Female Master students’ perceptions of
Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In
Gender essentialism and the
combination of professional and private life for women
Alina Gales 10841725 Master thesis
Graduate School of Communication
Master’s programme Communication Science Prof. Dr. Eugène Loos
Abstract
Young women who are about to enter the workforce face the struggle of combining their desire to start a family with the obligation of pursuing a career due to their university education. In this Master thesis, fifteen Dutch female Master students of Communication Science are interviewed within personal in depth interviews that are analyzed within the grounded theory approach. With asking “What are female master students’ perceptions of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In?” the relevance of gender essentialism is extended and analyzed. Furthermore, the practical
significance of the Lean In movement particularly and the perceived importance of the struggles by female master students in general are discussed. These women perceive various problems when graduating, such as finding a job that makes them happy and fulfills their expectations on work. Moreover, they want their own family sooner or later and perceive complications of combining professional and private life, from external societal pressures but also from internal expectations they share. Where gender essentialism still holds true for some evaluations, the women also share the individual perspective stating that it is generally up to women themselves what kind of path they choose for their life. Furthermore, it is the personality that should matter when judging someone’s competence and not their gender. Media campaign developer and communication scientists can make use of this thesis to spread campaigns addressing young women’s needs in order to raise awareness among economy and politics that need these women’s competences.
Introduction
We also have another problem, which is that women face harder choices between professional success and personal fulfillment….
Because what the data shows, above all else, is one thing, which is that
success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women (Sandberg, 2010, 1:19–7:35 min.)
With this quote, Sheryl Sandberg sparked the rise of Lean In with her now famous TED Talk “Why we have too few women leaders”. The original TED Talk was given in December 2010 and has since garnered over 6.5 million people to date (TED 2015a, 2015b).
She is included in the top 10 of “The Most Powerful Women in Business” by Fortune (Fortune, 2015) and “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes (Forbes, 2015) and is titled a “Titan” being listed in the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time (Steinem, 2013). Part of Sandberg’s notoriety has to do with her position as COO of Facebook, but a lot also traces back to the success of Lean In and the media sensation that followed (Rottenberg, 2014).
Her expansive influence can be seen with the rise of famous women who have since been speaking out about gender segregation:
In 2012, the producer and actress Lena Dunham started with the HBO series Girls showing “rawness and irreverence” (Malle, 2012, p. 560) of young women’s struggles which made her the voice of her generation (Malle, 2012). Dunham quotes Sheryl Sandberg as one of the ten women that changed her life by giving “women a constructive guide for pushing feminism into the work space” (Dunham, 2015, p. 205).
One of the world’s most famous pop stars, Beyoncé released in 2013 the song ***Flawless quoting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDxEuston talk about feminism (Bury, 2013). Soon after, Beyoncé joined Sheryl Sandberg on her “ban bossy” campaign stating: “I’m not bossy. I am the boss.” (Wirthman, 2014).
Emma Watson launched the HeForShe campaign by the United Nations in September 2014 by giving a speech about gender equality that created a media buzz and appointed her as one of
Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2015 (Abramson, 2015).
With such recent public support, it seems that feminism is a highly relevant issue. What all these women have in common is that they openly and publicly address the need for gender equality, just like Sheryl Sandberg does, and calling themselves feminists (Burdon, 2014).
Through this response, there is evidence of a societal problem that women worldwide struggle with the challenge of successfully combining their roles in the workforce and their private life. What needs to be communicated to address these problems and change them? Just like Sheryl Sandberg asks: “What are the messages we need to tell ourselves? What are the messages we tell the women that work with and for us? What are the messages we tell our daughters?” (Sandberg, 2010, 3:16–3:23 min.).
The purpose of this Master thesis is to find out what Dutch female Master students who are about to enter the workforce, perceive of this societal issue. Fifteen Dutch female Master students of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam will be thoroughly
interviewed about the conjunction of success and likeability, feeling unworthy of recognition at work and the combination of family and professional life, with all these topics coming from Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In – Women, Work and the Will to Lead. Interviewing Master students is of scientific relevance as “student career plans seem particularly suitable for
evaluating cultural theories as adolescent occupational preferences are more likely to be shaped by culture than university participation or employment, which depend more directly on
opportunity structures” (Sikora & Pokropek, 2012, p. 235). The research design for this Master thesis consists of qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews. The foundation for analysis builds on the grounded theory approach by Charmaz because here, theoretical sampling takes place after the research idea is clear and concepts already found can be compared to emerging categories (Charmaz, 1990). While analyzing, open and selective coding are applied (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014). The concept indicator model (see Appendix I), consisting of categories bundled to families, gives an overview of the results (Charmaz, 1990).
This Master thesis questions assumptions of gender essentialism stating that women’s challenges result in their gender instead of being forced upon them by culture and environment through pressure and expectations (Heilmann, 2011). By asking “What are female Master students’ perceptions of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In?” the relevance of gender essentialism (Heilmann, 2011) is extended and analyzed. Furthermore, the practical significance of the Lean
In movement in particular and the perceived importance of the struggles by female Master
students in general are discussed. If the economy and politics do not want to miss out on highly educated women as potential competent employees and future nurturer, communication
communication scientists who want to create a more comfortable and improved societal
environment for women at work and at home can make use of the insights this Master thesis will offer.
In the following chapters, a literature review on gender essentialism in connection to the relevant Lean In messages will be presented, followed by a detailed explanation of how the methodology of grounded theory by Charmaz (1990) has been used. After elucidating the results, a discussion of the data analysis is presented together with future research ideas and implications of this Master thesis.
Literature Review
Lean InLean In not only describes the name of the best-selling book by Sheryl Sandberg but also the
movement for women’s equality in the workplace that has spread internationally. The book, Lean
In – Women, Work and the Will to Lead, was published in March 2013 (Donahue, 2013), sold
more than 1.75 million copies so far and has been translated into 36 languages (Noveck, 2014). An extended version titled Lean In for Graduates came out in April 2014 (Swartz, 2014) with the original content plus additional hands-on chapters to guide when entering the working life
(Sandberg, 2014).
The book is a “self-declared feminist manifesto” (Rottenberg, 2014, p. 419) and gives advice to women on how to improve their situation at home, in their relationship and especially at work with Sandberg sharing her own experiences (Hurst, 2013). It contains ten messages that ought to encourage women to lean in at work and go for it: Sit at the Table; Success and Likeability; It’s a Jungle Gym, not a Ladder; Are You My Mentor?; Seek and Speak Your Truth; Don’t Leave Before You Leave; Make Your Partner a Real Partner; The Myth of Doing It All; Let’s Start Talking About It; Working Together Toward Equality (Sandberg, 2013).
