Maternal role of clerical workers: A feminist analysis

0277-9536/91f3.00 + 0.00 Copyright 0 1991Pcrgamon Press plc

Sot. Sci. Med. Vol. 32, No. 12, PP. 142>1433, 1991 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved

MATERNAL

ROLE OF CLERICAL WORKERS: A FEMINIST ANALYSIS

PATRICIA E. STEVENS and AFAF IBRAHIM MELEIS

University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Mental Health, Community, and Administrative Nursing, San Francisco, CA 94143, U.S.A. Abstract-This

paper presents the qualitative findings about women’s maternal role from an interview study of role integration and health in a U.S. sample of 87 women clerical workers. The data draws from clerical women’s perceptions of the satisfactions and stresses they experience in their roles as mothers, the coping strategies they use, and the resources available to them. The analysis provided is based on participants’ descriptions of their subjective experiences as mothers within the larger context of managing domestic responsibilities and fulltime jobs outside their homes. Results suggest that women in clerical jobs find many aspects of their maternal role satisfying, like participating in their children’s growth, nurturing them, receiving unconditional love, and finding companionship. However, they identify multiple and pervasive stresses including boundless worries, strained relationships, overload, child care problems, and financial burdens. Many of their coping strategies are solitary in nature, although they also engage in

active problem-solving, especially when they have to juggle child care and occupational responsibilities. Many do not view their spouses as sources of emotional and tangible support in childrearing. In addition to an in-depth discussion of qualitative findings, the authors examine implications for social policy, intervention, and future research about multiple roles and health. Key words-maternal

role, clerical workers, feminist, qualitative analysis, women

INTRODUCTION

There is debate in the literature about how the experience of motherhood is affected by women’s employment outside the home [1,2]. Several studies have tried to delineate the health effects of multiple roles for women. Some investigations have suggested that involvement in the work force competes for women’s time and energy, compounding their household and child care responsibilities and making the management of daily activities more cumbersome and anxiety provoking [3-171. Other studies have concluded that the combination of occupational and domestic roles enhances women’s self-esteem, satisfaction, social support, and well-being [18-301. Most scholars are in agreement that the effects of employment cannot be measured without relating them to the contexts of women’s jobs and family situations [5,20,21,31-331. Some insist that before uncovering the relationships between the roles women carry and their health status, more research is needed to explore the qualitative aspects of women’s roles [34-36). As Baruch, Biener and Barnett [37] propose, women’s lived experiences as workers, mothers, and spouses and their perceptions of the positive and negative aspects of each of these roles are very powerful predictors of stress and well-being. Similarly, Kotler and Wingard suggest that, “To examine fully the effect of combining work, marriage, and parenthood, it is necessary to design studies which actually probe the demands, conflicts, benefits, and gratifications of each role rather than attempting to infer these from occupancy of the roles” [38, p. 6111. It is perhaps the subjective experience of the maternal role that is most pivotal to women’s integration of multiple roles. The quality of experience

within the maternal role is an indicator of role overload, role conflict, and anxiety, according to Bamett and Baruch’s findings: “The role of parent rather than that of paid worker is the major source of stress for women in the middle years” [34, p. 1431. In an attempt to add to the knowledge base about the qualitative nature of women’s mothering, this paper will describe the subjective experiences of the maternal role as reported by one group of working women in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the qualitative component of a study that was designed to explain the relationship between role integration and health in a U.S. sample of women who work in clerical jobs. Although the study investigated participants’ subjective experience of their occupational, spousal, and maternal roles, the focus of this paper is limited to an in-depth description of how they viewed their roles as mothers. The analysis provided here is based on women workers’ descriptions of their experiences as mothers within the larger context of managing domestic responsibilities and fulltime jobs outside their homes. The research questions addressed in this portion of the study were: What are the satisfactions female clerical workers experience in their maternal role? What are the role specific stresses for these working mothers? What are the coping strategies they utilize to deal with the stresses of motherhood? What are the resources clerical women perceive they have in fulfilling their maternal role? The study evolved from the theoretical tradition of symbolic interactionism [39,40]. Within that tradition, roles constitute a useful foci for understanding the meanings of social situations. The investigators endeavored to understand women’s occupational and domestic worlds as seen through their eyes. The

