Balancing Career And Motherhood: Perspective Of Female Engineers Working As Full-Time University Faculty

Abstract

Female engineers serving as full-time university faculty face challenges in balancing between the role of a mother and a professional academician. Career is important but so is their family. Obstacles encountered and consequently strategies adopted by them in order to strive for balance between both roles are discussed in this paper. It is a qualitative research based on Grounded theory approach. The results indicate that the responsibilities of a mother and that of a professional academician are overlapping in some cases. However, managing both the roles simultaneously is difficult and stressful. Hence, depending on their circumstances working mothers adopt diverse strategies to overcome the issues of reconciling motherhood and career.