Lean In speaks to a broad audience by including the group being interviewed for this Master
thesis: “This book is for women of all ages: young girls who are thinking about what their futures might be …. to encourage women to really believe in themselves and believe in their dreams” (Sandberg, 2015, 1:08-1:27 min.).
Sandberg defined true equality as a clear goal for Lean In:
Part of what I’m hoping Lean In will do is to really start a conversation in every workplace, in every company, in every school – to start thinking about gender differently. I believe the world
would be a better place if half our companies and half our countries are run by women and half our homes are run by men (Sandberg, 2015).
In extension to the book, the campaign was continued with introducing LeanIn.Org. The organization states:
The book Lean In is focused on encouraging women to pursue their ambitions, and changing the conversation from what we can’t do to what we can do. LeanIn.Org is the next chapter. We are committed to offering women the ongoing inspiration and support to help them achieve their goals. If we talk openly about the challenges women face and work together, we can change the trajectory of women and create a better world for everyone (LeanIn.Org, n.d.a).
LeanIn.Org is a platform for women to come together in communities where stories are shared and educational information by experts about insights and skills is provided. Furthermore, the campaign is spread within Lean In Circles worldwide. These are small groups, mostly women, who meet on a regular basis with the aim of supporting each other while also sharing the gender issues they face (LeanIn.Org, n.d.b). Currently, there are more than 21.000 circles in 97 countries worldwide (LeanIn.Org, n.d.b).
Together, the Lean In campaign and Sheryl Sandberg have gathered a multitude of
followers on social media, which can be seen as an indicator for the campaign’s immense success globally. To date, Lean In collects around 730.000 followers on facebook, twitter and instagram (Lean In, n.d.a, n.d.b, n.d.c) whereas Sheryl Sandberg has around 1.88 million followers summed up on facebook, twitter, instagram and google plus (Sandberg, n.d.a, n.d.b, n.d.c, n.d.d).
Perception
As mentioned in the introduction, this Master thesis asks: “What are female Master students’ perceptions of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In?” Hence, the concept of perception should be illustrated: it is the “primary epistemic access to an objective, mind-independent world” (Burge, 2003, p. 157). In this Master thesis, perception is based on Burge (2003), who examines the various ideas that can be found about perception. He states that it is necessary to distinguish perception from sensation, representation and conception. A sensation is either “the first psychological product of physical impacts on the body” (Burge, 2003, p. 159) or “felt qualities [on] a phenomenological feature” (Burge, 2003, p. 159). Representations then again “function to be about, or to refer to, objects, properties, relations. They are the aspect of a psychological state that can be accurate or inaccurate, true or false” (Burge, 2003, p. 159). Conceptions can be described “as components in propositional representations or propositional representational
thought contents” (Burge, 2003, p. 162). About perception, Burge (2003) states:
As adults, we acquire information about conditions under which perceptual belief can mislead. This information complicates conditions for being warranted in holding a perceptual belief. One might be aware of biases or abnormal circumstances that might lead one rationally to doubt what one would otherwise be inclined to believe in response to a perceptual presentation. Such
background information bears on whether one would be warranted in forming a perceptual belief. Being warranted can grow harder as one knows more (p. 166).
Furthermore, Gray, Knobe, Sheskin, Bloom and Barrett (2011) find:
two dimensions of mind perception: agency and experience. Agency is the capacity to act, plan and exert self-control, whereas experience is the capacity to feel pain, pleasure and emotions. These two dimensions of mind perception parallel the twofold structure of other concepts in social cognition, most notably humanness, the content of stereotypes and personality (p. 1208).
Therefore, it is expected from the female Master students interviewed to make use of their perceptive capacities when talking about the Lean In messages. The participants might exploit their understanding of the messages discussed and might explain their perceptions of the relating stereotypes.
Gender Essentialism
Gender essentialism builds the theoretical foundation for this Master thesis in general and the Lean In messages in particular, which is why it is a fit for this Master thesis. Essentialism is defined as “the belief that things have essential properties, properties that are necessary to those things being what they are” (Stone, 2004, p. 138). In relation to gender,
essentialism becomes the view that there are properties essential to women, in that any woman must necessarily have those properties to be a woman at all. So defined, essentialism entails a closely related view, universalism: that there are some properties shared by, or common to, all women - since without those properties they could not be women in the first place (Stone, 2004, p. 138).
Furthermore, essentialism states that
members of a category share deep, underlying commonalities that give rise to surface differences. A category is understood to be essential if it is relatively stable, unchanging, likely to be present at birth, and biologically based. Thus, in the realm of gender, essentialism would suggest that
differences between males and females are stable, unchanging, fixed at birth, and due to biological differences rather than environmental factors (Smiler & Gelman, 2008, p. 864).
Therefore, within gender essentialism, the sex is seen as a fact that needs to be taken into account when judging someone on any given points whereas gender would work from the inside out, not being formed by society (Bohan, 1993).
As it is further explained in the method section (see pp. 12-19), three main messages from
Lean In were discussed with the interviewees: “Success and Likeability”, “Sit at the Table” and
“Don’t Leave Before You Leave”. These correspond with gender essentialism as it is expected for women to be liked but it is uncommon for women to be very successful which in turn makes them not that likeable. Furthermore, women are not supposed to be involved in the corporate decision making process as they are better and happier with being a housewife but Sheryl Sandberg wishes women to be the opposite with being confident, open to sharing opinions and being part of the decision making process with sitting at the table. Moreover, women are the primary care takers of children and supposed to be raising their children but can also pursue a career and then see how a job can be compromised with having a child.
Previous Research
This Master thesis provides new insights into the challenges perceived by female Master students on working and personal life depending on their gender, which build the foundations for Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In campaign.
In this literature review, scientific studies that take gender essentialism into account will be critically examined and studies with thematic congruency that discuss the differences between men and women career related and in private are also presented.
An article of interest is by Sikora and Pokropek (2012) who connect gender segregation and psychological models of the role of self-concept among data from 15 year olds from 50 countries expressing their career goals. What is of relevance here is their analysis of gender essentialism in combination with teenagers’ career plans and if there might be a mechanism behind gender segregation. One of their findings show that gender essentialism is like a
self-fulfilling prophecy leading women to continue following what is expected or seen as the norm for
their gender to be good at, have competencies in and pursue a career in. This result can be connected to the Lean In message “Success and Likeability” as it can be seen here that women strive to environmental harmony, wishing to be liked, which might be more prevalent in expected career choices. This phenomenon has been found to be dominant in industrial countries (Sikora & Pokropek, 2012), to which the Netherlands also belong.
