The Articulation of Different Life Domains among Female Senior Managers and Their Subjective Well-Being: Focusing on Meaning Constructions in Everyday

María Del Río Carral

doi:10.5539/ijps.v7n3p157

Abstract

Work-life issues have become a major concern across Western societies with the objective to promote women’s careers and well-being. However, despite growing attempts to increase the number of women in senior management positions in European countries, such as Switzerland, they remain highly underrepresented. Inspired from the cultural approach in psychology, this article focuses on these women’s concrete everyday life to understand how they articulate different life domains and how this influences their subjective well-being. A narrative approach based on reflexivity is adopted to analyze women’s activity. Results show meaning intertwinements between life priorities that are often conflicting. Two psychological functions are identified: the feeling of control and the letting go of control. Each of these contributes to women’s subjective well-being through the use of diversified supports, but their structuring roles appear only in relation to one another. Results are discussed in the light of existing literature and of their implications.

Highlights

In recent decades, important transformations in Western societies have entailed fundamental consequences in regard to the organization of work and life, considered as articulated universes
Previous research on the articulation of different life domains has widely explored this phenomenon from a macro-level interest in gender and family policies within organizations, as well as at individual level, geared toward the dominant use of standardized instruments to assess stress and subjective well-being (Allis & O’Driscoll, 2008; Brough, O’Driscoll, & Kalliath, 2005; Casper, Eby, Bordeaux, Lockwood, & Lambert, 2007; Eby et al, 2005)
I have raised this issue by focusing on the concrete daily life of female senior managers working in high responsibility jobs

Summary

Introduction

Important transformations in Western societies have entailed fundamental consequences in regard to the organization of work and life, considered as articulated universes. Among these changes, there has been a rapid growth of women’s involvement in the labor market and the subsequent urge for gender equity (Acker, 2006; Campbell Clark, 2000; European Commission, 2010, 2014; Lewis & Cooper, 1999, West & Zimmerman, 1987). New modes of work built around projects and networking have emerged. While these modes have brought more autonomy and flexibility in the organization of work duties and responsibilities, they are very demanding because of their strong focus on productivity, efficacy and individualization (Boltanski & Chiapello, 1999)

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Conclusion