Identity and the transition to motherhood: Navigating existing, temporary, and anticipatory identities

Abstract

Over the past two decades, there has been extensive research across diverse disciplines exploring the treatment of pregnant women in the work context (Gatrell in Human Relations 1—24, 2013). One of the most significant challenges women experience during pregnancy relates to their ability to manage their evolving sense of self as work and motherhood intersect—often for the first time. Pregnant working women are undergoing an identity transition that relates to three distinct, and often conflicting, identities: their existing professional identity, their emerging mothering identity, and their temporary pregnancy identity. In this book chapter, we engage an identity based perspective to explore this transitional period of pregnancy for working women and how women engage in identity work as they manage the tension between who they are, who they want to be, and who their organizations want them to be. When women are able to successfully navigate this identity transition and establish a strong vision of their future self as a working mother, they are more likely to stay engaged and committed to their professions and be more satisfied at work and at home.