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PATRICIAE. STEVENSand AFAF IBRAHIMMELEB

research is consciously feminist in that it reflects the interests of working women and grants primacy to women’s interpretations of their daily experiences in occupational, spousal, and maternal roles [41,42].

professionals, and other scholars with some guidelines for the development of appropriate resources for women in low-income jobs. METHODOLOGY

BACKGROUND

To place the study results within a broader sociopolitical context, some background about the situation of women’s labor in the United States will be provided. Sixty-one percent of U.S. mothers with children under 18 years of age and 52% of mothers with preschool aged children are employed in the work force [43]. Despite dramatic increases in female labor force participation and greater numbers of women in some jobs traditionally filled by males, differential work opportunity structures remain intact in the United States. The vast majority of women are segmented into relatively few occupations characterized by low earnings, low status, limited career mobility, poor working conditions, few fringe benefits, and little job security [44]. Categories of labor where women cluster: clerical work, retail sales, and service occupations, are both the fastest growing and the lowest paid [42]. Women, in general, earn 65% of the wage earned by men in comparable jobs, a relative rate that has remained constant for 50 years [45-48]. In the United States, women remain exorbitantly responsible for parental and household tasks regardless of their employment status [1, 10,49,50]. It has been said that, “Freedom to work is a dubious freedom when it means that women have little time to do anything else except paid work, unpaid domestic tasks, and child care” [51, p. 3971. Parental leave policy related to working mothers in general, and low income working mothers in particular, is at best ambiguous. The space of time alloted for pregnancy leave is quite variable, however it is alloted to female parents only and is often unpaid. Minimal support is provided for working women who must tend to emergencies or illnesses that involve family members; usually only personal sick days are provided [52]. Child care is an employment benefit enjoyed by very few female workers in the United States. Maternal status has been used by employers in the U.S. to discriminate against women workers in hiring and promotion practices for decades. In summary, no federal legislation regulates parental leave policy or specifically supports women workers in their integration of work, maternal, and spousal roles. Most of the research about how multiple roles affect women’s lives has focused on women in professional and managerial jobs. Knowledge is lacking about the multiple role experiences of working-class women who occupy the clerical, service, retail, and manual jobs where most U.S. women in the labor force are found [1,24]. Women in higher status jobs usually enjoy higher incomes, more job flexibility, and greater control over their work than those who work in clerical jobs, which may buffer any strains created by occupying multiple roles [Sl, 531. The study reported here attempts to give voice to women who occupy clerical jobs. By enhancing understanding about one of the central roles of employed working-class women, their role as mothers, the authors hope to provide policy makers, health care

Participants

Four service organizations located in a sizeable west coast metropolitan area in the U.S. served as sites for the interview study which was conducted in 1987. At each workplace, the designated official was contacted, the study explained, and permission obtained to conduct the study. A list of all secretaries and administrative assistants was obtained from each organization and a flyer was sent to each which explained the study, outlined the criteria for participation, and invited interested volunteers to return a card or telephone the primary investigator. To meet the criteria for inclusion, the women had to be employed as clerical workers and be mothers with children living at home. Approximately 100 flyers were mailed to clerical employees at each of the four sites. Eighty-seven women who responded were eligible and completed the study. It is not possible to determine a meaningful response rate because the total population who met the study criteria in each setting was not known. Parental status was deemed confidential by the workplace administrators. A research assistant met in person with each potential participant, obtained informed consent for participation in the study, and arranged an appointment for an interview. At one organizational site, interviews were conducted face-to-face, while in the other three sites they were done by telephone. In arranging for interview times, participants were encouraged to schedule the face-to-face or telephone interviews when it was most convenient for them, and when they would not be distracted or constrained by the presence of family members, coworkers, or conflicting responsibilities. Interviews were readily rescheduled when these conditions were not met. The mean age of the 87 participants was 37 years, with a range from 22 to 57 years. All the women had children. The mean number of children was two. Sixty-two percent of the participants were involved in spousal relationships at the time of the study. Half of the participants reported family incomes less than $25,000 per year. Thirty-two percent of the sample considered their income inadequate or barely adequate. The sample of 87 women was comprised of: 44% African-Americans, 24% Caucasians, 17% Latinas, and 15% Asians. Seventy-eight percent had at least some college education. Eighty-five percent were employed full-time. The average amount of time in their current jobs was 7 years. Instruments

