There are several limitations to this study. Specifically, I collected data from a small sample within a limited geographic area. Even if my sample is diverse in terms of race/ethnicity, type of work, age, class, etc., these findings are not generalizable. Nonetheless, even if generalizability is not possible, I sought to achieve internal validity, and tried to track whether the sample data are internally consistent (both within each interview and across interviews) (Creswell 2007). Secondly, at the time I conducted interviews, I assumed the role of “outsider within” (Hill Collins 2000). That is to say, I am a woman and a mother with children aged (almost) 8, 11 and 1312, and while I am
currently employed on a part time basis, I was not employed when my oldest children were younger than age 5. At that time, I was married to an employed partner which allowed me more free time to exercise regularly in order to “get my body back,” and focus on body projects of my own. Thus, there are aspects of my own identity and
12 These were my children’s ages during the time I conducted interviews. I now have
appearance that might place me in similar yet also different categories as the women I interview; this could adversely affect interviews at times but also provide me with an ability to analyze women’s lived experiences from both within and outside of their experiences. As Creswell (2007) suggests and as I propose above, I maintained a journal to bracket my thoughts during data collection and analysis. Despite these limitations, I feel that I did a good job at obtaining a diverse sample in terms of race and ethnicity, and job/workplace type (male/female dominated job/workplace).
This research project, as limited as it may be, will make several contributions to the field of feminist scholarship. Currently, research on working mothers focuses on the division of home and work, and the ways in which work life and home life spill into each other. Missing in the literature is research on career-oriented mothers’ appearance work experiences in the face of busy work/mom schedules. Also missing is research on how working mothers feel about and act towards their post baby maternal bodies in different settings, and how these women simultaneously resist and accommodate appearance norms at the same time. “Feminist theorists have long critiqued the exclusion of women’s subjecthood, ways of knowing, and experiences from the production of knowledge…” (Dworkin and Wachs 2009:31). Examining the subjective experiences of women utilizing feminist phenomenological methodology is a way to extend our understanding of women as social agents who are continuously acting and reacting to gendered beauty norms. Gaining an understanding of how working mothers with young children negotiate gendered appearance norms will not only contribute to the growing body of literature, but also give a voice to a group of women who are often overlooked by researchers. Judith Butler remarks, “on the surface it appears that phenomenology shares
with feminist analysis a commitment to grounding theory in lived experience, and in revealing the way in which the world is produced through the constituting acts of subjective experience” (1988: 523).
CONCLUSION
This study explores the ways in which working mothers with young children experience a third shift of appearance work while working for pay and also caring for others. This study also seeks to better understand the impact of appearance norms on busy working mothers, and how working mothers feel about and act toward their bodies. Up until now, feminist literature in the areas of motherhood and paid work has focused on the ways in which working mothers balance the hectic schedules and responsibilities of paid work with the obligations that exist at home. This research will fill the gap that exists by exploring how working mothers with young children, think about and experience their bodies in relation to appearance norms, and the strategies they use to cope with both mandated appearance and mandated motherhood while simultaneously managing paid work. Ultimately I hope to understand more about how women resist and accommodate these norms and responsibilities and fit themselves into their busy schedules.
In the chapter that follows, (Chapter Five), I describe career-oriented women’s appearance work experiences. I focus on their appearance work routines; both on days they are at work, and days they are at home. I also explore the meanings women attach to this appearance work, and the relationships between the kinds of appearance work they do. In Chapter Six, I explore how women’s appearance work experiences reveal a struggle between resistance and accommodation as they respond to paid work appearance
norms, motherhood norms, and appearance norms. In Chapter Seven, I focus on the ways in which women’s appearance work experiences, and attitudes about appearance work are mediated by their identities as “career-oriented” women, reference groups (i.e., other women generally, female family members, and friends – both other moms, and childfree women), by race/ethnicity, by the transition to motherhood, and finally by organizational structure. Chapter Eight is a final conclusions chapter, in which I focus on the research findings as a whole and tie these findings to related literature. I also review the limitations of this study, and offer ideas for future directions this research might take.