2015) by integrating a new concept, justice omission, and by showing how injustice events
and justice omissions unfold over time. Additionally, this paper is one of the first empirical
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studies that observe the evolution of motivated justice cognition and system justification
effects over longer time periods, through a person-centric approach (Weiss & Rupp, 2011).
This research also helps to integrate the important aspect of discrimination into
organizational justice. While there is little doubt that the two are necessarily connected, very
few studies in the organizational justice literature have paid attention to discrimination, and
the use of standardized scales has often prevented the more extreme forms of injustice to
become salient. If we truly want to understand workplace motivation dynamics through an
organizational justice lens, it is important to take into account these more extreme events (as
also suggested by Fortin et al., 2020).
Further, this research can be linked to the topic of abusive supervision. Our findings
derived from the longitudinal interview study suggest that abusive supervision can take new
forms at specific periods of employees’ life such as maternity leave. Up to date, research on
abusive supervision has paid little attention to this influential temporal aspect and we believe
that it constitutes an important avenue for future research.
The third paper sheds light on the differential impact of cross-domain interruptions
between work and childcare for women and men, and informs us on the previously
understudied bright side of interruption in specific contexts. For instance, the results suggest
that men’s perceived career goal fulfillment can benefit from interruptions coming from the
work sphere while caring for the children, which in turn have positive downstream work and
wellbeing outcomes. We hope that these results will encourage scholars to further investigate
the conditions under which work interruptions can benefit employees.
Taken together, the results of Papers 2 and 3 contribute to the literature on work-life
balance. Issues raised by our participants at the time around their maternity leave often
related to balance issues (e.g., teleworking, flexible work arrangements). Paper 3 is also
concerned with finding balance between the work and childcare spheres at the critical period
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of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study provides insightful information on who, why and how
being interrupted by work while taking care of children can be beneficial or harmful for
career goal attainment and work engagement and thereby raises interesting questions for
future research on telework.
3. Managerial implications
There is overwhelming evidence that becoming a mother tends to put women at a
career disadvantage, typically for the rest of their life (Kahn et al., 2014). Furthermore, the
latest figures on the gender gap show that during the period impacted by COVID-19, progress
toward closing the global gender gap is scaling back (World Economic Forum, 2021). The
present research explores two periods of time that have been shown to exacerbate career
inequalities between women and men (Correll et al., 2007; Lokot & Bhatia, 2020) and our
findings have important implications for organizations that wish to make steps toward gender
career equality. In particular, the present work provides clear suggestions on how to help
working mothers balance their professional and familial responsibilities, and highlights which
work practices need to be avoided versus encouraged in order to reduce gender inequalities at
work.
Taken together, the results of this research suggest that mothers of young children
need more work flexibility and autonomy in order to better balance their professional and
familial responsibilities. Indeed, our research shows that issues raised at the time around
maternity leave often related to work arrangements (see Paper 2, Chapter 3). For instance,
many of the interviewees reported injustice events and justice omissions in relation to
teleworking requests and applications during pregnancy and upon work reentry, as well as
pregnancy and breastfeeding provisions that were often not granted. Additionally, the
observed negative impact of work-to-childcare interruptions on mothers’ work and career
165
outcomes also suggest that women need more flexibility in the way they arrange their work
schedules under teleworking settings (Chapter 4). Noteworthy, mothers’ need for greater
flexibility and demand of greater autonomy in time management do not necessarily mean
lower work investment. In fact, many of our participants were ready to work very hard, some
of them even worked harder than before having a child, and used for example their lunch
breaks to make up for time “lost” during their maternity leave. The traditional workplace
norms that many of them faced, however, equated their demands for flexibility with
“laziness”, which consequently led to discouragement. Therefore, not only do we encourage
organizations to provide greater flexible work arrangements with clear modalities of request
and application, we also call for flexibility in the application of these arrangements.