This report is part of a larger study that investigated the qualitative aspects of clerical women’s roles and their health. Discussions of other study results related to occupational and spousal roles and health status are reported elsewhere [54-561. The data generated for this report were collected by using a structured interview guide designed by the primary investigator, called Women’s Roles

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Maternal role of clerical workers Interview Protocol (WRIP). Utilizing WRIP, the interviewer posed questions about role obligations, stresses, rewards, coping strategies, and resources, as well as perceived health status and illness episodes. Examples of interview questions related to this paper are presented in the Appendix. Each interview lasted from 30 to 60min. In addition, self administered questionnaires about demographic information and psychological well-being were completed by participants. Participants were paid $15 as a modest reimbursement for their time. Analysis All responses to the open-ended questions in the WRIP were analyzed using Ethnograph software. Ethnograph is a computer program designed to facilitate the processing of qualitative data analysis by organizing bodies of text by their codes, sorting and retrieving information, and permitting multilevel searches of codes by coding categories or other identifying features [57, 581. Code mapping was initially done utilizing a codebook designed by the primary investigator. The codebook evolved from an extensive reading of interview data across participants and a process of refining the codes which involved review of randomly generated interview excerpts by four independent coders. The initial code mapping was entered into Ethnograph. Using Ethnograph code searches, the codes were reanalyzed for reliability and validity by another analyst who compared each piece of data coded for a particular category with every other piece coded within that same category. The categories were clarified by delineating their properties, processes, antecedents, consequences, and the conditions under which they operate, as well as how they interrelate with other categories [59,60]. It was useful to count how often each category was reflected in participants’ responses to determine its relative strength of influence. Basic summary statistics such as percentages were then possible which aided in the qualitative interpretation [60]. Tables were constructed to represent the number (n) of participants who referred to each category in their interviews as well as the frequency (f) of responses related to each category. A response was defined as a statement, a set of statements, or a story that illustrated one idea. Participants who had at least one response related to a category were included in the n count for that category. Any one participant may have any number of responses that refer to a particular category. In other words, participants were considered the unit of analysis in the n count and the responses were the unit of analysis in the responses count. FINDINGS

Maternal

role satisfaction

The aspects of motherhood that provide pleasure and satisfaction for this sample of employed clerical workers are shown in Table 1. Of the total 141 responses related to maternal role satisfaction, the most frequently mentioned source of satisfaction was watching their children’s growth. Twenty-eight percent of the responses indicated a pride, pleasure, and

Table 1. Maternal role satisfaction IV = 87 Code

”

Children’s growth Nurturance Reciprocity Companionship Contentment Interaction

39 33 24 22 II 9 Total

RCSLNXlsM 39 35 24 22 II IO

Total responses (%) 28 25 17 16 8 7

141

sense of involvement in their children’s development and accomplishments. Several women described their greatest satisfactions as follows: Watching my children grow, learn, mature. They change so much, it amazes me. They become their own persons. It is a thrill to see the different phases. A sense of pride in what my daughter is accomplishing. Being able to say I created her and nobody can take her away. I watch them as they grow and become adults, knowing I raised them to the best of my ability. I feel like I am making some imprint on the next generation. Their success is my reward.

A quarter of the responses portrayed their enjoyment in providing nurturance. These mothers talked about finding a great deal of pleasure in taking care of their children and being responsible for them. As some women said: I guess you’d say I love to give love. I like being responsible for someone else. Having someone to love and care for and pay attention to gives me satisfaction.

