Work-family conflict of mompreneurs: challenges and solutions

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

 Introduction: The term "mompreneur," first introduced around 1994, refers to female entrepreneurs striving to balance the dual roles of motherhood and entrepreneurship. This concept has emerged as a significant trend in entrepreneurship, with an increasing number of women aspiring to be both good mothers and successful entrepreneurs. Despite the growing body of research, much remains unknown about mompreneurs in general, and even less is understood about their specific challenges related to work-family conflict (WFCM). Most existing studies focus on mompreneurs in Western and developed countries, leaving significant gaps in the understanding of this phenomenon in other contexts, such as Iran. Work-family conflict among mompreneurs is a context-specific issue that varies across countries. As a developing country in the Middle East, Iran differs significantly from developed Western nations in terms of cultural and social norms, business environments, and industrial structures. This paper aims to identify the most critical challenges faced by Iranian mompreneurs as they strive to balance work and family responsibilities and proposes potential solutions to address these challenges effectively.
Methodology: This research utilized a narrative approach, focusing on women entrepreneurs' perspectives on achieving a balance between work and family life. Purposeful sampling was employed to select participants, targeting women entrepreneurs with at least two children under the age of 12. Using a snowball recruitment technique, the study initially selected four mompreneurs, who were then asked to recommend additional potential participants. Theoretical saturation was achieved after thirteen interviews; however, the data collection process continued through a fourteenth interview to ensure comprehensiveness. Most interviews were conducted in participants' offices, while four were held via telephone. Data analysis followed the six-step thematic approach outlined by Braun and Clark (2006): 1) Familiarization with the Data: This step involved iterative cycles of reading and re-reading transcripts to become deeply acquainted with the data. 2) Coding: Data were systematically organized into meaningful units across two stages of coding. Each code captured a unique aspect of the dataset. 3) Theme Identification: Following the coding process, themes were developed to represent significant sections of the data. Each theme grouped similar and related codes, providing a foundation for categorization. 4) Theme Review: Themes were refined and evaluated for coherence, ensuring alignment with each other and with the overall dataset. 5) Theme Definition: Potential themes and sub-themes identified in the previous step were further clarified and redefined to enhance clarity and depth. 6) Writing Up: The final step involved producing a detailed report, which has been presented in this paper format.
Results and Discussion: All sub-themes and categories identified into three basic themes including WFCM concept, WFCM challenges and WFCM solutions. WFCM concept formed from four sub-theme: multiplicity of roles, stakeholder’s expectations, unequal division of tasks between couples and unpredicted conditions. As women have started entrepreneurship activities in increasing trend, dividing household and childcare tasks need for rearranged. In eastern cultures like Iran, women have recognized as a foundation and admin of family and relationship systems is classic. More than participants reported that even at vacation time, they were engaged tidying up the house, childcare and etc. without asking for help. When mompreneurs failing in work-family balance, tasks loading has been occurred and several challenges have appeared. Firs challenge is lack of time. Participants described that they didn’t have enough sleep and rest time and experienced exhaustion and tiredness feelings. These negative conditions create serious stress and in long-range may causes physical and mental problems. Mompreneurs further pointed that non‐cooperation from friends and family members especially husband also may create a worse challenge due to cultural context. All participants reported that between child and business, their selection is certainly child and family. Outcome of this selection is delay in developing activities and low growth of business. In other word, WFCM not only lead to personal challenges but also business consequences; however, mompreneurs are not powerless and apply diverse solutions to overcome challenges. In this research, several solutions recognized and categorized in four sub-themes: time management, emotional dynamics, business growth and caring moral and physical health.
Conclusion: This paper contributes to theoretical development of mompreneurs researches in three ways. First, it shows that problems and concerns of mompreneurs may be different than other women entrepreneurs and we encounter a complicated phenomenon. Second, mompreneurship is context-based and results so dependent on cultural and family differences; therefore, results of work-family conflict of Iran’ mompreneurs didn’t necessarily generalize to other Middle-East and Muslims countries due to different socio-cultural traditions and family relationships dynamics. Third, strength of the paper is applying narrative research as main method. This method appears to be uniquely well suited to detecting hidden reasons and evolving and complex nature of the mompreneurship. Narrative research provides an in-depth realization of mompreneurs experiences and help to scholars to personalize interpretations. From practical view, finding can assist to mental and physical heath of mompreneurs by introducing some solutions such as training life skills and increasing motherhood quality. Also, findings have indicated the importance of social networks to beat WFCM challenges. Supporting family members, finding work or financial partner and interaction with other mompreneurs are some solutions in line with social networks. In sum, we believe that this study will further our theoretical understanding of the dynamic processes involved in mompreneurship phenomenon. We also expect that our findings will assist mompreneurs to recognize and overcome challenges of WFCM and will present solutions that may exploited by practitioners.