Retaining professionally employed new mothers: The importance of maternal confidence and workplace support to their intent to stay

• Author: Beth K. Humberd,Kimberly A. Eddleston,Jamie J. Ladge
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21889
• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Date: 01 July 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Retaining professionally employed new mothers:

The importance of maternal confidence and workplace

support to their intent to stay

Jamie J. Ladge

1

| Beth K. Humberd

2

| Kimberly A. Eddleston

1

1

Northeastern University, Boston, MA

2

University of Massachusetts Lowell,

Lowell, MA

Correspondence

Jamie J. Ladge, D'Amore-McKim School of

Business, Northeastern University,

112 Hayden Hall, Boston, MA 02115.

Email: j.ladge@neu.edu

In this multimethod study, we explore why some new mothers may “opt out”of the workforce

while others stay after the birth of their first child. Findings from a qualitative study of 40 pro-

fessionally employed new mothers revealed the importance of maternal confidence, managerial

support, and work hours to their experience of work–family conflict (WFC) and subsequent

intent to stay with their organization. We tested these relationships in a follow-up survey-

based study of 802 professionally employed first-time mothers and found that the relationship

between maternal confidence and intent to stay is mediated by WFC, suggesting that WFC

acts as an important cross-domain mechanism that links confidence in a nonwork role to

women's intent to stay with their organization. We also found that for women who work full-

time, those who lack maternal confidence experience significantly greater WFC than those with

strong maternal confidence. While we did not find support for managerial support as a modera-

tor in the quantitative study, our analysis revealed that it directly affects WFC and intent to

stay. To increase professionally employed new mothers’intent to stay with their organization,

our study therefore emphasizes the importance of nurturing maternal confidence and encour-

aging managers to display support for working parents.

KEYWORDS

intent to stay, maternal confidence, work-family conflict, working mothers

1|INTRODUCTION

Although women have made great strides in gaining management

and professional positions over the past decades (Bureau of Labor

Statistics, 2016; Powell, 2011), their careers tend to stagnate and

they are more likely to leave their organizations than their male coun-

terparts (Hewlett & Luce, 2005; Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005, 2006;

Stone, 2007). Studies comparing the careers of managerial and pro-

fessional men and women (hereafter referred to simply as profes-

sional) often cite family demands as a key reason for their career

disparities (Eagly & Karau, 2002; Stroh, Brett, & Reilly, 1992). The

decision to have a child and the accompanying maternity leave can

be particularly harmful to a professional woman's career (Powell,

2011; Wilde, Batchelder, & Ellwood, 2010). For example, women

who take a one-year leave to care for an infant will lose 20% of their

lifetime earnings (O'Kelly, 2013) and professional women often report

that their career opportunities diminished after returning to work

post–maternity leave (Gatrell, 2013). However, it is not just women's

careers that incur costs after childbirth; their organizations also pay if

they do not effectively support female employees in their transition

to motherhood (Gatrell, 2011, 2013; O'Kelly, 2013). The associated

costs of replacing professionally employed individuals due to turnover

range from 100% to 300% of their base salary (Ruyle, 2012). Others

have estimated that it costs a firm between $80,000 and $120,000 in

lost productivity and recruitment expenses when a woman leaves her

organization (“How Companies Are Working,”2015; Nayyar, 2006).

Therefore, for organizations to retain professionally employed women

and support their career progression amidst motherhood, we need to

understand how the experience of becoming a mother and returning

to work affects their career decisions.

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21889

Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:883–900. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 883

While some research has investigated the employers’commitment

to new mothers (Acker, 2003; Desai & Waite, 1991; Gatrell, 2007),

we know surprisingly little about how the experience of becoming a

mother and returning to work, a significant transition in a professional

woman's career, impacts their decision to stay or leave their organiza-

tion. Previous research reveals that negative perceptions often exist

surrounding working mothers’dedication to their work and families

(Correll, Benard, & Paik, 2007; Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2004; Gatrell,

2013), with professionally employed women feeling that their

coworkers see them as less committed to their career after they

become mothers (Gatrell, 2013). Some women feel pressure not to

talk about their new baby or motherhood at work (Gatrell, 2013) and

perceive biases and disapproval from their organization, which trig-

gers insecurities about their roles as mothers and professionals

(Ladge & Greenberg, 2015). Research suggests that feelings of inse-

curity as a parent and questions about one's identity begin during

pregnancy (Hennekam, 2016; Ladge, Clair, & Greenberg, 2012; Little,

Major, Hinojosa, & Nelson, 2015) and intensify through maternity

leave and reentry (Buzzanell et al., 2005; Ladge & Greenberg, 2015),

suggesting that a new mother’s ability to gain confidence in her par-

enting role may be a key factor in her decision to leave or stay with

her organization. As they return to work and start to navigate their

career as a working mother, they may therefore begin to ask them-

selves, “Am I a good mother?”This question reflects a mother’s

maternal confidence, which we define as a mother’s perception of

her ability to care for and meet the needs of her child.