Related to their satisfaction in providing love and care to their children, in 17% of the responses participants spoke about the importance of feeling loved by their children. Experiencing the reciprocity of affection and positive regard provided positive reinforcement within their mother role: A child is someone to love you in return, to show you compassion and respect. My greatest satisfaction is the free love from my daughter, unasked for. She just loves me because I am her mother. All the love you get back keeps you going. You learn from your children. All their appreciation and feedback helps you learn and improve yourself. In 16% of their responses the clerical women talked of liking the companionship of their children: 1 enjoy the fellowship I have with my children. We like doing things together and we have fun. My kids are little companions at social activities. I like being around my children and sharing in their experiences. Fewer answers simply stated a general contentment in being a mother or emphasized the explicit satisfaction of interacting with their children. One mother likened her child’s talk to a “kind of music.” Maternal

role stress

AS opposed to 141 responses related to maternal

role satisfaction, there were a total of 394 responses related to maternal role stress in the data (Table 2). It is quite possible that this discrepancy in the frequency of responses is due iti part to the greater

Pamrcta E.

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STEVENSand

Table 2. Maternal role stress N = 87

Total responses Code

”

Responses

(%)

worry

65 28 24 26 16 5

242 46 43 34 24 5

61 12 11 9 6

Total

iG

Strained relationships Overload Child care resources Financial burdens Unexpected events

1

emphasis on stress and coping in the WRIP questions. A greater intensity of affect accompanied their characterizations of stress. In describing the sources of their stress participants frequently referred to their occupational role as it competed for their time, effort, and energy. Sixty-one percent of the responses related to maternal role stress identified worry as one of the greatest adversities in raising children. In 242 particular responses which addressed the intensity, scope, and quality of specific worries, three quarters of the participants communicated a sense of being overwhelmed. As one women said, “Worrying about the present and future of my children and whether I have done everything I can just never ends.” The concept of worry emerged from the data as a persistent mental distress and nagging attention to anticipated situations involving one’s children. As one woman put it, “Worrying is anticipation of what could happen, not what does happen.” Three general types of worry preoccupied these working mothers. They were distressed about the environments in which they raised their children; they were anxious about their children’s competencies; and they doubted their parenting abilities. Related to the environment, participants expressed worry about their children’s safety in a ‘crimefilled’ and unpredictable world where children are endangered by potential molestation, kidnapping, and accidents. Many mothers perceived school and neighborhood environments as inviting their children’s participation in drug and alcohol use, drug dealing, theft, prostitution, fighting, and running away. Secondly, these clerical women worried about their children’s capabilities and chances for the future. They voiced concern about their children’s competenties in school and whether they would be willing and able to complete their educations. Some raised questions about the commensurability of the schools that their children attended. Participants were distressed regarding their children’s abilities to make decisions and choose friends. Given the power of peer pressure, they worried about whether their children would utilize appropriate judgement, choose the safest alternatives, and recognize the consequences of their actions. They were anxious about whether their children would choose the ‘right kind’ of associates who were law-abiding and respectful. They worried about their children’s health particularly related to teenage pregnancy and AIDS. Many were also plagued with a general worry about whether their children would lead good lives. Would their children be productive, competent, happy, responsible, moral, and wise people in adulthood?

AFAFIBRAHIM MELEE

The third type of worry emerging from the data had to do with the adequacy of their own parenting skills. Many of the mothers questioned their own abilities to meet the challenges of raising children. Their worries are demonstrated in the following responses: There are drugs everywhere. I take them to church to grow up to be fine Christian young people. I hope they get an education. I worry whether they will make right decisions. There are all those people out there who want to hurt and abuse children. I just want mine to be safe. I worry about all the pressure my kids are going to have. I hope they get good jobs. I worry about drugs. I want them to get an education and do anything they set their minds to do. I want them to have discipline. I’m concerned about peer pressure. I’m worried about their health. I worry about the things that happen to teenagers: drugs, alcohol, AIDS, sexual activity. Also their school performance has me worried. I try to tell them that school is important business. I want them to be self-sufficient, travel, have knowledge before they settle down. I want them to stay crime-free and to hopefully have a productive life. I’m afraid of making a mistake with my daughter. I wonder whether I am doing everything right, doing enough or too much. She may have problems that I won’t be able to help her with. Do I teach her the right things about life? I want to be a perfect mother. But I feel guilty for not being home all the time instead of working. I always think I should be doing more, spending more time, helping them more with school. I worry about whether I answer their questions right, whether I give too much advice. The responsibility of molding a good human being is awesome. I hope my mistakes won’t be detrimental. Strained relationships were difficulties reported by one third of the clerical women regarding their maternal role. Twelve percent of the responses about maternal stresses centered around strain in relating with children or other family members: I never know what to expect from my son. One moment he is real sweet, then he will turn around and kick and have tantrums and say no. I can’t do things fast enough for him. My middle son and I can’t communicate anymore. He disobeys and we can’t talk about it. It has changed over the last year. In the back of my mind I think it is drugs. The biggest stress as a mother is when the kids don’t listen to you and are stubborn and you have to scold them. When the kids were younger I had more control. As they get older I have to give them leeway, yet still set boundaries. It is difficult to know where one begins and the other ends. Sometimes we need more compromise. Having the baby really put a strain on my relationship with my husband. And I do not get along so well with my parents and my in-laws anymore. They are always giving me advice about taking care of the baby. Usually my parents suggest one thing and my in-laws tell me to do just the opposite. So I’m constantly arguing with them about it. In 11% of the stress responses, about a third of the women discussed role overload. They felt overloaded

