Maternal Body work: How Women Managers and professionals negotiate pregnancy and new motherhood at work

People, Work and Organisation

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https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712467380
Final published version

Keywords

abjection, employed mothers, marginalization, maternal body work, pregnancy, women managers, work and family

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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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Maternal Body work: How Women Managers and professionals negotiate pregnancy and new motherhood at work. / Gatrell, C J.

In: Human Relations, Vol. 66, No. 5, 2013, p. 621-644.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Bibtex

@article{7b67144cc6184d519b8e9896e56b9bec,

title = "Maternal Body work: How Women Managers and professionals negotiate pregnancy and new motherhood at work",

abstract = "This article builds on the theorizing of body work through introducing a new concept: {\textquoteleft}maternal body work{\textquoteright}. In so doing, it shows how progress towards a feminist politics of motherhood within organizations remains limited. Despite decades of feminist scholarship, dissonances remain between the private worlds of reproduction and public worlds of organization. With regard to this limited progress, the article reveals how, among a sample of 27 mothers (all professionally and managerially employed in the UK), 22 felt marginalized and undervalued at work, experiencing the borders between maternity and organization as unmalleable. By contrast, five women treated borders between reproduction and organization as more fluid than anticipated. Setting a high value on their skills, they developed strategies for parrying unfavourable revisions of their status. The article concludes by considering the potential development of resources for enhancing maternal coping strategies.",

keywords = "abjection, employed mothers, marginalization, maternal body work, pregnancy, women managers, work and family",

author = "Gatrell, {C J}",

year = "2013",

doi = "10.1177/0018726712467380",

language = "English",

volume = "66",

pages = "621--644",

journal = "Human Relations",

issn = "0018-7267",

publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",

number = "5",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Maternal Body work: How Women Managers and professionals negotiate pregnancy and new motherhood at work

AU - Gatrell, C J

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - This article builds on the theorizing of body work through introducing a new concept: ‘maternal body work’. In so doing, it shows how progress towards a feminist politics of motherhood within organizations remains limited. Despite decades of feminist scholarship, dissonances remain between the private worlds of reproduction and public worlds of organization. With regard to this limited progress, the article reveals how, among a sample of 27 mothers (all professionally and managerially employed in the UK), 22 felt marginalized and undervalued at work, experiencing the borders between maternity and organization as unmalleable. By contrast, five women treated borders between reproduction and organization as more fluid than anticipated. Setting a high value on their skills, they developed strategies for parrying unfavourable revisions of their status. The article concludes by considering the potential development of resources for enhancing maternal coping strategies.

AB - This article builds on the theorizing of body work through introducing a new concept: ‘maternal body work’. In so doing, it shows how progress towards a feminist politics of motherhood within organizations remains limited. Despite decades of feminist scholarship, dissonances remain between the private worlds of reproduction and public worlds of organization. With regard to this limited progress, the article reveals how, among a sample of 27 mothers (all professionally and managerially employed in the UK), 22 felt marginalized and undervalued at work, experiencing the borders between maternity and organization as unmalleable. By contrast, five women treated borders between reproduction and organization as more fluid than anticipated. Setting a high value on their skills, they developed strategies for parrying unfavourable revisions of their status. The article concludes by considering the potential development of resources for enhancing maternal coping strategies.

KW - abjection

KW - employed mothers

KW - marginalization

KW - maternal body work

KW - pregnancy

KW - women managers

KW - work and family

U2 - 10.1177/0018726712467380

DO - 10.1177/0018726712467380

M3 - Journal article

VL - 66

SP - 621

EP - 644

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

SN - 0018-7267

IS - 5

ER -

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