The role of identity integration for the career commitment and managerial aspirations of first-time mothers: Examining antecedents, mechanisms, and moderators

The influx of women into professional careers in the last four decades represents a move toward a more egalitarian society. However, the underrepresentation of women at senior management levels indicates the next frontier in achieving a more egalitarian workplace. Although previous research has suggested that women’s dual-identity concerns as mothers and professionals may contribute to them ‘opting out’ of management roles, it offers little explanation for how the relationship between these two identities influences women’s career attitudes. Using a cross-domain identity transition framework and an intrapersonal identity network approach, this study examines whether and how women’s identity integration following motherhood influences their career commitment and managerial aspirations. Specifically, I investigate how first-time mothers’ maternal-professional identity integration affects their career attitudes via identity enhancement and identity conflict. I also examine in depth whether the length of the maternity leave that new mothers take serves as a temporal resource that affects working mothers’ identity integration. I also consider the influences of support from both family and workplace others. I developed an identity integration scale for this study. I tested the hypothesized research model using 280 working first-time mothers’ responses that I collected via a two-wave longitudinal survey. The results of path analyses show that identity integration can predict first-time mothers’ career commitment and managerial aspirations. In addition, identity integration positively affects identity enhancement and negatively affects identity conflict between the dual identities. However, identity enhancement and conflict do not mediate the relationship between identity integration and career attitudes. Maternity leave length does not directly affect mothers’ identity integration. Instead, it strengthens the positive effects of family and workplace others’ support on identity integration. I also discuss several theoretical and practical implications of this research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Res & Industrial Rels

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Yun Kyoung

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kramer, Amit
• Cardador, Maria T
• Newman, Daniel A
• Loyd, Denise

• working mothers
• identity integration
• career commitment
• managerial aspirations
• maternity leave

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Yun-Kyoung Kim

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108265

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108265