because of an inordinant number of expectations they had to meet to accomplish child care and housework as well as attend to their employment outside the home. Overload occurred under conditions of excessive responsibilities coupled with inadequate time and energy, as their comments demonstrate: I have to cook, do errands, clean, grocery shop, visit my sick parents, comute to work and back, prepare my kid’s clothes and lunches for school everyday. My daughter can’t participate in activities after school. I can’t take her because

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Maternal role of clerical workers I’m at work, so I feel bad. I don’t have any time for myself. I can’t put aside time for just my husband and me. There is not enough time in the day. I have to be at two or three places at once. I can’t relax. I just don’t have enough time to put into mothering. I try to get everything done but with work too, it is impossible. As a single parent I have to play the role of both mother and father. Being a single parent is the hardest job I’ve ever had. There is no training. There are no great rewards. I just survive.

days if I have enough money to feed them and the baby-

maternal role overload in women who are employed in the labor force, participants were asked specifically about their energy level for parenting. Thirteen percent reported that parenting makes them feel energized and revitalized, whereas three times that many participants reported feeling drained and fatigued by parenting tasks. In their own words they described their experiences:

How do clerical women with children cope with the multiple stresses of motherhood? (Table 3). Twentytwo percent of the responses indicated that many reach an acceptance. They acknowledged the realities and assumed the responsibilities of their roles as mothers. However there seemed to be two distinct ways of accepting maternal role stresses. Some women were resigned to endure without protest what they perceived to be the inevitable circumstances of being a mother:

To gain

additional

insight

about

Being a mother makes me emotionally and physically tired. I get exhausted by the end of the day. I don’t have any energy left over. My day begins at 5 a.m. and ends at midnight. I am tired all the time. Being a working mother is so difficult. It drains me to nothing. Another stress prominent in the stories of these working women centered around child care resources, either their dissatisfaction with the adequacy of available child care or their difficulty arranging child care situations: My Mom takes care of my daughter, but I know it is hard on her because she is not in good health. I should find an alternative but that is hard to do. It is difficult to find adequate child care with a home-like atmosphere and individual attention. I find I am just not satisfied with day care. I’m afraid the day care center won’t pay proper attention if my daughter gets sick. To pay somebody to take care of her is too expensive. I wish I could alford a babysitter. I’m troubled by what I hear on the news about day care centers for children. It is frightening to think that you trust someone to care for your children’s needs and then they are neglected or abused in some way.

These mothers reported significant stress related to arranging child care for sick children when they were simultaneously responsible for reporting to work. Many spoke of work policies that did not allow them to deal with children’s illnesses in the most adequate fashion. They described feeling forced at some times to lie about why they needed time off. At other times they were unable to be absent. Many had experienced negative repercussions after missing work to care for sick children, such as docked pay, reprimands, and ridicule. Overwhelming financial burdens were a major source of stress for 16 of the 87 participants: Lack of money is the major issue that concerns me as a mother. My ex-husband doesn’t pay child support. So I don’t have enough to cover all the bills and my daughter’s needs. Rent is number one. It is so high we have to live with my parents. Also the price of cars is too much for me. Food is so expensive. I am talking about basic necessities here. I don’t want a ton of money, just enough to be comfortable so I don’t have to say no all the time to my daughter when she needs something. The children and I all have to live in a one bedroom apartment because that is all we can afford. I worry some

sitter. People at the store are our friends and they let me write checks and they hold them until my monthly pay comes in. Five of the 87 women talked about unexpected events such as serious illnesses or deaths in the family that disrupted life-as-usual and caused stress within their mother role. Maternal role coping strategies

