Back on track

Yesterday I had a little bit of a break down and I decided to quit my topic and do something else.  I just felt I could not do quality work before my trip and I was afraid I was not going to get the interviews I needed.  I wrote an email to my supervisor and began looking for another topic in Film tourism.  While I was doing that he responded and said that he thought my topic was really good and he would be disappointed if I changed it.  He said that there are always certain risks and sometimes it is worth taking them.  At that point I just did not know what to do anymore.  The deadlines for all my subjects kept popping up in my head and I realized that I was not going to make it.  I thought about just quitting everything and disappearing for weeks and handle the mess later.  Of course I could never do that, so I suppose I didn't really consider it as an option.  If I'm gonna fail, I will fail trying at least.  So I kept reading about film tourism and finally decided that, as my supervisor said, it is too late to change the topic.  I have already read many articles for my original topic and I have a lot of books.  Besides, before my breakdown last night, in the morning I did a "perfect" combination of key words that through out there article titles that seemed to really pin point towards what I have been trying to write about all along.

So after thinking about it, I decided to read some of those articles I found and it turns out I found a "perfect" article! It talks about everything that I have been thinking I wanted to talk about and it points me in the right direction finally.  It is even better than the one about Indian women.  It is called "Career Advancement and Family Balance Strategies of Executive Women".  It was a qualitative study in which women shared exactly the concerns that I think are in the minds of women in Chile.  In addition, I found an article called Modifying Best Practices in Women's Advancement for the Latin American Context, that I haven't read yet in detail yet, but from skimming through it I know it will give me some background on Latin American culture.  It even mentions Chile, which is bound to be helpful.  I hope it is not a quantitative study though! I hate those.

In any case, I am back on track.  I once again went to bed at 1:30 in the morning and got up at 8:30 so I'm a little tired but I have new confidence and feel that I can do this.  I just feel bad that I worried my poor supervisor.  I know the time constraints will be a problem, but I think that I'll go to Chile with whatever research I manage to get done, which will be as much as possible, of course, but I have to think like I used to when I was working at the hotel: I can only do what is humanly possible and with my limitations.  If it's not enough, I will fix it somehow.  I know I can read more when I come back.  It's not over until it's over so I'm back reading and I will start writing today! 

As long as I'm trying, there is no way I can fail.

What should I focus my dissertation on...

"If at first our idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it" - Albert Einstein

During the past two days I've been freaking out and calming down and freaking out again.  As I read the literature I realize that I don't really know what I'm looking for!  I have been reading a few articles and if anything, I'm becoming more confused, which is why I decided to write on my blog, since sometimes it helps me clear my ideas.

So, my topic has to do with female hospitality managers in Chile and in my draft research proposal I came up with a question that I wanted to answer, which I wrote about in my last post but I'll write about it again... My question is:

Do women want to give up their career goals for their families or do the have to?

Of course, to answer that question I would have to know whether women give up their career goals at all.  I know a few managers who have but I don't know that that is common in Chile since there are no studies to support it.

This is why I'm having so much trouble!  My question is too specific and it has no basis.  From the reading that I've done, I've come up with two alternatives that could lead me to study the same phenomenon.

One is the concept of the "glass ceiling".  There was a study done by Owen et al. in the early 2000s - (there is no date on the article, strangely) that talks about women being underrepresented in upper level managerial positions.  I know that other studies in general support that.  I have not read them yet, but if this is the angle that I take, of course I will.  Anyway, the concept of the glass ceiling, however, relates to women not being considered for higher positions, while here I am investigating whether perhaps they are not even getting to that point because of family issues.  But maybe that is putting too much of my opinion into it.  Maybe my broader topic should be like this:

Glass ceiling: are women not being considered for executive positions or are they quitting before they ever could?

Again, that presupposes that they are quitting... maybe they are not... I will be interviewing managers, so I guess they have not quit, so it would be silly to ask whether they are considering it...

Or maybe the question is more: would you consider higher positions?  But then how do you ask that without making it sound like they have to choose between their family and their work life... I do want to know if they are choosing, but they are not just going to tell me that.

I've read a book - a chapter - called Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research.  The author of the chapter, Tina Miller, is conducting a study on pregnant women before and after they have their babies to find out what they feel about motherhood.  Her issue is that she wants to know more than what she calls "public" aspect of it, meaning that the women would discuss what society knows and accepts regarding pregnancy and motherhood.  She knows that by interviewing women she can get them to talk about the "private" aspect, that Miller describes as safe still because it is relaxed but not too personal.  What Miller is really interested in, however, is getting some more "personal" information, which is when people say what they really feel even if that is not what it is publicly accepted.

Miller was doing this for her PhD and it was on-going research that required two or three interviews with the same women before and after they had the baby.  Clearly, there is no way I can get that level of depth.  First because I don't have the time, and second because I am not really a researcher.  I have no experience doing this and the amount of time that I have to do it - the interviews in particular - is extremely limited.

