How do working mothers negotiate the work-home interface?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the tactics that mid-career professional working mothers use to improve their work-home balance. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative study used in-depth interviews with 63 Brazilian professional working mothers aged between 37 and 55, having at least one child under the age of 18, and living in dual-career households. The interviews were content analyzed. Findings – The study reported four dimensions of boundary work tactics (behavioral, temporal, physical, and communicative) that mid-career working mothers adopted to construct a satisfying level of segmentation or integration between work and home. Research limitations/implications – The study suggests individual tactics for actively constructing a generalized work-home state that can be adopted by working mothers. Additionally, the authors suggest that HR managers should develop work-home balance programs that provide policies that adjust to the work-home boundary preferences for those mothers who want to integrate and segment these domains. Social implications – The authors hope this study can help mid-career working mothers to understand how they can interact actively with others in such a way that they can better answer their work and home demands. Originality/value – This study was the first to use boundary work tactics theory to explore how mid-career professional working mothers improve their work-home balance.