Open AccessInvoluntary Childlessness at Work: Experiences of Emotion Work, Unfair Marginalization and Inadequacy
Author(s) -
Mika Mård
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nordic journal of working life studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.322
H-Index - 15
ISSN - 2245-0157
DOI - 10.18291/njwls.123623
Subject(s) - childlessness , conceptualization , psychology , work (physics) , social psychology , sociology , fertility , mechanical engineering , population , demography , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering
This article presents and analyzes experiences of involuntary childlessness at work and, through that, attempts to increase our understanding of emotional and silenced experiences in organizations. While primarily being an exploratory study with a purpose to get an initial glimpse into working life through involuntary childless individuals’ point of view, this article also engages with Arlie Hochschild’s (1979, 1983) conceptualization of emotion work to analyze experiences of involuntary childlessness at work. The empirical data used in this paper are mainly collected through an anonymous diary studies method in Finland, and thematically presented in this article in three segments where three categories of emotion work related to involuntary childlessness are analyzed and discussed. In addition to offering an initial glimpse of involuntary childlessness at work, this paper hence contributes with a demonstration and analysis of the multifaceted emotion work related to these experiences.