Intergenerational Transmission of Organizational Ties As Resource to Young Women's Professional Development

Background and purpose

Economically marginalized women have been known to generate resourceful networks of support built of family, friends and social organizations. With Mario Small's Organizational Embeddedness concept as a theoretical framework, and from a feminist perspective, this study set out to examine the ways mothers living in economic scarcity may be sources of bridging social capital to their young adult daughters based on their relations with social support organizations. Specifically this study aims to understand in what circumstances social organizations become mothers' allies in supporting their daughters' transition to young adulthood. This is especially crucial in the context of the discourse on parental support during young adulthood which assumes middle/upper class privileges.

Method

This qualitative study included 40 in-depth semi-structured interviews with young women (aged 19-28) and their mothers, both belonging to marginal social groups in Israeli society in terms of class, gender, geography and ethnicity. This lecture will focus on 32 interviews with 16 mother-daughter dyads. Interviews were analyzed using the MAXQDA (qualitative data) software consistent with the constructive grounded theory strategies.

Findings

The intergenerational framework of this research allowed an examination of the viewpoints of both mothers and daughters generating an understanding of the process in which values, skills and practices of gaining access to organizational resources are passed on from mother to daughter. In this lecture, I propose a model of the intergenerational transmission of support relations between mothers, daughters and social organizations. My analysis elicited a long-lasting process which I have conceptualized along 3 main stages: 1) Mothers igniting relations of support with organizations; 2) Mothers maintaining relations of support with organizations benefiting themselves and their families of what Mario Small has termed organizational embeddedness (Small, 2009); 3) Young women leveraging organizational resources for their personal, educational and professional growth.

Conclusions and Implications for Practice

This study contributes to the literature on mother-daughter ties within marginal social locations and highlights the significance of organizational embeddedness as key to the creation and transmission of bridging social capital from mothers to their young adult daughters. Moreover, it adds to the discourse on parental support during young adulthood by turning attention to mothers providing in economic scarcity and recognizing the crucial resources they generate in the hope of enabling their young adult daughters' social mobility and personal growth.

In terms of implications for practice the study calls for the strengthening of mother-organizational ties and further development and enrichment of support relations between them as a resource for the mothers themselves; and as a base for enhancing bridging ties between mothers and their young adult daughters.