The Experience and Challenges of Mothers in Leadership Position in Caring for their Children: the Case of Burayu Town Administration.
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Date
2023-07-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study aimed at the experiences and challenges of mothers in leadership positions in caring
for their children. A qualitative research method was employed to study the experiences and
challenges mothers in leadership positions faced in their life journeys. In-depth semi-structured
interview questions were conducted with six mothers in leadership positions and two FGD
sessions were conducted with about ten purposively selected mothers based on the selection
criteria. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The collected data was
carefully transcribed; repeatedly reading the transcribed data, carefully coded, organized, and
emerged themes were presented in the finding. The key findings of the study were mothers feel
happy for being mothers and they believe that God blessed them to give birth to continue the
generation. They sacrifice to meet the basic needs of their children as well as to be successful in
their leadership. Mothers in leadership positions face a unique set of challenges that can make it
difficult to manage their personal and professional responsibilities. Long working hours, weak
support systems, and lack of effective self-care were identified as the major challenges mothers
faced in the course of performing family career and leadership responsibilities. To overcome the
demanding nature of balancing multiple responsibilities, mothers employed different coping
mechanisms. These coping mechanisms are sharing their feelings with their family, seeking
support from their family and coworkers, working long hours during night time, Spending most
of their time for self-care, sleeping, and leisure on child care, house courses, carrier, and
leadership responsibilities. It also found that a support system is considered an important
resource for mothers in leadership positions to better fulfill their leadership responsibilities.
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Keywords
Work life balance, experiences, challenging, support system, family career.