Eidson and Coley (2014) provide a study about gender essentialism among undergraduate students. Of interest for this paper are their findings explaining that in childhood, people base their assumptions on essentialist characteristics and thus, innate traits. At the latest in puberty, people take environmental factors much more into account when judging gender related issues although gender essentialist thinking does not diminish completely, even in adulthood. The authors assume that gender essentialism is kept throughout life but is not expressed that much when grown up because other factors are also of matter and people do not want to be perceived as sexist (Eidson & Coley, 2014). The older people get, the less they act automatically and rather with reasoning. What Eidson and Coley (2014) wondered was whether undergraduates really lessen their gender essentialist ideas or if they just become more implicit.
Eidson and Coley’s (2014) results show that the undergraduates reacting under time pressure presented more gender essentialist responses probably because they appeared more automatically. Therefore, the authors indicate that when people cannot apply explicit reasoning, young adults respond similarly to children, hence gender essentialist consistent (Eidson & Coley, 2014).
The authors also state how future research should tie up to their sample of undergraduates with interviewing older students, which is where this Master thesis connects on.
A study revolving gender essentialism of a similar group of people like this Master thesis is by Smiler and Gelman (2008), titled “Determinants of gender essentialism in college students”. The authors examined which gender concepts are essentialized and who essentializes gender. Their main findings show that men express more essentialism than women, which means that the male participants of their study appointed gendered attributes to being fixed properties and unchangeable more than women did. Moreover, male concepts (for example ‘jock’ and ‘intelligent’) were more essentialized than female concepts (such as ‘housewife’ and
‘fashionable’). Nevertheless, not only women but also men were taken into account and they were studying at US universities and not at a Dutch university as it is the case in this Master thesis. As more prevalence of gender essentialism was found along the male college students of Smiler and Gelman’s study (2008), the present Master thesis strikes relevance as no comparison to the male gender is made. Consequently, here it is analyzed whether female concepts are actually not that essentialized. Therefore, it is exclusively looked at female college students and their perspectives with keeping Lean In in mind.
Another article of interest for this Master thesis relating to gender essentialism by Joyce and Walker (2015) is about occupational segregation in insolvency practice. In contrast to the previously introduced studies, the research by Joyce and Walker (2015) focuses on people in professional life. Their study wants to contribute to the persistent gender differences and biases in working life, precisely analyzing the accounting business area.
Joyce and Walker (2015) build a foundation for this Master thesis as they see gender essentialism as a useful theory to back up evidence for injustice in nowadays’ working environment for women. They conclude that biases in professional still exist with women working in ‘typically female’ jobs/business areas and men most prevalently working in ‘typical male’ positions (Joyce & Walker, 2015). This Master thesis chimes in with asking the female Master students about their career perspectives after graduating with responses probably
expressing (in)directly whether they even consider gender segregation concerning job choices or if that topic even matters or occurs to them.
Ceci, Williams, Sumner and DeFraine (2011) investigate how the feeling of belonging to a certain group affects career choices especially for women. This idea is based on the stereotype inoculation model (SIM) by Nilanjana Dasgupta that postulates “that ingroup members who are peers or experts in a high achievement context can have notable effects on an individual’s career choices and subsequent success” (Ceci, Williams, Sumner & DeFraine, 2011, p. 255). Here, the SIM proposes that male dominated stereotypes hold women in the related area back from
pursuing a career although performing good enough to strive for one in that male dominated field (Ceci et al., 2011). The SIM model might be strongly connected to gender essentialism as the latter also suggests that certain traits are seen as belonging rather to men than to women. What the SIM theory also fosters is that such male dominated stereotypes for certain business areas restrain women from pursuing a career because it seems incompatible with raising children (Ceci et al., 2011). Gender essentialism might go a step further with proposing that explanations for certain fields being more male dominated do not (just) origin in stereotypes but because certain traits are indeed ‘for’ men and men-innate.
Another explanation for gender differences in the working area is the perceived status of power when competing, which can be related to the Lean In message “Sit at the Table” that encourages women to not shy back from sharing their opinion publicly. Magee, Galinsky and Gruenfeld (2007) analyze the relation of perceived power and the willingness to negotiate and
state that women are less likely to walk into negotiations. It is of interest that they find women who perceive to have high power to also be more likely to face negotiations (Magee et al., 2007). This topic will indirectly be discussed when talking about the message of “Sit at the Table” whether the interviewees feel women should sit at the table where decisions are made that eventually can be seen as representative for perceived power. Magee et al. (2007) base their assumptions on their power-approach theory which states that power activates the behavioral approach system (BAS) and diminishes the behavioral inhibition system (BIS). Therefore, within their theory, power boosts to sit at the table and keeps from being held back (Magee et al., 2007). They do not take gender essentialism into account and for this Master thesis, the power-approach model might not be enough of a background theory to explain the profound problems women face addressed in the Lean In messages. Gender essentialism goes beyond the idea of perceived power. Assumptions about power based on gender essentialism would predict that power is limited to men and withheld from women.
In connection to one of the Lean In messages, “Don’t Leave Before You Leave” and of relevance for this Master thesis is the article “The new gender essentialism – domestic and family ‘choices’ and their relation to attitudes” by Crompton and Lyonette (2005). Here, their findings are of interest that women who share open-minded gender role attitudes and who do not
necessarily believe in traditional separation of house work are found to be happier in the domestic and family area. Additionally, such women also expressed lower levels of stress handling work-life problems (Crompton & Lyonette, 2005). Where this Master thesis compliments here is that the interviewed women, who are expected to share quite liberal gender attitudes, also express rather few difficulties when thinking about the combination of work and a household. Taken together, it can be concluded that women perceive different challenges than men
especially due to the various roles expected from women in the workforce and in the household. Where gender essentialism seems to be a concept that is still up-to-date, Lean In sparks a new wave of feminism, labeled “neoliberal feminism” (Rottenberg, 2014, p. 419). This movement changes “continued gender inequality from a structural problem into an individual affair” (Rottenberg, 2014, p. 420). Sheryl Sandberg attends to this point by addressing the internal barriers that hold women back from laying out all their strengths and pursuing leadership positions (Rottenberg, 2014). Hence, this Master thesis wonders what female Master students’ perceptions of the aforementioned struggles are or if they are apparent at all.
