Challenges of Balancing Career and Motherhood: A Qualitative Study of Female Academicians working in Higher Education

Abstract

This study aims to qualitatively analyze female academics’ challenges of balancing career and motherhood. The research findings revealed that female academicians face work-family conflict. Normative images of motherhood do not relax women from the responsibilities of multidimensional tasks of children and household. It was also shown that due to the collectivistic context, female academics get help from colleagues, in-laws, and the workplace in the form of social support and relaxation in working hours. The study further revealed that mothers face mental exhaustion and sleeplessness in their struggle to balance work and family life. Enrollment in any higher study program has a defining role in the fabrication of work intensification and reducing time for concerns of personal and social life. To cope with these entire situations, they try to work harder and longer and exchange career advice through colleague networks.