Choosing mothering and entrepreneurship: a relational career-life process

Abstract

Purpose

To date, research on women’s entrepreneurship has largely been focused on how gender roles may constrain the venture process, or cause role conflicts for women pursuing an entrepreneurial career. While acknowledging the validity of such perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to apply a broader perspective of career-life development, answering the call for a more nuanced and embedded understanding of an entrepreneurial career.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a constructionist, relational analysis of the experiences of 13 Canadian women who started their business following the life transition to motherhood. Interview data were coded using grounded theory methods.

Findings

The conceptual model captures the influence of the mothering role in shaping the transition into entrepreneurship, illuminating the reciprocal relational processes of context, choice and outcomes in the career-life development of mother entrepreneurs.

Research limitations/implications

While this is a small sample, and findings are not generalizable, application of relational theory of career-life offers implications for supporting women’s transition to, and continued success in, entrepreneurship.

Practical implications

Career theory offers practical application to the management of mother entrepreneurs’ career-life development.

Originality/value

To date, there has been limited application of career theory to entrepreneurship, particularly to understanding the gendered, relational career-life experiences of mother entrepreneurs.

Citation

Hudson Breen, R. and Leung, A. (2020), "Choosing mothering and entrepreneurship: a relational career-life process", International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-08-2019-0130