Further, our findings indicate that it is not sufficient to provide legal access to work
arrangements such as telework. Employees need to be comforted by the fact that they can
freely request and benefit from these accommodations. Thus, this research stresses the need
to train managers on work-life balance issues as their attitudes and behaviors toward family-
friendly policies have a strong influence on employees’ likelihood to use these policies
(Russo & Morandin, 2019). In particular, there are important aspects to integrate in these
trainings to bring awareness on mothers’ daily work and family challenges. We show that
working mothers of young children face many difficulties in juggling between work and
childcare responsibilities: For example, they have important time constraints associated with
the opening hours of childcare services and may thus violate the ideal work expectations to
meet these constraints; they may need to engage in breastfeeding activities when at work
upon return to work following childbirth; they are likely to be interrupted by childcare when
their child is sick and may therefore have to suddenly leave work to take care of her or him.
A better understanding of issues relating to work-life balance may lead to a reduction of work
interruptions – which have been shown to be detrimental to women’s work and well-being
166
outcomes – and to decreased perceived injustice around maternity leave as many of our
participants reported injustice in relation to their desired (as opposed to actual) work
arrangements. Given the motivation that many of our participants showed, if managers
respect these constraints, they are likely to help maintain the sustained full commitment and
motivation of working mothers.
Beyond bringing work-life balance awareness among managers, we suggest that
work-life balance value needs to be reflected in the organizational culture through
corresponding practices. Given that managers often represent the organization in their
subordinates’ minds, it would be interesting if managers became role models and work-life
balance advocates by "walking the talk", i.e., setting the example (e.g., they should not send
messages outside office hours, or at least make clear that they do not expect employees to
answer before they return to work). That way, mothers and parents in general would feel less
guilty for having to ask for a specific work arrangement (e.g., breastfeeding provisions upon
work reentry or teleworking accommodation during pregnancy and the early years of the
child) or for leaving work earlier than other (often childless or male) colleagues. Stress
associated with arriving to work on time may also be reduced. Finally, we also encourage
managers to focus more on results and less on presenteeism. Unfortunately, the mere
presence at the workplace during late hours is often still equated with amount of work
performed, as experienced by some of our interviewees who were disadvantaged when it
came to bonus payments and promotion opportunities due to the fact that they availed
themselves of the opportunity to do some of their work from home. Therefore, we suggest
that not only employees need to be given the right to telework, the work they do from home
also needs to be acknowledged as much as the work done at the office.
167
It should be noted that while we focused our research on women in particular, the
managerial implications detailed above would also benefit men who wish to better balance
their work and family life.
4. Limitations and future research opportunities
This research has several limitations that require acknowledgement. Some of these
limitations represent interesting directions for future research on the topic of women’s
careers, which supplement the suggestions already detailed in each paper.
The first limitation of this research lies in the fact that one of the studies (Chapter 4)
was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus the results may not be generalizable to
ordinary work settings – even though they may provide insights into important work
dynamics associated with huge social shocks. While we argue that our study of this “extreme
case” can illustrate interesting effects and gender differences that are likely to play a role
beyond the pandemic (especially as many employees are operating a shift toward more
flexible and teleworking work arrangements in their professional life), we also encourage
scholars to study the effects of cross-domain interruptions in other work settings, i.e., when
schools and childcare institutions are open. Further, an additional possible limitation in the
design of this diary study is that we analyzed our data within the same day which limits its
internal validity in terms of drawing causality conclusions and avoiding common method
bias, however common method bias is unlikely to explain the interaction effects observed.
Moreover, as we focused our research on highly educated women, who are known to
experience the highest penalty for having children and taking leave time (England et al.,
2016), we recognize that our results may not be generalizable beyond this population.
Women with different social characteristics may be faced with different work experiences at
these two critical time periods, and they may also differ in the way they make sense of these
168
experiences and in their reactions to them. Furthermore, different characteristics (e.g., being a
pregnant woman and being Black) may interact, causing different forms of discrimination to
occur. For example, we already know that Black women have different maternity experiences
(e.g., Knight et al., 2009), so it is reasonable to envision that these differing maternity
experiences may also affect their work experiences at the time around maternity leave.
Therefore, we encourage scholars to conduct similar research with more diverse groups of
women in order to compare their experiences. Comparative research between different
populations of women will be useful for generating greater generalizability as well as gaining
understanding on the diverse experiences of women at work.
