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The current longitudinal study investigated the within- and between-person variance in work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict among working mothers over time. It also examined the effects of a nonstandard work schedule and relationship quality on work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict using bioecological theory. Results of multilevel modeling analyses showed that there was significant within- and between-person variance in work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict. The linear and quadratic terms were significantly related to family-to-work conflict, whereas the quadratic term was significantly associated with work-to-family conflict. There was also a positive relationship between a nonstandard work schedule and work-to-family conflict, whereas relationship quality was negatively associated with family-to-work conflict. Future studies should consider diversity among working mothers to adequately predict work–family conflict. The current study provides important implications for employers to consider, concerning within-and between-person differences among working mothers, which could in turn allow for accommodations and help to decrease work–family conflict.

Previous theoretical and empirical literature has advocated growth in the access and use of flexible working arrangements by establishing their link with individual and especially parental subjective well-being. Given this, the current research investigates impact that their own or their partners’ transition to flexitime and teleworking has on parental subjective well-being. The cross-partner dimension has not been explored yet by prior studies. Measures for cognitive, subjective well-being include satisfaction with life overall, satisfaction with the amount of leisure time, and satisfaction with health. Ordered logit longitudinal models are estimated using Understanding Society data from 2009 to 2019. Corroborating prior studies, the current analysis finds that mothers’ transition to flexitime and teleworking has a positive impact on their leisure time and health satisfaction. For fathers, switching to telework improves satisfaction with their amount of leisure time, while adopting flexitime can take a toll on self-reported health satisfaction. However, contrary to expectations, mothers’ move to teleworking can be injurious for fathers’ life satisfaction levels, yet fathers’ adoption of flexitime fosters mothers’ satisfaction with their leisure time amount.

The purpose of this paper is to study the experiences of middle-class working mothers from the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) sector in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences of work from home are studied in the backdrop of the ideal worker model at work and the adult worker model at home. Further, the study aims to identify the need for sustainable, inclusive practices for working mothers in Indian organizations to break the male breadwinner model in middle-class households.

A qualitative approach to collect data from 39 middle-class mothers working in MNCs in four metro cities in India. The semi-structured, in-depth interviews focused on their experiences of motherhood, care and work before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic made it evident that the ideal worker model in organizations and the adult worker model at home were illusions for working mothers. The results indicate a continued obligation of the “ideal worker culture” at organizations, even during the health crisis. It made the working mothers realize that they were chasing both the (ideal worker and adult worker) norms but could never achieve them. Subsequently, the male breadwinner model was reinforced at home due to the matrix of motherhood, care and work during the pandemic. The study concludes by arguing the reconstruction of the ideal worker image to make workplaces more inclusive for working mothers.

The study is placed in the context of Indian middle-class motherhood during the pandemic, a demography less explored in the literature. The paper puts forth various myths constituting the gendered realities of Indian middle-class motherhood. It also discusses sustainable, inclusive workplace practices for mothers from their future workplaces' standpoint, especially in post-pandemic times.

This study aims to incorporate theory on effort-recovery and stressor-detachment models to examine the roles of relaxation, mastery and types of control on the relationship between psychological detachment from work and boundary violations at home.

This study analyzes data from two time points using a sample of 348 working mothers recruited from Prolific.

Working moms who psychologically detach from work have less work boundary violations at home. There are mixed findings on whether and when the other types of recovery experiences moderate the relationship between psychological detachment and boundary violations at home. Relaxation, control after work and job autonomy do not moderate the effect while mastery and boundary control do. Specifically, psychological detachment is more effective as reducing boundary violations at home for working moms who have (1) low levels of mastery and (2) high levels of boundary control.

Working mothers juggle multiple roles and often have increased stress and less time to manage the two domains. The findings of this study illustrate whether and when psychological detachment from work acts as a key to recovery from work-based stressors.

Much of the research on recovery experiences is based on employees without consideration of motherhood status. Further, scholars have not examined the combinative potential of recovery experiences. Finally, examining control over both domains (vs. one domain) adds precision to the literature.