I just do what I have to do. As it is, I have the load on my shoulders and it is not going to change. I am always tired but that’s just part of it. The other qualitatively different type of acceptance that emerged from the data was an optimistic acceptance whereby stressful situations of motherhood were viewed in a favorable light with anticipation of change and resolution: Sometimes the kids test you, but basically they are good. I have to find my own inner encouragement and remember that it is all an expected part of growing up. I try to put myself in my children’s positions at their ages in this time and place. It is more complicated now than when I grew up. If I handle things calmly and thoughtfully I know things will

change. Nineteen percent of the responses described a variety of problem-solving strategies participants used to cope. Their problem-solving activities reflected processes by which they considered alternatives and consequences, sought information and assistance, or took initiative for change: I read a lot and I talk to others about parenting. I try to come up with the best solutions. I utilize friends to refer me to places I can trust for child care. I attend seminars to learn how to deal with teenagers. I talk to doctors and I seek out other parents with children who have the same problems as mine. Sometimes I check with my mother because she knows how children behave. When specific probes were used to ask participants how they coped when a child was ill, their proficiency at problem-solving became more evident. Although Table 3. Maternal role coping strategies N = 87

Total responses Code

”

Responses

(%)

Acceptance Problem-solving Talking

31 27 30

41 36 35

22 19 19

Seeking

25

27

14

14

I5

8

Scheduling

I4

I4

7

Blame

II

II

self time

Emotional

Selective

release

attention

Food/substances

7 2 Total

iE

6 7

4

2

I

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PATRICIAE. STEVENSand AFAF IBRAHIMMELEIS

only 27 participants reported that they generally engage in problem-solving techniques, almost all described a complex set of maneuvering behaviors they use to deal with the special circumstance of a sick child when one is expected to report for a job. There was a wide consensus among participants about a fairly predictable process of juggling resources and alternative actions when a child is ill. A typical story demonstrates the rigorous set of activities that must be accomplished by a working mother. She judges the severity of her child’s symptoms and decides whether the child should be taken to a physician or not. She assesses if the child can attend school or if the babysitter or daycare personnel are willing to provide sick child care. If not, she calls upon her spouse, relatives, or friends to inquire regarding their ability to assist. If none of these alternatives are feasible, she decides whether she should stay home from work. Perhaps, rather than be absent from work, she could call home periodically throughout the day. If that is not the answer she must check whether she can take a vacation day, use her own sick time, take leave without pay, or be forced to find her own work replacement. Should she tell her boss that her child is ill? Will that result in reprimands or recriminations? These decisions must be made and all the tasks accomplished before 8 o’clock in the morning when she is expected at work. Nineteen percent of the responses indicated that these working mothers coped by talking. Most of them reported talking with their children about their role as mothers: My son and I talk. We say what we like and what we don’t like. I explain the reasons why I do things, like punishments, and try to make him understand. 1 talk with my kids openly. I tell them when I am upset. I praise them when things are going well. We give each other a chance to air our feelings. I listen to them. They listen to me.

This interpersonal contact, clarification of information, and sharing of experiences and feelings about being a mother, was pursued with spouses, other family members, or friends by fewer women: I talk to my friends about the troubles I am having with the kids. They can’t do anything, but talking it out helps. It is a comfort. Sometimes I get some advice. We’ll talk, my husband and me, about things that are bothering me as a mother, things he should think about. Seeking serf time as a diversion from stressful situations was another coping strategy these women utilized. They sought time alone with such activities as reading, watching television, driving the car, listening to music, doing aerobic exercise, shopping, or taking a walk. Sometimes they simply laid down for a nap or went off by themselves to think quietly. Other coping strategies were mentioned with less frequency in the course of the interviews. Some women reported that emotional release relieved stress. It helped them to cry, laugh, scream, argue, or pray. Others coped with stressful lives through structured scheduling. They planned ahead, kept calendars, made lists, wrote reminder notes, and established routines. A few participants were likely to blame themselves or others when stresses intruded upon their lives, while an even smaller number chose to

selectively attend to or ignore stress. Only 1% of the responses indicated that food, alcohol, or drugs were

used to cope with the problems experienced in raising children. Maternal role resources