Our research covers relatively short periods of time out of a full career, therefore
longitudinal studies over longer periods are needed to determine the impact of (in)justice
experiences on women’s careers in the long term. Although we already have some initial
evidence of this link (e.g., Powell, 2021), it would be interesting to further investigate the
long-term career effects of women’s decisions at the time around maternity leave as well as
how they make sense of their own past reactions and the ensuing outcomes retrospectively. It
is also worth mentioning that the career outcomes we measured in our studies are known to
have long-term career effects for women (e.g., Blair-Loy, 2003). Further, the effects of work
experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic over longer periods of time will also be useful.
We already see that women’s careers suffer from the COVID-related work and childcare
arrangements but less is known about the long-term impact of the daily dynamics described
in Paper 3 (Chapter 4) on women’s careers and how they will carry over into the crisis’
aftermath.
Finally, one of the delineated directions for future research outlined in the first paper
(Chapter 2), namely intervention-based research, is also highly relevant for the situations
studied here. Such research could test whether the implementation of the recommendations of
169
paper 2 (see Table 3 of Chapter 3) lessens uncertainty levels and reduces the likelihood of
injustice experiences for women at the time around their maternity leave, which may in turn
reduce career withdrawal attitudes at this period of time. The results of such studies could
have very strong implications for gender career equality.
5. Final conclusion
This research originated from the desire of my co-authors and I to better understand
the micro mechanisms underlying the motherhood penalty, a phenomenon that has been made
worse with the COVID-19 pandemic. Taken together, the three distinct, yet interrelated,
papers of my thesis were concerned with investigating the role of women’s, and in particular
mothers’, personal experiences at work in their career outcomes. Specifically, this research
presents important insights into women’s justice and interruption experiences at two critical
career transitions, i.e., the time around their maternity leave and COVID-19 crisis, and it
offers ways for organizations to address these challenges and work toward creating greater
gender career equality.
170
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Articles (1st order concepts) 2nd order themes Aggregate dimensions
Stavrou and Ierodiakonou 2011
Family connections
Relational
van der Horst, van der Lippe and
Kluwer 2014
Lewis, Harris, Morrison & Ho 2015
Arifeen & Gatrell 2020
Moors, Malley & Stewart 2014
Hirschi, Herrmann, Nagy & Spurk 2016
Nair & Chatterjee 2020
Savela & O'Brien 2015
Porfeli & Mortimer 2010
Cho & Ryu 2016
Dishon-Berkovits 2014
Kossek, Su & Wu 2017
Karam & Afiouni 2017
Hodges & Park 2013
Palladino Schultheiss 2009
Pas, Peters, Doorewaard, Eisinga &
Lagro-Janssen 2014
Braunstein-Bercovitz, Frish-
Burstein & Benjamin 2012
Lewis, Harris, Morrison & Ho 2015
Ferriman, Lubinski & Benbow 2009
Dunn, Rochlen & O'Brien 2013
Bikos and Kocheleva 2013
Livingston 2014
Ullrich, Pluut and Büttgen 2015
Clarke 2015
Trotman Reid, Cole & Kern 2011 Askaru, Liss, Erchull, Staebell &
Axelson 2010
Yassour-Borochowitz &
Wasserman 2018
Spagnoli 2020
Afiouni & Karam 2014
Syed, Ali & Hennekam 2018
Ortiz-Walters, Eddleston and
Simione 2010
Work relationships
Terjesen and Sullivan 2011
Okurame and Fabunmi 2014