Accordingly, the purpose of our study is to gain insight on how

professionally employed women's new role as a mother influences

their career choices and, specifically, their intent to stay with their

organization. We focus on professionals since articles in the academic

and popular press have lamented over the apparent rise in turnover

of this group of women despite having achieved significant career

accomplishments (Fondas, 2013; Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005, 2006;

Schulte, 2013; Stone, 2007). Our work builds on recent research that

suggests that such women engage in intense self-scrutiny when

returning to work after the birth of a child (Ladge & Greenberg,

2015), with many struggling to gain a sense of confidence in their

new role as a parent (Buzzanell et al., 2005; Gatrell, 2013; Ladge &

Greenberg, 2015). We consider how these intrapersonal experiences

may shed light on new mothers’work–family conflict (WFC) and sub-

sequent intent to stay with their organization after childbirth. Such a

focus is important, given that for women in the United States, a typi-

cal maternity leave is just 12 weeks, leaving most mothers little time

to build confidence in their new role and to be at greater risk of

developing postpartum anxiety (Field, 2017; Mercer, 2004). Findings

from our multimethod study reveal that maternal confidence is highly

salient for new mothers as they begin the process of navigating work

and family demands. As such, our study also contributes to research

on WFC by expanding its nomological net to include maternal confi-

dence and demonstrating the importance of cross-domain effects to

understanding the work–family interface.

We empirically examine the experiences of professionally

employed new mothers returning to work via a multimethod research

design, in which we first conducted a qualitative study to improve

our understanding of the phenomenon and, second, conducted

survey-based research that allowed us to test quantifiable relation-

ships and determine their prevalence and generalizability

(Eddleston & Mulki, 2017). In the first study, we performed explor-

atory qualitative interviews that sought to capture professionally

employed new mothers’experiences during their return to work.

While previous studies focus on sources of WFC related to time,

behavior, and strain (i.e., work responsibilities, family responsibilities),

our interviews revealed that a key source of WFC for the participants

was more internal; that is, a lack of confidence as a mother appeared

to be a significant discerning factor that distinguished those women

who were more effective at handling work and family demands from

those who were not. These qualitative findings led us to generate

hypotheses about the relationships between new mothers’maternal

confidence, WFC, and intent to stay, which were tested via a survey

of 802 first-time mothers who had recently returned to their profes-

sional roles. We also explored how feeling supported at work by

one's manager and access to a reduced workload play a role in under-

standing these relationships. The inclusion of perceived manager sup-

port and full-time versus part-time work hours is in line with previous

research that has shown these factors to significantly influence WFC

and intent to stay (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992; Netemeyer,

Boles, & McMurrian, 1996; Martins, Eddleston, & Veiga, 2002;

Wayne, Casper, Matthews, & Allen, 2013).

Our research makes several important contributions to research

on women's careers and theory on the cross-domain effects of non-

work roles on work roles. First, as research continues to seek expla-

nations for women's lack of representation in leadership positions, it

is important to understand all critical juncture points, personal and

professional, at which women may face obstacles to leadership

and/or make decisions that derail their career progression (Kossek,

Su & Wu, 2017). If we fail to understand why some professionally

employed women decide to leave their organizations after having

children, we may continue to see women underrepresented in the

executive ranks and, for those who stay, struggle to fully gain their

commitment. By providing insight into how the return to work after

becoming a new mother challenges women's sense of maternal confi-

dence and has implications for their work decisions, we answer calls

for more research exploring how women's careers may be con-

strained (Kossek, et al., 2017).

Second, our findings extend previous research that has primarily

focused on work and family responsibilities and demands, suggesting

that a decrease in these responsibilities and demands would lessen

WFC. Rather, our research reveals that confidence as a parent con-

tributes to WFC, suggesting that sources of WFC are also intraper-

sonal in nature. When women think they are good mothers, our

study suggests that they are more likely to feel that they can manage

work and family demands. Our findings further highlight how WFC

research needs to go beyond thinking of sources of WFC as related

to tangible work and family demands associated with time-, strain-,

and behavior-based responsibilities, to consider sources of conflict

within oneself that can make an individual feel emotionally and psy-

chologically unable to fulfill competing work and family demands.

Finally, our research makes an important theoretical contribution

to the growing interest in the cross-domain effects that can arise

when changes to a nonwork role impact an individual’s work-related

884 LADGE ET AL.