Method
SampleThe sample of this study consists of fifteen Dutch female Master students. On the one hand, this has “intrinsic” reasons (Curtis, Gesler, Smith & Washburn, 2000, p. 1002) as the research question revolves female Master students wondering about their perceptions of the messages in Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. On the other hand, this has “purposive” reasons (Curtis et al., 2000, p. 1002) because the group of interest became relevant a priori (Curtis et al., 2000) and the researcher has direct contact to Master students at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, being one herself. The researcher is aware that qualitative sampling is different to quantitative sampling where usually statistical methods are being used (Curtis et al., 2000). Furthermore, Curtis et al. (2000) present a number of characteristics that guide qualitative sampling, of which the following have been taken care of in this study: as mentioned, purposive sampling took place; the sample is relatively small and thoroughly studied to produce valuable content. Also, the aim is to find analytical generalizations to enrich phenomena, namely female Master students’ perceptions of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. Moreover, the sample selection is based on insights from the studies presented in the literature review showing that women’s point of views who are about to enter the workforce are lacking. The students’ nationality (Dutch) is chosen because of practical reasons and to serve for homogeneity. The sample size is not pre-fixed but will be adapted throughout the interviewing phase, depending on the point of saturation. Additionally, there are no ethical issues involved, anonymity is granted and the sample plan is feasible as the researcher has direct access to the group of interest, being part of the peer group. The latter is a topic more precisely mentioned by Cleary, Horsfall and Hayter (2014), stating that the relation between researcher and interviewee is of matter and their shared language (English in this case) should be fluent, clear and descriptive to generate thorough information. With the researcher being in the participants’ peer group and studying the same subject in the same (for both foreign) language, this aspect should be guaranteed. The sample size depends on the point of saturation as well as redundancy. The point of saturation appears “when the collection of new data does not shed any further light on the issue under investigation” (Mason, 2010, p.2), while redundancy is reached as soon as more interviewees only repeat already found concepts (Cleary et al., 2014). Both concepts will be considered.
Sensitizing Concepts
In this qualitative study, use will be made of sensitizing concepts. They can be seen as starting points for analysis and are not definite in terms of risking missing themes that might emerge later while conducting the interviews (Bowen, 2006). Therefore, sensitizing concepts ”alert researchers to central issues to tap without committing them to reproducing the initial set of concepts” (Charmaz, 1990, p. 1165).
This study looks at female Master students’ perceptions of the messages in Lean In –
Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, published in 2013. The ten messages of
the book are the following: Sit at the Table; Success and Likeability; It’s a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder; Are You My Mentor?; Seek and Speak Your Truth; Don’t Leave Before You Leave; Make Your Partner a Real Partner; The Myth of Doing It All; Let’s Start Talking About It and Working Together Toward Equality (Sandberg, 2013). These messages might not all be applicable for this study’s sample in terms of generating phenomena out of the interviews that can be traced back to gender essentialism and are relevant for women in the period in between the end of their studies and the approaching beginning of their working life. Hence, “It’s a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder” is left out as this message is actually related to both men and women
because it explains how a career is not a step-by-step guide but might be unruly. This also applies to “Make Your Partner a Real Partner” pointing out how important it is who you are dating. Then, “Seek and Speak Your Truth” is also pertinent to male and female employees as it advices to be honest and open. The message “Are You My Mentor?” is left out as this study focuses on female Master students who probably have not had long-term mentors yet. Furthermore, “The Myth of Doing It All”, “Let’s Start Talking About It” and “Working Together Toward Equality” are rather summarizing messages, whereas “The Myth of Doing It All” recaps the wide-spread assumption that women need to give 100% at work, with their children and in their
relationship/marriage, “Let’s Start Talking About It” encourages women to address injustices and “Working Together Toward Equality” promotes women and men of all ages and all professions to operate for gender equality.
Consequently, the messages seen as relevant for this study are the following, which will be shown to the interviewees on paper. They are quotes from Lean In – Women, Work, and the Will
to Lead (Sandberg, 2013, pp. 27–120):
Especially women feel like a fraud when they are praised for their accomplishments. Instead of feeling worthy of recognition, they feel un-deserving and guilty, as if a mistake
has been made. Success and Likeability
Success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women.
When a man is successful, he is liked by both men and women. When a woman is successful, people of both genders like her less.
Don’t Leave Before You Leave
From an early age, girls get the message that they will have to choose between succeeding at work and being a good mother.
Women make a lot of small decisions along the way, making accommodations and sacrifices that they believe will be required to have a family.
Therefore, the sensitizing concepts are based on these messages and build the guideline for the interview. For this study, two separate pre-interviews with Dutch female Master students of the University of Amsterdam were conducted that both generated topics that will also be taken into account as sensitizing concepts. These include the feeling, expression and lack of self-confidence in any public sphere, which can be related to “Sit At The Table” as well as jealousy and competitiveness between women, which is connected to “Success and Likeability”. Another concept is the interviewees’ role models regarding working life, which might lead to
conversations about motherhood, the topic “Don’t Leave Before You Leave” deals with. All in all, the sensitizing concepts can be found in the following list:
Sit at the Table
- Feeling, Expression and Lack of Self-Confidence in the Public Sphere Success and Likeability
- Jealousy and Competitiveness between Women Don’t Leave Before You Leave
- Role Models regarding Working Life - Motherhood
Transcription of Interviews
For this Master thesis, fifteen Dutch female Master students are interviewed, with each conversation lasting about 30 to 50 minutes. The transcriptions of the interviews are the starting point of analysis. When transcribing, Kowal and O’Connell (2014) indicate that “the written record cannot be accepted uncritically as a reliable source of analyses accurately reflecting the mental, social, affective and cultural components” (p. 65), which will be kept in mind for this study when coding.
The researcher is familiar with the topic and both interviewer and interviewee are from the same peer group in terms of age, field of study, gender and life stage. Both parties do not speak in their mother tongue German (researcher) and Dutch (the female Master students) but converse in English, which all participants must have good knowledge in given the fact that they are all completing their Master studies in that language.
Reflexivity
Reflexivity can be defined as a procedure that “involves turning back on oneself in order that processes of knowledge production become the subject of investigation” (May & Perry, 2014, p. 109). Here, it is not just the researcher herself but all “knowledge producers” (May & Perry, 2014, p. 120) in relation to each other that need to be reflected upon (May & Perry, 2014). Thus, it is acknowledged that the researcher has wanted to broaden her knowledge about the topic of women in the workforce and the struggles and challenges this specific group of people faces. The author of this study read the book Lean In – Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (2013) because of private interest and got informed about Sheryl Sandberg as well as the Lean In campaign. Furthermore, the female Master students questioned throughout the research might be reflective in terms of being aware that they are interrogated for a Master thesis although it is tried to keep the conversation as natural as possible. As the participants are
studying Communication Science, it is also expected that they want to sound reflective of their thoughts plus they are aware of their words to be examined for the research topic.
Within the interview phase, it is tried to gain an insider’s view, getting to know the female Master students’ perceptions and be part of this group of people (Charmaz, 2004). As this
researcher is also in her last year of studies, it is expected she will be seen as peer group from the interviewees.