Ramaswami, Huang and Dreher 2014
Ramaswami, Dreher, Bretz and
Wiethoff 2010
Ramaswami, Dreher, Bretz and
Wiethoff 2010
Cohen-Scali 2014
O'Neil, Hopkins and Sullivan 2011
Shortland 2011
Chen, Doherty and Vinnicombe 2012
209
Greguletz, Diehl and Kreutzer 2018
Work relationships Relational
Chang, Baek and Kim 2020
Woehler, Cullen-Lester,Porter and
Frear 2020
Walsh, Fleming & Enz 2016
Shortland 2014
Austin and Nauta 2016
Yeoward and Nauta 2020
Young, Rudman, Buettner &
McLean 2013
O'Neil, Brooks and Hopkins 2018
Abalkhail 2020
Chen, Friedman and Simons 2014
Gibson & Lawrence 2010
McGinn & Milkman 2013
Lee, Kesebir & Pillutla 2016
Al Dabbagh, Bowles & Thomason 2016
Vincent-Höper, Muser & Janneck 2012
Blondeau & Awad 2018
Career attitudes and decisions
in male-dominated fields
Decision-making
Sainz, Fabregues, Rodo-de-Zarate,
Martinez-Cantos, Arroyo & Romano 2020
Fouad, Singh, Cappaert, Chang &
Wan 2016
Durante, Griskevicius, Simpson,
Cantu & Tybur 2012
Singh, Fouad, Fitzpatrick, Liu,
Cappaert & Figuereido 2013
Afiouni 2014
Buse, Bilimoria & Perelli 2013
Cabrera 2009
Major career events
Kim, Jang & Baek 2019
Nair & Chatterjee 2020
Hwang, Bento & Arbaugh 2011
Paustian-Underdahl, Mandeville &
Little 2019
Flynn, Feild & Bedeian 2011
Impact of women's family life
on their career attitudes and
decisions
Savela & O'Brien 2015
Grant-Vallone & Ensher 2010
Pas, Peters, Doorewaard, Eisinga &
Lagro-Janssen 2014
Dikkers, van Engen & Vinkenburg 2010
Wechtler 2018 Self-expatriation motives
Thorn 2009
Yeagly, Subich & Tokar 2010 Leadership intentions
Darouei & Pluut 2018
Al-Darmaki 2012 Help to decision-making
Phang, Fan & Arbona 2018
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Leaper & Starr 2019
Workplace mistreatment
Gender bias
Fernando & Prasad 2019
Gloor, Li, Lim & Feierabend 2017
Brownstone, Holliman, Gerber &
Monteith 2018
Hoobler, Lemmon & Wayne 2014
Biased assessments Bono, Braddy, Liu, Gilbert,
Fleenor, Quast & Center 2016
Inesi & Cable 2015
Garcia, Earnshaw & Quinn 2015
Problem of (in)visibility Bennett, Hennekam, Macarthur,
Hope & Goh 2019
Fernando, Cohen & Duberley 2019
Block, Cruz, Bairley, Harel-Marian
& Roberson 2019
Stereotype threat
Cadaret, Hartung, Subich &
Weigold 2017
Lin & Deemer 2019
Deemer, Thoman, Chase & Smith 2014
Ezzedeen, Budworth & Baker 2015
Shapiro, Williams & Hambarchyan 2013
Jones, Clair, King, Humberd &
Arena 2020
Tharenou 2010
Gendered occupational and
market segregation
Cooper, Baird, Foley & Oxenbridge 2020
Scholarios & Taylor 2011
Cardador 2017
Daraouei & Pluut 2018
van Osch & Schaveling 2020
Tassabehji, Harding, Lee &
Dominguez-Pery 2021
Abalkhail 2017
Cho, Park, Han & Ho 2019
Wells & Kerwin 2017
Afiouni & Karam 2019
Treanor & Marlow 2019
Evans & Diekman 2009
Tonoyan, Strohmeyer & Jennings 2019
Sidani, Konrad & Karam 2015
Syed, Ali & Hennekam 2018
Lawson, Crouter & McHale 2015
Darouei & Pluut 2018
Hogue, DuBois & Fox-Cardamone 2010
Webster, Adams, Maranto, Beehr 2018
Gender roles/stereotypes Forret, Sullivan & Mainiero 2010
Hideg, Krstic, Trau & Zarina 2018
Jakob, Isidor, Steinmetz, Wehner &
Kabst 2019
211
Benschop, van den Brink,
Doorewaard & Leenders 2013
Gender roles/stereotypes
Gender bias
Bedford 2015
Duberley & Cohen 2010
Nyström 2010
Pas, Peters, Doorewaard, Eisinga &
Lagro-Janssen 2014
Hüttges & Fay 2015
Hodges & Park 2013
Al-Asfour, Tlaiss, Khan &
Rajasekar 2017
Gender discrimination
Dubbelt, Rispens & Demerouti 2016
Cocchiara, Kwesiga, Bell & Baruch 2010
Santos 2016
Smith, Caputi & Crittenden 2012
Omair 2010
Dreher, Carter & Dworking 2019
Kossek, Su & Wu 2017
Paustian-Underdahl, Mandeville &
