Women managers’ professional career versus motherhood

Purpose: The aim of the article is to get to know female senior managers’ beliefs and experiences about combining their professional career with motherhood. Methodology: A narrative analysis of the literature and a diagnostic survey (tool – survey questionnaire) were used. The selection of the studied sample was deliberate. The respondents were only women occupying high managerial positions (157 people). The following research problem was formulated: how do women in high managerial positions perceive the influence of their professional career on their motherhood? The problem was detailed in the form of research questions: 1. To what extent did the professional career of the surveyed women managers influence their decision to become a mother? 2. What psycho-social costs resulting from combining professional and family roles were incurred by the surveyed women? Findings: Female managers are statistically more likely to postpone the decision to become a mother and declare that they will not have children compared to women who pursue a different career path. The vast majority of them experience a sense of guilt due to the lack of time for their children and believe that they have "missed" important developmental moments in their child's life. Female managers participating in the study experience a strong role conflict (the role of the manager versus the role of the mother). They are aware of the high emotional and health costs resulting from combining the social roles of a mother and a manager. Most of their career goals remain unchanged after the baby is born. Research limitations/implications: The obtained research results are treated as pilot ones. The complete achievement of the research goal requires continuation of the research on a larger sample of female respondents, as well as the use of comparative analysis methods, e.g. comparing the results of the research among female managers with the results obtained in other professional groups or among men. Practical implications: The results of the research can be used to improve the policy of equality between women and men in organizations and to create a pro-family policy of enterprises. Social implications: The article contains research results that help to understand better the childfree phenomenon in specific professional groups, and thus to diagnose various social attitudes towards combining career and motherhood. Originality/value: this is the first study of this type conducted on the population of top female managers in Poland.