The lived experience of working mothers

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to gain an in depth understanding of the experience of being a working mother, with special attention given to exploring the struggles working mother's face to find a balance between their career and family. To gain insight on this experience, five interviews were conducted with five different working mothers all of whom worked full-time and whose children were under the age of sixteen. The essence of this experience was extracted from the interviews by making use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Salient themes were brought out from all the interviews; the ones that I thought well captured the true essence of this experience. Limitations and suggestions for future research regarding this topic are also discussed towards the end of this study.