Little 2019
Wille, Wiernik, Vergauwe,
Vrijdags & Trbovic 2018
Scalise, Sukumaran, Merson,
Pursell, Grossman, Johnson &
Elliot 2019
Career stages
Temporal
Simosi, Rousseau & Daskalaki 2015
Giraud, Bernard & Trinchera 2019
Hüttges & Fay 2015
Harman & Sealy 2017
Kelan 2014
McDonald 2018
Han & Rojewski 2015
Nyström 2010
Moors, Malley & Stewart 2014
Lawson, Crouter & McHale 2015
Maddox-Daines 2016
Mainiero & Gibson 2018
Birkett, Carmichael & Duberley 2017
Newton & Stewart 2010
August 2011
Asirvatham & Humphries-Kil 2019
McMahon, Watson & Bimrose 2012
Fernando & Cohen 2011
Lawson, Lee, Crouter & McHale 2018
Career trajectories and
dynamics
Klug, Drobnic & Brockmann 2019
Evers & Sieverding 2014
Biemann, Zacher & Feldman 2012
Dlouhy & Biemann 2018
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Gluber, Biemann & Herzog 2017
Career trajectories and
dynamics
Temporal
Ferriman, Lubinski & Benbow 2009
Stumpf & Tymon 2012
McCabe, Lubinski & Benbow 2020
Paustian-Underdahl, Mandeville &
Little 2019
The critical period of
pregnancy and maternity-
leave
Jones, Clair, King, Humberd &
Arena 2020
Spector & Cinamon 2017
Hideg, Krstic, Trau & Zarina 2018
Gross-Spector & Cinamon 2018
Kameny, DeRosier, Taylor, McMillen, Knowles & Pifer 2014
Career barriers
Intersectional
Kamenou, Netto & Fearfull 2013
McCluney & Rabelo 2019
Marks, Tate & Taylor 2020
Parnell, Lease & Green 2012
Lindstrom, Hirano, Ingram,
DeGarmo & Post 2019
Arifeen & Gatrell 2020
Syed, Ali & Hennekam 2018
Villanueva-Flores, Valle-Cabrera &
Bornay-Barrachina 2014
Gali Cinamon 2009
Tomlinson, Muzio, Sommerlad,
Webley & Duff 2013
Career strategies and
development
Yang 2014
Kitchenham & Domene 2019
Stebleton, Diamond & Rost-Banik 2020
Scheuermann, Tokar & Hall 2014
Fernando & Cohen 2011
Kelan 2014
Goldfarb 2018 Occupational motives and
interests Sanchez, Poll-Hunter, Spencer,
Lee-Rey, Alexander, Holaday,
Soto-Greene & Sanchez 2017
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Appendix 2. Interview guide for the first interview
Guide d'Entretien
1ère vague
Merci d’avoir accepté d’échanger avec moi. Je suis doctorante en Gestion des Ressources Humaines
au sein de l’établissement Toulouse School of Management. Cet entretien intervient dans le cadre du projet JuDy où une équipe de chercheuses et moi-même nous intéressons à l’expérience des femmes
au travail au moment du congé maternité.
Les informations obtenues au cours de cet entretien seront utilisées pour la rédaction d’articles académiques et lors de présentations durant des conférences en management cependant les citations
seront choisies de telle façon qu’il ne sera pas possible de vous identifier.
Il est complètement confidentiel; c’est à dire que vos réponses ne seront jamais associées à votre nom. Soyez assurez que les données recueillies seront sauvegardées dans un fichier ne contenant par
votre nom.
A titre indicatif, l’entretien devrait durer entre 30 minutes et 1 heure. J’aimerais, si cela ne vous
dérange pas, enregistrer nos échanges, afin d’être sûre de ne pas trahir vos propos lors de leur retranscription puis analyse. Je souhaite vous informer que vous pouvez demander l’arrêt de
l’enregistrement à tout moment ainsi que le retrait de certaines données.
LA CARRIÈRE ET LES ASPIRATIONS PROFESSIONNELLES
§ Pouvez-vous décrire brièvement votre carrière à ce jour ? (Quand avez-vous commencé à
travailler pour cette entreprise ?) § Quelles sont vos responsabilités professionnelles et vos tâches quotidiennes ?
§ Aimez-vous votre travail ? Qu'est-ce qui est le plus important pour vous dans votre travail ?
§ Pourquoi avez-vous choisi ce métier ?
