Pursuing work-life balance: A study of Sri Lankan mumpreneurs

Abstract

This article attempts to identify the strategies women entrepreneurs use to balance their work and family life through an analysis of the daily lives of a subgroup of women entrepreneurs called ‘mumpreneurs’ – defined as women who tailor a business that is suitable for (i.e., does not interfere with) their primary role as caregiver to their children, with the objective of achieving worklife balance (Ekinsmyth, 2011). Research participants were selected from a middle-class demographic because the class background of the entrepreneur is a central analytical category in this study; what differentiates the mumpreneur is her practice of ‘intensive mothering’ as a middle-class mother, which compels her to live a lifestyle that is spatially and temporally restricted as it revolves around her maternal and household responsibilities (Ekinsmyth, 2014). This article interrogates how mumpreneurs attempt to balance their dual (and competing) demands as mother and entrepreneur by exploring their household and business practices. In-depth semi-structured interviews with fifteen respondents indicate that mumpreneurs balance their dual societal roles by (1) prioritizing motherhood over entrepreneurship, (2) designing businesses that are small, flexible and resistant to growth, and (3) managing their double burden by outsourcing their care and domestic responsibilities to working class women and men employed in their homes.