This study explores the lived career experiences of women managers with children in Sweden. Drawing on existing theory on flexible careers which proposes that multiple contexts – institutional, organizational and individual - shape employees' career decisions, we present findings from a study of 34 career mothers in dual-income households within a large engineering company in Sweden. We show that the institutional context in Sweden, with its shared parental leave, is an important element in the women's career decisions by directly mandating the fathers' engagement with childcare and home roles and indirectly fostering a family-supportive organizational culture. We theorize that the family context needs to be incorporated into existing theoretical models and specifically demonstrate how continuing shared childcare roles between the parents is critical to mothers' career outcomes. We evidence the various ways in which fathers engage with home responsibilities and how that influences the mothers' career decisions. Furthermore, we argue that the institutional environment has consequences which cascade down to each of the other contextual levels and that the importance of the different contexts can vary according to the work-care regime. We therefore challenge recent research which claims that the industry ecosystem is the crucial force in shaping women's careers.

本研究探讨了瑞典有孩子的女性经理的职业经历。借鉴现有的关于灵活职业的理论，该理论提出多种背景——制度、组织和个人——影响员工的职业决策，我们展示了对瑞典一家大型工程公司内双收入家庭的 34 名职业母亲的研究结果。我们表明，瑞典的制度环境及其共享的育儿假是女性职业决策的一个重要因素，它直接要求父亲参与育儿和家庭角色，并间接培养支持家庭的组织文化。我们的理论认为，家庭背景需要纳入现有的理论模型，并具体证明父母之间持续分担的育儿角色对母亲的职业成果至关重要。我们证明了父亲承担家庭责任的各种方式，以及这如何影响母亲的职业决策。此外，我们认为制度环境的后果会向下级联到其他每个上下文级别，并且不同上下文的重要性会根据工作护理制度而有所不同。因此，我们质疑最近的研究，该研究声称行业生态系统是塑造女性职业的关键力量。我们证明了父亲承担家庭责任的各种方式，以及这如何影响母亲的职业决策。此外，我们认为制度环境的后果会向下级联到其他每个上下文级别，并且不同上下文的重要性会根据工作护理制度而有所不同。因此，我们质疑最近的研究，该研究声称行业生态系统是塑造女性职业的关键力量。我们证明了父亲承担家庭责任的各种方式，以及这如何影响母亲的职业决策。此外，我们认为制度环境的后果会向下级联到其他每个上下文级别，并且不同上下文的重要性会根据工作护理制度而有所不同。因此，我们质疑最近的研究，该研究声称行业生态系统是塑造女性职业的关键力量。