Software Atlas.ti
For this study, qualitative interviews are conducted and then transcribed within the software program Atlas.ti. It has to be kept in mind that the use of Atlas.ti will be a computer assisted tool and not part of the method itself (Gibbs, 2014). Hence, the program will only be functioning as a device to be able to read the interviews in written words and create codes and the concept indicator model more easily. Atlas.ti has been made available by the University of
Amsterdam and it is said to be helpful with giving possibilities to produce codes, quotations, memos, in-project relationships and diagrams (Gibbs, 2014).
Interpretation
After the transcription of the interviews, the next step is the interpretation of data in an effort to “find out more about people’s experiences, their thoughts, feelings and social practices” (Willig, 2014, p. 136). Hence, the interpreting aim of this study is to generate meaning out of the women’s statements to understand their perceptions and their origins as it eventually leads to comprehending the social context of views in relation to Lean In (Willig, 2014). As illustrated by Willig (2014), “suspicious” interpretation (p. 138) will be applied where the researcher “occupies the role of the expert who is capable of generating a superior understanding of the phenomenon under investigation” (p. 138). It has to be pointed out that the researcher does not claim to be omniscient in order to find the ‘actual’ perceptions of the female Master students as it always depends on the eye of the beholder. Therefore, as the researcher is in ‘power’ of interpretation, the motifs of findings are thoroughly explained with being open to criticism directed at possible misinterpretation (Willig, 2014).
A premise of qualitative research is to keep in mind that the interviews show the female Master students’ stories of their perceptions and might not be congruent with what had actually happened if it was to talk about past experiences. Therefore, objective facts are not of interest for this study but what the participants feel to tell (Charmaz, 2004).
Analysis
Before starting to analyze the interviews of this study, the whole data set is reduced to sentences of relevance for the research question. This does not mean that interviews will be cut in preference of the theoretical background but rather implies that unnecessary statements
The analysis of this study is inspired by the Grounded Theory approach, which was designed by Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss with publishing The Discovery of Grounded Theory in 1967 to present a new methodology for analyzing qualitative research (Charmaz, 2007). It was originally created before the political movement in the late 1960s when the validation of government and legislation was started to be questioned and surfaced right after the period of clearly dominating quantitative approaches. Glaser and Strauss started with conducting research about the social organization of dying in hospitals. Though facing criticism, as the incorporation of too many and diametrical premises within the cyclical approach in one methodology and the researcher’s impossibility of being completely unknowing, grounded theory has become a well-known method in qualitative research (Charmaz, 2014) that “democratized theory construction” (Charmaz, 2014, p. 1076).
The aim is to generate categories of the data with having a close look at the relationships between important categories to establish theory. This method is used when to “aim for analytic power and conceptual grasp which synthesize, explain, and interpret the data” (Charmaz, 1990, p. 1163). The process includes the affirming, checking and refining of developing ideas. Therefore, while conducting the interviews, already assumed ideas and findings will be sewed into the following conversations. This way, taken up categories can be tested on the job during interviews (Charmaz, 1990). Then, the final categories, shown in the concept indicator model (see Appendix I), “explain and conceptualize (1) the data, (2) common sense understandings of these data, and, likely, (3) other theoretical interpretations” (Charmaz, 1990, p. 1162).
Grounded theory is seen as fitting with the research question of this Maser thesis as it “exports culture, a worldview, a way of viewing, relating to, and depicting studied life along with exporting its specific strategies” (Charmaz, 2014, p. 1076). Moreover, this method is thought to be useful when “responding to and coping with life changes” (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014, p. 154) which is the phase the female Master students of this study are in as their graduation approaches soon and they are about to face a new chapter in their life.
Charmaz’ approach on grounded theory forms the basis for this analysis. This method has been continually adapted for research purposes, which was even suggested by the originators (Charmaz, 2014). Charmaz’ constructivist version suggests to apply theoretical sampling only after the researcher has found some ideas and guesses where the data is hinting at (Charmaz, 1990). Therefore, an “in-depth understanding of the realities and issues at hand” (Charmaz, 1990,
p. 1163) is made possible with further pushing emerging categories. In a constructivist view of grounded theory, the interaction between the interviewer and the participants is crucial and guides in forming further interview questions (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014). Additionally, Charmaz proposes to first find relevant concepts (see Sensitizing Concepts, pp. 13-14), that can later be compared to the categories generated from the data and eventually places this Master thesis within such concepts (Charmaz, 1990). The researcher interprets what can be derived from the interviews, which means the female Master students’ remarks form the collected data
(Charmaz, 1990). These interpretations are not descriptions but rather emerging hunches, which lead to codes and categories. Such codes label certain repeated themes of the transcribed
interviews and are the outcome of questioning the data (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014). At the beginning of the research, initial/open coding is taking place, which means that the researcher analyzes line by line and moves between the data, trying to find ciphers that are representative for the interview’s constructs (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014). The next and ongoing step is
focused/selective coding, where the researcher aims at constructing the most expressive, symbolic and condensed codes that eventually lead to core categories. In the constructivist grounded theory sense, it is still advised to not be stiff and un-open in the focused/selective coding process (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014). Lastly, theoretical codes are built to encapsulate already found codes and categories that enhance the theoretical concepts presented in the theory part and try to answer the research question (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2014).
The interpretations divide the data into analytic pieces that narrow the codes and categories to a concept indicator model. Charmaz notes that “by examining the collected data with the theoretical eye, the set of categories developed remains closer to the actual data and simultaneously, moves beyond description” (Charmaz, 1990, p. 1168). Moreover, the researcher aims to find phases, conditions and consequences surrounding such concepts originating in codes. What is important is steady comparison together with ongoing questioning, which accounts for all codes, categories and concepts. The latter is formed by the researcher to find terms that reflect the female Master students’ perceptions.
Interviews
The researcher is aware that the questions asked shape the results due to the researcher’s perspective (Charmaz, 1990). Charmaz’ (1990) advises to build the questions depending on the interviewee’s statements and to try formulating open questions. The conversations are held in
English language, the mother tongue for neither the interviewees nor the researcher.
Nevertheless, academic interviews in combination with grounded theory have been conducted in English language as a foreign language by other researchers before and, English seems to be explicitly suitable for the coding process of grounded theory, though it can be expected to have a slowed-down process of speech and coding (Charmaz, 2014).
