Temas em Psicologia
Print version ISSN 1413-389X
Abstract
LOPES, Manuela Nunes; DELLAZZANA-ZANON, Letícia Lovato and BOECKEL, Mariana Gonçalves. The multiple roles of contemporary women and late motherhood. Temas psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.22, n.4, pp.917-928. ISSN 1413-389X. https://doi.org/10.9788/TP2014.4-18.
Women currently have taken on many roles, previously filled by men, which not only changed their everyday lives but also impacted their life projects. Motherhood has been impacted in important ways by this change. We investigated the multiple roles played by contemporary woman and the relation between this multiplicity of roles and late motherhood. Two instruments were used: a socio-demographic profile and a semi-structured interview about the multiple roles of women and motherhood. We constructed three categories based on content analysis of the interviews: the multiple roles of contemporary women; reflections on motherhood; and late motherhood's impact on current routine. If, on one hand, women are negatively affected due to the additional workload, on the other they feel happy to have developed a career. Late motherhood is an option for women who intend to develop their careers and maintain stable relationships with their partners. However, the women also reported feelings such as fear, insecurity and ambivalence related to late motherhood.
Keywords : Woman; late motherhood; family.