For all these reasons, I can't just go up to someone I don't know, have a half-hour interview and expect them to tell me about whether they chose family over work or the other way around.  I don't think is that simple.


(...)


Ok, I've talked about it with my boyfriend and I have an article that I had just started reading when I freaked out and felt the compelling need to write.  Turns out, this article may be exactly what I want to do.  It's written by Reimara Valk and Vasanthi Srinivasan (2011) and it's called: Work-family Balance of Indian Women Software professionals: A Qualitative Study.  It is very similar to what I want to do with women in hospitality and in Chile.  It just has a slightly different question.

 Their question is:  How do work and family related factors influence the work-family balance of Indian women IT professionals?

My question is: How do work and family related factors influence the women's career in the hospitality industry in Chile?

Under that she talked about:

Women professionals and the work-family balance: literature review
Nature of the software services - which of course I would talk about hospitality services - and its impact on work-life balance
Methodology - they also did interviews
Findings - I would have to discuss them according to what I find in my data
Discussion and conclusion

I think this will probably be the best option.  Ok, now back to work because I have to continue doing a lot of reading.

Stressed, but alive and still going...

Finally I find a short moment to write on my blog before the end of the semester.  The past couple of weeks have been intense!  With five essays to complete by the end of the month, all my time is being spent reading and writing.  The hardest part is that I am slow at both!  So I'm surrounded by books and I keep going between one and the other looking for the stuff that I read that was really useful and that I know I read it in Weaver's book on Ecotourism... or was it Wearing?  Yes, it's been difficult and I feel the pressure more and more as I hear everyone finishing their papers and I am still behind.  It feels like I'm always behind.

This week I also met with my supervisor and he said I need to finish my essay as soon as possible, since I made the brilliant mistake to book my return ticket to Chile for the 28th of March, which happens to be two days before some of my deadlines.  When I booked the ticket of course I did not know it would be like this, and I guess I could just sit and write whatever, but I can't.  I can't because I want a good grade and I can't because the essay that I have to write for my Dissertation class really matters.  It is not just the basis for future work but it is actually most of the literature review I will do since as soon as I get to Chile I will be conducting my interviews... well, actually, it'll be as soon as my supervisor gives me the OK, which is why I need to read a lot and I need to read now!

The pressure is not making things easy though.  I'm tired.  I have been going to bed at 2 in the morning every night and waking up at 8 to try to work on everything and finish as fast as possible, but the lack of sleep is catching up with me and I just don't have time for it!  I have started to wonder if I should do my dissertation on Chile at all... the deadlines are coming so soon and I really want to do a good job.

Anyway, I guess I'm just venting.  Now to the point.  I have decided to do my dissertation topic on female leaders in the hospitality sector in Chile and my broad question is: Do women want to give up their career goals for their family or do they have to?  I have known a few female managers in hospitality who were really successful and, as they say, on the fast-track until they had children.  Then, they decided to give up their careers and either settle for a less demanding job or just not work at all.  While I know they did this because they wanted to be with their children, I wonder if also they felt like they didn't really have a choice.  Moreover, I wonder if they ever even considered that their husbands could take time off when the child was sick instead of them having to.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying women shouldn't take time off if they really want to.  I am not even saying that they should continue to have a career they no longer want if they really prefer to have more time with their children.  My question has to do with the fact that the alternative of having the man take time off is not even being considered.  Legislation certainly does not support it like it would in other countries such as Sweden.  If it did, and if men would consider it, would women keep their leadership roles?  Or would they still prefer to have more time at home?

I am going to do interviews.  I few of the people I am planning to interview I have worked with, but they are not my friends.  In fact, I haven't even really asked them yet, but I'm hoping they will participate.  A friend of mine also will help get in touch with a few more people and I'm considering interviewing men as well if I can get a hold of any male managers willing to discuss this topic.

For now I have found a few articles and books that I will list below in case you are interested.  However, most of the reading is still ahead of me.  I going to start today and I will try to finish by next Friday.  I am quickly running out of time and after this I have one more essay to write... I hope it all works out.  Now, to work!

Xiao, Q. and O’Neill, J. (2010), “Work-family balance as a potential strategic advantage: a hotel general manager perspective,” Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 34, pp. 415 – 439

Arber, S. and Gilbert, N. (ed.) (1992), Women and working lives: divisions and change, London: Macmillan
Stichter, S. and Parpart, J.L. (ed.) (1990), Women, employment and the family in the international division of labour, London: Macmillan

Witz, A. and Urry, J. (ed.) (1992), Professions and patriarchy, London: Routledge

Pinar, M., McCuddy, M., Birkan, I. and Kozak, M. (2011), ‘Gender diversity in the hospitality industry: an empirical study in Turkey,’ International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30, pp. 73 – 81.