Based on the self-concept perspective, the purpose of this paper is to explore the process of working mothers who conduct job crafting to build new role identities and self-efficacy, which ultimately affects work-to-family enrichment. The paper further explores the moderating role of inclusive leadership.

The authors collected data at two time points. The sample for the study consisted of 216 professional working mothers in China who returned to work after the birth of their first child.

Results show that working mothers' job crafting had a positive effect on work-to-family enrichment. In addition, working mothers' role identity and role self-efficacy played mediating roles between the links. Finally, inclusive leadership moderates the indirect effect of task crafting and relational crafting on work-to-family enrichment through role identity and role self-efficacy. The positive indirect relationships are stronger in high levels of inclusive leadership.

The employers should provide opportunities, support, and freedom for working mothers to craft their jobs according to their individual demands for better self and home outcomes.

This study focuses on the job crafting of working mothers. The authors extend the consequences of job crafting to the nonwork domain. In addition, this study uncovers the influence of job crafting from the perspective of self-concept (i.e. role identity and role self-efficacy). Furthermore, the authors demonstrate the moderating role played by inclusive leadership in this process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions and realities regarding professional advancement following motherhood. Results show great conflict between work and home life regardless of employer support or family‐friendly policies. The paper also seeks to assess conflicting societal attitudes relating to work/family responsibilities and roles, with a focus on the stereotyping and discrimination towards women endemic in the workplace following motherhood.

The paper utilized a survey with Likert‐type options and open‐ended questions to measure both perceived and real impact of motherhood on a woman's professional advancement. The sample was purposive featuring working mothers in professional fields at the managerial level and above, all of whom have children who require some level of childcare.

More than 90 working mothers responded to the survey. The results show a contrast between qualitative and quantitative data and indicate a contradiction between a working mother's expected response and her reality.

Findings indicate that flexible work arrangements do not support working mothers seeking advancement. Limitations may include the size and selection of population.

Working mothers who strive to continue an upward career track following motherhood acknowledge that motherhood has an extreme impact on professional advancement. Many mothers chose to slow down their career path, even when employer policies are family‐friendly.

One of the most compelling findings in this paper is the disparity between women's perception of their situations and the reality of their actual experiences and behaviors, as indicated in the contrasts between the qualitative and the quantitative findings.

The purpose of this paper is to particularly focus on lone-mother families, comparing the childcare-related challenges experienced by working lone mothers and coupled mothers in three European countries in the context of a 24/7 economy and non-standard working hours (e.g. evening, night and weekend work).

This study utilises survey data from Finnish, Dutch and British working mothers (n=1,106) collected as part of the “Families 24/7” research project. Multivariate regression analysis is used to analyse the associations between childcare-related challenges, maternal non-standard working, lone motherhood and country of residence.

The results indicated similar results across the three countries by showing that working lone mothers experience childcare-related challenges more often compared with coupled mothers. Furthermore, an increase in maternal non-standard working associated positively with increased childcare-related challenges in both lone mother and coupled families but lone motherhood did not moderate this association. The findings suggest that, regardless of family form, families in all three countries struggle with childcare arrangements when the mother works during non-standard hours. This possibly relates to the inadequate provision of state-subsidised and flexible formal childcare during non-standard hours and to the country-specific maternal work hours cultures.

This study responds to the need for comparative research on the reconciliation of maternal non-standard working and childcare with self-collected data from three European welfare states. The importance of the study is further highlighted by the risks posed to the maintenance of maternal employment and family well-being when reconciliation of work and childcare is unsuccessful, especially in lone-mother families.

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of working mothers during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and assess their perceptions of the types of training opportunities that would help advance their careers as they navigated pandemic-related challenges.

In study 1, 53 participants responded to an online survey that included open-ended questions regarding the impact COVID-19 has had on their careers and desires they have for training to ameliorate these concerns. For study 2, 10 participants completed an interview that included open-ended questions regarding workplace changes and professional development/training opportunities since the pandemic.