What the women emphasized most in discussing maternal role resources was the tangible aid available to them for child care. (Table 4). Thirty-nine percent of the responses showed that these clerical workers depended a great deal on extended family members as resources for child care. Participants’ mothers, fathers, in-laws, and sisters provided child care while participants worked, took care of sick children when they were unable to attend school or day care, picked children up from school, and watched over them until their mothers got home from work. Thirty percent of the responses suggested that participants also depended heavily on nuclear family members, particularly older children, to assist them with child care. Some women said that their spouses shared in the care of the children, however half of the partnered participants reported an unequal distribution of domestic responsibilities in their spousal relationships. Of the 54 participants who were involved in spousal relationships, 25 said that their spouses were unresponsive to their requests for cooperation in the performance of parenting and household tasks. They perceived an injustice in their partners’ unwillingness to share in child care duties [56]. Twelve percent of the responses related to maternal role resources showed that neighbors and friends were counted on occasionally to help provide child care. Participants also identified child care services themselves as resources. Twelve percent of the responses indicated the importance of day care and 7% the use of babysitters. DISCUSSION

This sample of U.S. clerical workers characterize their happiness with motherhood in terms of watching their children grow, giving them love, receiving love in return, and companionship. They are proud and amazed at having ‘created* other developing human beings who carry part of their mothers with them as they grow to adulthood. This sense of achievement in motherhood continually blossoms in the accomplishments of the children, providing an ongoing source of pleasure and positive self esteem. The relational quality of their maternal satisfaction is apparent in the gratification they obtain from providing love and caring to their children and receiving unconditional regard from them in return. They enjoy the sense of togetherness and the verbal interaction that transpires in their relationships with their children. Table 4. Maternal role nSourceS N = 87 Code

n

RCSplSCS

Tangible aid From extended family From nuclear family From friends Daycare services Babysitter services

39 30 12 15 IO

60 45 18 18 II

Total

iz

Total rqonscs W) 39 30 12 12 7

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Maternal role of clerical workers Although women in clerical jobs appear to find many aspects of their maternal role satisfying, they identify multiple and pervasive stresses. Boundless worries, relationship strain, energy and time overload, child care problems, and economic difficulties make up the bulk of the stress specific to their mother role. These clerical women perceive that there are few reliefs from and no limits to their worry, strain, and overload. Half of those who are in spousal reiationships do not view their spouses as partners who share the responsibilities of child-rearing, nor do they perceive them as sources of tangible assistance with child care and household tasks. Experiences of this sort can have serious implications for health and well-being. Several investigations have found higher levels of illness among employed mothers particularly if they lack financial resources or if their spouses do not share equally in meeting parental and household responsibilities [5, 7, 11, 13, l&26,27]. The results of this study provide further support for previous research findings which indicate that motherhood is both a significantly satisfying aspect of employed women’s lives as well as a stress-producing role [4, 11,611. There is a precarious balance between the satisfactions and stresses inherent in women’s roles as mothers. This sentiment was expressed by Woods, “Although children provide women with satisfaction and happiness, their care almost exclusively is the concern of women, and sometimes competes with women’s needs to care for themselves” [62, p. 1151. Many of the coping strategies the women in this study use are solitary in nature. By accepting their difficulties, trying to maintain communication with their children, squeezing out a few moments for themselves, and crying or yelling once in a while they survive the stresses of motherhood in the best ways they know how. But active problem-solving is also a skill most of them utilize especially when juggling parental and occupational responsibilities. Advice and consolation are sought occasionally from other family members, friends, and experts, but most of the women do not identify emotional support and communication as readily available to them from other adults. These working mothers appear, at least sometimes, to struggle in isolation with the enormity of their stresses. Child care is a priority concern for working clerical mothers. Not only is child care a continuous activity for women during all the hours they are not at work, but it must be repeatedly arranged and rearranged for the hours employed women are at their jobs [63,64]. Previous research suggests that the presence of spouses or other family members who share child care and household management tasks eases maternal stress and results in fewer illness symptoms [31,33,65-67]. Half of the coupled participants in this study report that their spouses participate little in parental tasks which likely increases their vulnerability to energy diminishment and illness. But participants in general do depend extensively on extended family members, older children, day care services, and babysitters to provide child care so that they can maintain their jobs. These results suggest that clerical workers without tangible family resources for providing child care or adequate income to afford child care services are SSM 32/1*--n