§ Aujourd'hui, quelles sont vos aspirations pour l'avenir ? § Avez-vous des attentes par rapport à votre carrière professionnelle ?
§ A votre retour de congé de maternité, quelles sont vos attentes ?
NORMES ET DISPOSITIONS RELATIVES À LA MATERNITÉ
§ Quand et comment avez-vous informé votre superviseur ou votre RH de votre grossesse ?
§ Quelle a été leur réaction ?
§ L'annonce de grossesse a-t-elle donné lieu à des négociations avec l'organisation ?
§ Pouvez-vous nous parler des arrangements de travail conclus avec votre organisation concernant votre congé de maternité ?
§ Prévoyez-vous des changements à votre horaire de travail ? - Par exemple, retour à temps
partiel. § Vos arrangements sont-ils typiques ?
§ Pourquoi avez-vous pris ces dispositions ?
§ Que pensez-vous de ces arrangements ?
RELATIONS DE TRAVAIL ET ENVIRONNEMENT
§ Comment définiriez-vous votre relation avec votre superviseur ?
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§ Avez-vous perçu un changement dans votre relation depuis que vous l’avez informé(e) de votre grossesse ?
§ Comment définiriez-vous votre relation avec vos collègues ?
§ Avez-vous perçu un changement dans votre relation depuis que vous les avez informés de
votre grossesse ? § Votre organisation vous permet-elle de concilier facilement travail et vie familiale ?
LES ÉVÉNEMENTS ET LES CHOIX IMPORTANTS DE LA VIE ET DE LA CARRIÈRE
Nous savons que les expériences durant l’enfance peut avoir un impact sur les choix personnels et professionnels que nous faisons une fois adulte et c’est pourquoi je vais vous poser quelques
questions concernant votre environnement familial durant votre enfance.
§ Vos parents travaillaient-ils ? Votre mère travaillait-elle après son congé de maternité ?
§ Vos parents partageaient-ils les tâches ménagères et la garde des enfants ? § Cette organisation a-t-elle donné lieu à des situations conflictuelles ?
§ Avez-vous des attentes envers votre partenaire ?
§ Comment partagez-vous les tâches ménagères ? Cela donne-t-il lieu à des conflits ?
§ Selon vous, quels sont les événements ou les expériences les plus importants de votre vie qui
vous ont incité à choisir cette carrière ? § Qu'est-ce qui est le plus important pour vous dans votre carrière ?
§ Qu'est-ce qui est le plus important pour vous dans la vie ?
Nous arrivons à la fin du premier entretien. Tout d’abord, je souhaiterais vous remercier pour le temps que vous m’avez accordé. Les données recueillies sur le sujet de la maternité au travail sont
très importantes pour mieux comprendre l’expérience des femmes en entreprise et améliorer leurs
conditions de travail.
§ Souhaitez-vous partager autre chose avec moi ?
Merci encore pour votre participation à notre étude. Après cet entretien, je vous enverrai votre premier chèque cadeau d’un montant de 10€.
Je vous souhaite un excellent congé de maternité !
Abstracts
French Abstract
A travers trois articles distincts, cette recherche vise à développer notre compréhension des
expériences professionnelles des femmes, des mères en particulier, ainsi que de la façon dont
ces expériences impactent le travail et la carrière de ces femmes. Dans le premier article, je
passe en revue 167 articles empiriques et conceptuels en lien avec les carrières des femmes.
Cet examen permet le développement de cinq perspectives majeures qui apportent un nouvel
éclairage sur le sujet et mène à la définition d’un programme de recherche proposant des
pistes pour faire avancer le domaine. Les deuxième et troisième articles sont basés sur des
études empiriques longitudinales. Pour le deuxième article, j'ai interrogé 35 femmes
hautement qualifiées à trois moments distincts durant la période de leur congé de maternité.