As mentioned before, the conversations for this Master thesis will be in-depth interviews. They will be based on the concept of semi-structured interviews as they are useful in qualitative research (Whiting, 2008) with posing open questions (Millwood & Heath, 2000) and fit with the research purpose. Here, some of the questions are prearranged before entering the dialogue within a range of topics (Whiting, 2008), determined by the aforementioned sensitizing concepts (see pp. 13-14) as well as the literature review (see pp. 5-11). Additionally, semi-structured interviews show reliability through probing to really get beneath the surface of the relevant topics (Louise & While, 1994). Moreover, the responses given by the participants guide further formulation of questions (Whiting, 2008).
The interview guide is based on the sensitizing concepts (see pp. 13-14) and can be found in the Appendix (see Appendix II).
Before the interview starts, the participants are assured about their anonymity and that no right or wrong answers are possible as their very own opinions, experiences, thoughts, feelings and perceptions are of relevance (Whiting, 2008). Moreover, the interview is seen as a ‘real’ conversation with applying smooth techniques to foster chatting and encouraging the interviewee to feel free to talk (Millwood & Heath, 2000). A semi-structured interview approach comes in hand as it is “a sensitive method of gaining detailed information” (Millwood & Heath, 2000, p. 29). Here, validity is provided by explaining the meaning of the transcribed conversations
(Louise & While, 1994), which will be clarified when creating codes and categories, as explained before. Then, the general meaning is accessible and gives a valid explanation.
Results
For this Master thesis, fifteen female Master students of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam between 22 and 25 years old were interviewed, labeled with the first letter of their first name. After conducting thirteen interviews, certain redundancies were noticed (Cleary, Horsfall & Hayter, 2014) which led to two more postponed interviews after which the point of saturation was reached (Mason, 2010).
The in-depth interviews started with the initial question “When do you graduate?” to create a conversational tone everyone could relate to as their graduation is in the near future. The interviewees then discussed plans for after graduation. Beginning with this topic allowed for every woman to feel comfortable with the interviewer and the interview. It was discussed in what kind of field or job they would want to work and if they have any role models when it comes to working. Very often expressions and sentences were mentioned that one of the three Lean In messages (see pp. 13-14) could be connected to. Hence, the most fitting message was shown to the participants, printed on a paper. When there was no particularly strong connection to a Lean
In message, “Don’t Leave Before You Leave” was shown because women were mentioned as
role models before. Each time a message with two explaining sentences was presented, the interviewer asked the women to please have a look at it, read it and tell what they think about it, how it makes them feel, if they can relate to it and if they agree or disagree and why. All fifteen interviews went smoothly and lasted between 30 and 50 minutes. The English language was not a problem for both parties. When the interviewee felt a Dutch expression to be more precise in explaining phenomena, it was transcribed and immediately or later translated. The interviews were held at cafés with the researcher serving a cup of coffee or tea, which created a friendly-like atmosphere and appeared as a normal conversation, also to onlookers. The researcher followed Charmaz’ (1990) approach to stay close to the data when interpreting, which is exemplified by the interviewee’s quotations beneath. The researcher’s reflexivity has been taken notice of when analyzing the data, for example, whether the researcher mentioned the “glass ceiling” before the interviewees did or not. The interviewer tried to let go of any earlier formed perspective.
Nevertheless, also according to Charmaz (1990), some questions were asked repeatedly throughout the interviewing phase to generate useful data. For example, when the participants stated to not believe inequalities to be true at all, the researcher asked if they could explain the fact that only 5 per cent of the CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are female (PewResearchCenter, 2015). Then, the participants had to argue against facts and not only the Lean In messages that do not contain any numbers and could be perceived as assumptions.
As the interviewer is in the same age group like the participants, also a student of
Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam, about to graduate, more or less a recognizable face through some shared classes, it felt like the women did not have any problems, trouble or restraints talking openly and even personally about the topics. The interviewees never
expressed to not feel comfortable being questioned about their personal attempt to combining their desire to have children and their ambition to be successful at their job – assumingly also because the interviewer is female.
Analytical Procedure
All interviews were transcribed and then analyzed within the Atlas.ti program. All answers given
were coded within the open coding process. Then, these codes were worked through multiple times to sort them into code families, which were titled “Attitude to Working Life”, “Success at Work”, “Insecurity and Confidence”, “Society and Norms in Relation to Gender”, “Perception of Men” and “Perception of Women”. Having catalogued all open codes to one of the families, selective coding took place. In this process, the codes were classified within the families and certain categories emerged that altogether built the concept indicator model, which can be found in the Appendix (see Appendix I).
The two families “Attitude to Working Life” and “Success at Work” are headlined with “Work” whereas “Perception of Men” and “Perception of Women” are combined under
“Perception”. Additionally, the antagonists “Insecurity and Confidence” and “Society and Norms in Relation to Gender” are comprised in “Individual vs. Societal Attitude”. The meta-level above is titled with “Female Master students’ perceptions of working life in relation to gender and motherhood”.
Findings Work
Attitude to Working Life
In general, the participants’ attitude to working was discussed extensively. Some opinions were shared but there were also differences noticeable.
On the one hand, a lot of women expressed the importance of having a job and that they plan on fully committing to their job after graduation:
M2: “because I'm always a very, when I have a certain goal, I always do everything I want to achieve something […] and I make other people enthusiastic about what I like doing, so I always think I can be a sort of a pioneer or a leader to make people want something”
M2: “[I’m] really career driven”
F: “I'm not going for the money or the big big career. I'm just wanna do things that I like and not only work, also starting a family maybe and doing things that I love to do”
Furthermore, the purpose of working and the participants’ expectations on a job were argued about.
Apparently, the professional is not just seen as a necessity to earn money but almost all interviewed women pointed out that a positive feeling towards your job is very important as it consumes most of your daily time during the week:
F: “and I think it would make me happier if I have just a career that I like but not necessarily high profile than a career that consumes all my time and all my energy”
Into this aspect also counts the team you are working with:
L: “I think the environment, people you work with is so important”
If possible, some of the participants even expressed that their job should not only make themselves happy but also other people:
L: “what I value most is that I can find a job that I enjoy and also really contribute in a way like really make a difference, I think that's most successful if you can find some job where you can really, very valuable with your own qualities […]. I want to have more of a societal contribution, I don't know if you can say it like that, but maybe you have something that is called societal
innovation project“
M3: “would be cool to work for a charity organization or NGO. [...] but it's also to do something good, altruistic”
Then, gender was interwoven within their attitude to working life, as there are ostensibly certain fields that are more suited for women:
I: “so I guess that there is a difference between the sectors you work in. So also a difference in how men respond to a girly girl and if it's allowed to be a girly girl because I can say that if you work in economics, that it's more expected of you to be a more masculine female”
Success at Work
One of the Lean In messages dealt with the correlation of success and likeability for men and women and therefore, the different beliefs of success at work were discussed.