at greater risk for role disintegration and poorer health outcomes. Caring for sick children seems to create particular stress for the clerical workers in this sample. The maneuverings required of these working mothers to arrange sick child care are staggering. Previous research has shown that working mothers take off anywhere from 6 to 29 days per employee annually to care for their sick children [68]. The monetary losses suffered by individual women and their employers are tremendous. The most economically vuinerable women: ethnic minority women, low income women, and single mothers, are particularly affected. These women lack job flexibility, finances, and/or social support structures to either take time off from work with each episode of a child’s illness, arrange for a relative or friend to stay with the child, or pay a babysitter to provide sick child care. CONCLUSION

While the research reported here focuses on the subjective motherhood experiences of one group of women employed as clerical workers in the United States, its findings have implications for social policy as well as intervention and future research about multiple roles and health. The complex realities of multiple role expectations, gratifications, and stresses for women who work at clerical jobs, raise children, and try to maintain homes and intimate relationships beg for creative social, political, and economic solutions. The traditional belief that child care and household management are the sole responsibilities of women has hindered the development of resources in the United States to meet the demands of women’s multiple roles. Workplace services such as child care, leave and benefits to accommodate sick family members, employer support for more active fatherhood roles, and wages that reflect comparable worth across gender are needed. Legislative action providing for child care and parental leave is important to reduce stress for working mothers, especially economically vulnerable women and single parents. Judging by the findings of the present study, health care providers, community organizers, and those concerned about women’s health issues have a responsibility to facilitate interactions which provide support to working mothers, either by augmenting their solitary ways of coping or by enhancing their social networks and tangible resources. They can assist working mothers in building social contacts and molding political solidarity. One potential intervention is bringing employed women together in consciousness-raising efforts. By collectivizing their experiences, women can share their struggles and their worries, relinquish their feelings of isolation, strategize together, and offer each other mutual emotional support. Group education at work sites can offer classes about children’s growth and development, assist mothers with problem-solving strategies, and inform them of community resources for child care and other services. Research from critical perspectives is needed to investigate environmental constraints within the structures of governments, workplaces, families, and communities which inhibit women in the healthy and

PATRICIAE. STEVENSand

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satisfying integration of work and family roles [69]. Potential negative health effects of mothering, spousal partnership, and employment are attributable not only to individual circumstances, but owe a great deal to the political and socioeconomic contexts in which women find themselves. Cross-national comparisons of the qualitative components of women’s multiple roles and investigations of the structural resources available to employed women with children in other countries could also assist U.S. policymakers in designing policies that meet the needs of employed women. Acknowledgemenrs-Research funded by the Occupational Health Surveillance and Evaluation Program, State of California, Department of Health Services. University of California, San Francisco Human and Environmental Protection Committee Approval Number 932327-01. The authors wish to acknowledge the research assistance of Margot Solomon and Lana Miller in data collection and the early collaboration of Jane S. Norbeck and Shirley C. Laffrey.

AFAF IBRAWM MELEIS

16. 17.

18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

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APPENDIX Women’s Roles Interview Protocol The Maternal Examples 1. What 2. What 3. What 4. What 5. What 6. What 7. What 8. What 9. What 10. How

of interview

questions

related

to the maternal

(WRIP)

Role

role

do you like most about being a mother? pleasures do you derive from being a mother? are the things that concern you about being a mother? causes stress for you as a mother? do you do to handle the stresses of being a mother? are some of the things that are most helpful for you in managing all of your mothering activities? are some of the things that make it difficult for you to manage all of your mothering activities? about child care? do you do when you have a sick child? does being a parent affect your energy level?