Exploring the social construction of life roles of career-oriented women.

The ever-growing number of women in the contemporary workforce is presenting numerous challenges to organisations, employees and their families. The aim of this study was therefore twofold, namely, to explore how 21st century career-oriented women attach meaning to their different life roles, as well as how they visualise integrating these over the next decade. A modernist qualitative methodology and grounded theory were applied. Rich, interesting data was obtained from which four themes were inferred implying career-oriented women still placing importance on the traditional mother role. The article concludes with indicating key implications of the findings and recommendations