the one hand, the individualistic perspective claimed that it is your own choice whether you get to the top or not:
I: “I really have the strong feeling that you get the role that you asign yourself”
I: “I could be anything I want to as long as I work for it. And that's what I really believe I can” On the other hand, a lot of the interviewed women expressed that the society and their
environment influences their objectives heavily:
M5: “because you did a Masters, and I did the research Master, you kind of have to pursue a career”
M3: “everyone is so ambitious and career driven and I feel like maybe I should be too” As pursuing a career eventually leads to a leadership position to some extent, the participants made clear that this comes with a certain determination:
E: “if you are a top position then you know that you have to like work really hard and spend almost all of the time working on that”
In contrast, some of the interviewees stated that they do not want to lean in at work: M5: “I'm not really ambitious”
M5: “I really like to work part time”
As the evaluation of successful women took place, their likeability was discussed: S: “people really admire [successful women]”
S: “if I see a successful woman […] I think that’s really impressive”
M6: “I do really respect that the progress she made, being successful at her job […]. And it's maybe even, more impressive if a woman does it”
Nevertheless, all of the women shared their opinion on sacrifices women have to make for their career:
F: “you always have to make sacrifices from a career point of view when you have to start a family”
The aspect of children and motherhood is also explained in the according code family. Individual vs. Societal Attitude
Insecurity and Confidence
decisions are made. When this message was shown to the interviewees, two sides were expressed. On the one hand, some of the participants agreed that they often feel insecure:
E: “I find it like really hard to, to receive that compliments”
F: “I always feel very uncomfortable when people complement me”
On the other hand, some women stated that they cannot relate to the approach but have the feeling that women are indeed confident:
B: “"Ja, I'm a woman, so I deserve to be recognized for what I've done" and then maybe they would be really much more keen on receiving those compliments and actually enjoying the compliments and really basking in them”
What seems to play a role in each case is the environment where accomplishments are fulfilled and compliments are received. Most of the time, negative others have a certain influence:
M4: “I was bullied a lot at elementary school and second school […] she would give me the feeling that I was worse than her so she would feel better. Maybe because she was insecure about herself too so in the long term, that and the bullying made me quite insecure about myself” E: “other people don't think that women are good enough to fulfill that kind of position in a company”
Society and Norms in Relation to Gender
In connection to the aforementioned topic, another coding family conferred about the influence of the surrounding at work in relation to gender.
First, several reasons for gender inequality in history were mentioned:
I: “there is some fame to it I guess that nature decided on how he want things in life” M: “so I think that's like biological reason”
Second, a lot of stereotypes the women came across with were addressed:
I: “if you go to the real stereotype, you know, if there's conflict, then a man will just say it or fight about it and girls are more chit-chatting and going behind each other's back and more jealous kind of way. And of course it's a complete stereotype”
L: “feel like there's still these stereotypes, they can be more emotional, when, in leading positions, you're supposed to be very rational and sometimes make decisions that are not very easy for everyone but kind of, you have to make them and then women are not strong enough to make them”
Third, the interviewees expressed the circumstances leading to gender inequality they have come across with before:
M2: “I think it's still, although maybe women now get equal chances maybe, like as far as primary school, education and stuff, it's still, like, when making a career, they still not do, get equal
chances, there is sort of a glass ceiling”
I: “there's an old generation of people that probably still believes that females are worse than men”
Moreover, the interviewed women shared their evaluation of gender inequality and how that makes them feel:
I: “I thought that's a bit weird to say to come up with a quota”
L2: “I have read that women are less likely to get a high job at certain offices because she's female, like statistics say that, then I'm worried”
Some of the participants noted that they are aware of the current movement and progress that is publicized in the media to foster gender equality:
B: ”I think it's certain around...because the Emma Watson UN speech, how awesome and big everyone thought of that”
I: “the feminism now and how we talk, […], because I have heard quite some speeches about, like Emma Watson. But she didn't talk about girls alone, she talked about boys as well and I think that's a good thing”
Perception
Perception of Men
When discussing Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In messages, all of the participants stated their
perception of men in society, at work and in relation to women. Within this context, typical male clichés were declared:
F: “I think men in general would probably pursue more higher goals because for them, they're self-confidence”
M5: “because, it's always like, a man earns more money than the women” N: “I think men are a bit more straightforward”
On the contrary, a lot of women said that they are aware that not all men can be lumped together and that there is also untypical male behavior around:
S: “more and more men stay at home to be the house dad and to take care of the children and I think that's really good because, it doesn't have to be certain role pattern”
S: “it can also be a guy that's really sensitive”
Within this context, the interviewed women expressed their expectations on and evaluation of men:
L2: “I do want him to have a job”
E: “I think for men it's much more easier to just knock it and just go for it” M6: “I guess it's easier for dads to go back to work after their child's born”
Furthermore, the participants talked about their opinion on men in relation to women:
M4: “I think some men have problems with successful women because some men won't have problems but other men, maybe they're afraid that they want to be the big earner, they want to take care of the family and when a woman is very successful, she doesn't need that care that much so they maybe a bit afraid of her”
Perception of Women
Finally, the perception of themselves as females and women in general were a huge topic, especially when the Lean In message of women as wives and mothers was shown.
Herewith, career women created a topic of conversation:
M2: “I think still many women might really want a really successful career”
A lot of room for discussion was given the subject of motherhood and children:
B: “once you decide to have kids, then you gonna have to take your responsibility to raising them as well and of course I understand you have a job but then you shouldn't have taken your kids, taken your kids, if you didn't wanna take care of them”
N: “if I would have a family, I would like to spend a lot of time with them”
S: “I think once you become a mother you have children, your whole mindset changes” In general, focus was also put on discussing women at work:
M: “a woman can be like more difficult to work with or not because you can also work very good together”
Moreover, many thoughts were articulated on the discussion and combination of career and children, ranging from easy to difficult to coordinate:
J: “I think you can combine it very well”
M3: “you can easily combine work and children I think, but it won't be the highest goal of the best career, but I don't think most women pursue that anyway because they wanna have children” I: “they expect you as a female not to have children if you want to reach the top because there is some point in that because it's difficult to really combine it in a qualitative way”
Eventually, not only male but also typical female behavior was communicated: M6: “they don't feel that women can do something without being complete bitch” L2: “Women are more jealous of each other”
All in all, in accordance with Charmaz’ (1990) grounded theory approach, the results and the concept indicator model of this Master thesis represent life changes that are of very importance for the women interviewed as all of them had strong feelings leaving university soon and taking on a new chapter with starting to work followed by a family in a couple of years.
