Abstract: The social stigma surrounding the experience of single motherhood has existed for generations. While these stigmas can be broadly explained by societal judgements of, “... sexual deviance, irresponsible choices and welfare dependency, a lack of parenting capacity and social exclusion due to father absence” (Wiegers & Chunn, 2015, p. 1) that do not adhere to traditional standards or norms, recent research has shown that the variants of this stigma shift significantly depending on the particular identities and social groups to which the single mother belongs. Kimberly Seals Allers calls this the single mother hierarchy, a system that “has been historically constructed by societal norms and patriarchal influences” and dictates who “bears the brunt of the social stigma of single motherhood and who does not” (Allers, 2016). Accordingly, society inherently categorizes single mothers in gradients of respectability depending on income, race, and the circumstances surrounding a woman’s identity as a single mother (Allers, 2016). It is important to note that while the setting of this specific study and Allers’ framing for the hierarchy is US-focused, research suggests that the single mother hierarchy exists globally to maintain and uphold a cultural affinity towards traditional notions of family, while simultaneously limiting the diversity within the single-mother experience (DelMonte, et al, 2014; Stack & Meredith, 2018). Identity, and the ways in which existing structures within the workplace interact with various employee identities and experiences, is a crucial topic for critical HRD scholars and practitioners to explore and aim to understand, as it is foundational to critically engaging with and challenging power, hierarchy and systems of oppression. A deeper look at single motherhood specifically within the workplace presents an opportunity to explore an often overlooked experience within the organizational setting. While there is a significant amount of literature dedicated to gender bias within the workplace and its negative outcomes for women (Diehl et al., 2020), emerging research with a more nuanced exploration of this topic illuminates a bias not just against women as a whole, but against mothers, who face different and more complex challenges at work when compared against their childless counterparts (Ogden, 2019; Williams & Cuddy, 2012). These challenges are compounded for single mothers who must navigate not only gender bias and motherhood bias, but also the landscape of the larger social stigmas attached to their identity as a single mother and how these same stigmas might show up at work in their professional landscape. For marginalized women, the weight of these challenges is even more profound given the complexities of the race, class and citizenship status identities within which these women may exist. For the purposes of this paper, we adopt Coe and Griffin’s (2020) definition of marginalization and Williams’ (2000) definition of marginalized identity groups. Whereas, marginalization represents “a complex, relational, and contextual phenomenon — [which] is an outcome of ideological and structural oppression wherein certain identity groups and their respective interests are relegated to the margins of political and public spheres” (2020, p.2) and marginalized identity groups are individuals who “experience patterns of social and political inequality” via membership in a group that is assigned “negative meanings . . . by the broader society or the dominant culture” (Williams, 2000, p. 16). Using an intersectional lens, this research will explore the ways in which the stigmatization of single motherhood presents within the workplace. The following research question explored is: How do stigmatized narratives of single motherhood inform the workplace experiences of working mothers with marginalized identities? Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews of 10-15 U.S. based, working mothers who self-identify as a single mother with at least one other marginalized identity (race, class, sexuality, etc.). Data will be analyzed using intersectional thematic analysis (Dillard & Osam, 2021). The goals of this research are twofold. Firstly, we hope to contribute to the ongoing conversation that aims to bring to light the importance of identity within topics important to HRD broadly, such as employee engagement, career development, organizational change and HRD theory development (Dillard & Osam, 2021; Gedro, 2017; Lee et al., 2017; Rocco et al., 2014). Secondly, as this article will underscore a focus on how women with marginalized identities (impoverished, undocumented, women of color, etc.) experience these narratives in the workplace, it is our hope to expand the work of critical HRD scholars (Rodriguez et al., 2016; Santamaría et al., 2022, etc.) who emphasize the significance and contributions of women with marginalized identities to the legacy and future of HRD scholarship.