Thematic analysis showed mothers facing several setbacks in their careers, including delays, loss of hours and wages, childcare stressors and strained or lost relationships with colleagues and supervisors. A small number of participants also reported some surprisingly positive experiences, such as a push toward career innovation. Participants reported little to no exposure to career development opportunities and expressed a desire for training for leadership and interpersonal connection in the workplace.

Although quantitative data have been helpful in identifying and quantifying growing gender gaps in work during the pandemic, the qualitative analyses the authors used highlight how recent difficulties encountered by working mothers risk a growing gender gap in work and career mobility as women in the leadership pipeline struggle with challenges. Further, the findings suggest ways that women in management can support the working mothers on their staff, including by suggesting ways additional training may address some concerns.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many working mothers in India adopted involuntary telecommuting work option for the first time. However, no research explored their adjustments and experiences in the new work setting. This paper aims to gain an in-depth understanding of Indian working mothers' lived experience of involuntary telecommuting.

A phenomenological research design was adopted. The authors conducted 14 in-depth, semi-structured telephonic and online interviews. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework.

The data analysis yielded two interconnected superordinate themes in this research: (1) characteristics of involuntary telecommuting and (2) the impact of involuntary telecommuting. Under the first theme, four sub-themes emerged: long working hours, increased family demands, reduced interaction with coworkers and technology-enabled communication with supervisors. The second theme comprised five sub-themes: time-based work interference with family, time-based family interference with work, strain-based family interference with work, absence of emotional and professional support and performance management concerns. Involuntary telecommuting mothers faced challenges due to lack of control over their daily work schedule and demands, along with an increased burden of unpaid household work, leading to difficulties in managing their work schedule and negotiating their professional role identity within the family. These findings emphasize that working mothers who participated in involuntary telecommuting encountered bidirectional time-based conflicts and unidirectional strain-based conflict.

The study examines a particular subset of women telecommuters who were working mothers with young children. These potential limitations are to be addressed in future research.

The findings suggest that managers should develop HR policies and telecommuting ecosystems in order to enhance effectiveness of telecommuting. Specifically, organizations offering telecommuting work options should create opportunities for informal interaction among peers and formal one-to-one interaction with managers. Moreover, HR managers should develop and implement employee-friendly telecommuting policies.

The research contributes to HRM and gender literature.

The paper contributes to the discourses of work-life balance, workplace relationships and work policies within telecommuting literature.

Recent gender-related research has focused on how gender affects work–life balance (WLB), particularly whether men and women have similar difficulties balancing work and family demands. However, to broaden WLB research beyond its concentration on employees to a different population, this study investigates the WLB experiences of single student-working mothers.

This article uses a qualitative study using three focus groups to compare Nigerian and British single student-working mothers' WLB experiences and coping strategies or mechanisms adopted in these two contexts.

The findings indicate that, regardless of nationality, single student-working mothers are affected by inter-role conflict, role ambiguity, role strain, role overload and external role pressures, which make achieving WLB a herculean task. Nevertheless, given the different political, economic and socio-cultural landscapes of the two countries, the extent to which the aforementioned factors impact single student-working mothers varies and influences the range of coping mechanisms adopted in the two contexts.

The insights gleaned from this study suggest that there are huge challenges for single student-working mothers in terms of achieving WLB due to their status as students, workers and mothers. Combining these roles negatively affect their WLB and level of productivity and effectiveness, at home, at work and at university. This poses significant implications for human resource structures, policies and practices. The authors suggest that single student-mothers should learn from their counterparts' experiences and coping mechanisms, and that organisations and government should also provide adequate support to help them combine their challenging roles. This would ease the tension associated with combining multiple roles and enhance their well-being and WLB.

The study calls for a re-examination of WLB policies and practices at organisational and national levels to ensure that single student-working mothers are well supported to enhance their productivity and WLB.