Conclusion and Discussion
As explained earlier (see pp. 13-14), the participants were presented with three messages from Lean In: “Sit at the Table” (focusing on insecurities and power), “Success and Likeability” (how they go together) and “Don’t Leave Before You Leave” (about the combination of career and children). Where some interviewees have never experienced the feeling of a fraud at
university or at working places, others felt the message of “Sit at the Table” to be completely true and applicable, expressing various insecurities. Moreover, the message of “Success and
Likeability” surfaced on the one hand common opinions of other people declaring to dislike successful women in some way but on the other hand the interviewees themselves exclaimed to admire successful women. It might be noted here that almost all female Master students
mentioned jealousy between women – though according to the interviewees this would not account true for themselves. The reason why the students excluded themselves might be that the participants are successful to some extent themselves with being Master students at a university, which is the highest education level in that age group (Lentiz.nl, n.d.). The message of “Don’t Leave Before You Leave” was the most discussed one of all three shown and had a multitude of varied responses from the participants. Every interviewee held a particular opinion and image of their future combination of work and children, each on a personal note, depending on what they
experienced with their parents when growing up and whether they are in a relationship or not. This comes in tandem with the general tone of all interviews that the personalities of human beings matter, not the gender.
In this Master thesis, certain struggles for women in relation to work and children have emerged.
The opponents become visible in gender essentialism and in the Lean In approach by Sheryl Sandberg. The former suggests that particular human traits depend on gender whereas the latter states that your path of life depends on your personal self. Both concepts found relevance in the interviewees’ expressions and are represented in the concept indicator model (see Appendix I). Furthermore, a third tendency, namely the importance of one’s personality characteristics has become clear as well. All three themes are discussed in the following paragraphs.
First, gender essentialism can be found in those participants’ responses related to society and norms in relation to gender. Indeed the interviewed women expressed that there are various stereotypes they and other people are fond of. On the one hand, these stereotypes were formed as statements and their own opinions, which suggest that there is evidence for gender essentialist thought. On the other hand, such stereotypes were perceived as clichés mostly other people hold and were questioned by the participants. Also, the interviewees articulated that some reasons for gender inequality have biological and historical grounds.
In accordance with Sikora and Pokropek’s findings (2012), the Master students stated that some industries such as media and communication are commonly better for women to work in due to the feminine qualities of females being effective communicators.
This relates to Joyce and Walker (2015) who find that some industries such as accounting and corporate insolvency are being evaluated to appeal more to men – and the interviewees also find the financial world harder for females especially when wanting to start a family.
Consequently, those stereotypes hold women back from pursuing a career in the bank sector or economy, which was repeatedly stated. Moreover, Joyce and Walker (2015) explain typically female attributes fostered in the professional, such as “caring, empathy and concern” (p. 56) that were also mentioned by parts of the interviewees to be especially valid for women. Ceci et al. (2011) point out that the lack of women as positive examples in typically non-female industries will foster the gender gap there. Indeed some interviewees stated that successful women in all industry sectors and positions are necessary to have younger women deciding to pursue a career
in general and in the male dominated fields in particular. Overall, the results of this Master thesis can be related to Smiler and Gelman’s study (2008). This study proves that male expressions were essentialized more than female terms. This is also true here where a multitude of male clichés were mentioned though it cannot be stated that they were more essentialized than the female ones because a direct comparison was not the purpose of this study.
The other point of view is in line with Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In approach and proposes that women as individuals make their own choices for working and private life, with these decisions not necessarily being depended on society or other biased men. Ceci et al. (2011) suggest that “experts in a high achievement context can have notable effects on an individual’s career choices and subsequent success” (p. 255) which holds true to some of the interviewed women.
Interviewees indicated how other successful women inspire them to also pursue a career and find a job that makes them happy so they can fulfill their own perception of success eventually.
It proves necessary to address within the individual perspective the perceived power, explained earlier by Magee et al. (2007). The researchers imply that women who feel in
possession of power are pro-active and straightforward, not holding back but leaning in. This is in line with the interviewees in this Master thesis who state that they are only confident and advanced in non-private environments when they feel in power of knowledge and experience, such as a student in group discussions at the university but not as an intern in a team of full time co-workers.
Furthermore, the personal viewpoint was repeated multiple times when the interviewees discussed the combination of professional life and children. This is because the women stated that it is up to the individual herself to decide if she perceives this juxtaposition as a struggle with sacrifices or just a part of life that is inevitable and fairly possible to deal with. Crompton and Lyonette (2005) also stress these liberal gender attitudes to be helpful in managing the work life balance which the interviewed women did not find very stressful but rather depending on the individual’s organization skills.
Thirdly, the participants do not prefer a black and white drawing of either career or children but that they share a modern view on balancing the combination of professional and private family life. As the participants belong to Generation Y (people born between 1982 and 2000) (Brosdahl & Carpenter, 2011), the female Master students expressed an attitude to working life and success at work that is not strictly contrasting to their free time. This aspect is analogous
to Kultalahti and Viitala (2014) who found that people from Generation Y are generally more motivated to work. Furthermore, an interesting, varying and flexible job and good relationships with colleagues and supervisors as well as enough free time for their personal interests and family life are crucial – which was also mentioned by the female Master students. If they had to choose for sacrifices, people would rather cut on career and working hours than shortening individual time for own interests. In relation to that, Kultalahti and Viitala (2014) state that for people from Generation Y, which the participants can be allocated to, success is not defined by the amount of money they make and also in this Master thesis, success at work was perceived with feeling content and proud independently from titles or positions.
What can be taken away from this Master thesis are the evaluations of gender
inequalities by the participants and the recognition of current movement and progress made to have gender equality in working and private life. Whereas the participants acknowledge that gender biases are still around and most prevalent among older generations, they assume that change has started and people are moving towards gender equality. It should also be noted that when questioning the interviewees directly about gender biases noticed or inequalities felt, they did not sense them to be truthful at first glance. Though, when recalling certain events - such as the successful female lawyer friend appearing unattractive to male friends because of
intimidation or when deemphasizing own university degree when introduced to a new man with lower education - it became clear that the women had experienced biases nonetheless or acted differently in front of a man or a men-only group.
Limitations and Implications for future research
It has to be kept in mind that the sample of this study consisted of female Master students of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam which means that they are aware of interview procedures, very well educated and more or less familiar with current gender
discussions in society. To have a broader pool of viewpoints, the sample could be widened to women from different studies than just Communication Science. Nevertheless, females with a lower educated background are not particularly fitting to Lean In, as university educated women are addressed.
Furthermore, within the methodology used, it should be noted again that the Lean In messages were explicitly shown to the participants, as a conversation starter and to fulfill the research purpose. The interviews would have surrounded different topics if the other messages of