Pour le troisième article, mes co-auteurs et moi avons mené une étude de journal intime
parmi des parents qui télétravaillaient pendant la première vague de confinement en France
lors de la pandémie du COVID-19, lorsque les écoles et les crèches étaient fermées. Adoptant
une approche dynamique et intra-personnelle, ces études s'appuient sur la théorie de la justice
organisationnelle et sur le modèle de carrière kaléidoscope pour comprendre les expériences
de justice et d’interruptions des mères qui travaillent. Les résultats de la première étude
suggèrent qu’il existe des expériences récurrentes et perçues comme injustes par les mères au
moment du congé de maternité et que celles-ci influencent les aspirations professionnelles,
les attitudes et les décisions en matière de carrière de ces femmes au fil du temps. La
deuxième étude suggère que les mères et les pères diffèrent dans leur expérience du
télétravail et de la garde des enfants en période de pandémie : Contrairement aux pères,
l'équilibre vie professionnelle – vie personnelle quotidien des mères a été négativement
affecté par les interruptions causées par le travail lorsqu’elles s’occupaient de leurs enfants et
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elles n'ont pas bénéficié du même effet de motivation que les pères qui ont vu leurs niveaux
d’authenticité et de défi quotidiens augmenter lorsqu'ils étaient confrontés à des interruptions
émanent de la sphère professionnelle.
Cette recherche contribue à la littérature sur les carrières des femmes en faisant le point sur
l’état des connaissances et de la littérature sur les carrières des femmes et en proposant des
études longitudinales investiguant les expériences au travail des femmes à des périodes
critiques, à savoir le congé de maternité et la pandémie de COVID-19. Plus précisément,
cette thèse illustre comment les expériences d'(in)justice avant, pendant et après le congé de
maternité influencent les attitudes et choix de carrière, et comment les interruptions venant du
travail affectent la perception de l'accomplissement des objectifs de carrière au quotidien
pendant le télétravail, nous informant ainsi sur des facteurs pouvant constituer des freins à la
participation des mères au marché du travail. En outre, cette recherche contribue aussi à la
littérature sur la justice organisationnelle et notamment à notre compréhension des épisodes
de justice, en introduisant un nouveau concept, à savoir l'omission de justice, qui fait
référence à l'absence d'action donnant lieu à un jugement d'équité. Au-delà de cela, par son
illustration des importants effets des expériences d'injustice et des interruptions vécues par les
femmes enceintes et mères de jeunes enfants, cette thèse a également des implications
importantes pour les organisations qui souhaitent promouvoir l'égalité de carrière entre les
hommes et les femmes.
English Abstract
This research aims at better understanding the work experience of women, mothers in
particular, as well as how this experience influences work and career outcomes. In my first
paper, I review 167 empirical and conceptual articles on women’s careers. This review allows
the development of five theoretical perspectives shedding new light on the topic and
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delineates a research agenda to move the field forward. The second and third papers are based
on longitudinal empirical studies. For the second paper, I interviewed 35 highly educated
women at three points in time around their maternity leave. For the third paper, my co-
authors and I conducted a diary study among teleworking parents during the first COVID-19
lockdown wave in France when schools and childcare were closed. Taking a dynamic and
within-person approach, these studies draw on organizational justice theory and on the
kaleidoscope career model to get insight on working parents’ experiences of justice and work
interruptions. The findings of the first study suggest typical patterns of how working mothers’
perceived fairness experiences influence their career aspirations, career attitudes and
decisions. Over time, experiences of unfair events and omissions around the transition of
maternity produce career responses. The second study suggests that mothers and fathers
differed in their experience of simultaneously teleworking and caring for children in
pandemic times: Unlike fathers, mothers’ perceived daily balance was negatively impacted
by work-to-childcare interruptions and they did not benefit from the same motivational effect
as fathers who saw their perceived daily authenticity and challenge increase when confronted
with work-to-childcare interruptions.
This research informs the literature on women’s careers by taking stock of the literature on
women’s careers and by offering longitudinal investigations of experiences at work at critical
periods of time, i.e., maternity leave and the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it illustrates
how experiences of (in)justice before, during and after maternity leave influence career
outcomes, and how work-to-childcare interruptions affect perceived daily motive fulfillment
during telework, therefore informing us on what may constitute push factors for mothers’
workforce participation. Furthermore, it contributes to the literature on organizational justice
by introducing a new concept, namely justice omission, which refers to the absence of action
giving rise to a fairness judgment. Beyond this, through its illustration of the important
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downstream effects of typical injustice events and interruptions experienced by pregnant
women and mothers of young children, this research also has important implications for
organizations that wish to promote gender career equality.
Keywords
Women’s careers, working mothers, organizational justice, gender career equality
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