Work and Family: An Exercise in Mixed Methodology

Abstract

In order to present an exercise showing the importance of mixed methodology, this paper offers an exploratory approach to the simultaneous use of data sources clearly identified with qualitative and quantitative research styles. In doing so we took as a starting point a different platform than the one traditionally used in the field of labor studies, at least in Mexico. Instead of having as a main frame of reference a statistical database, we first analyzed qualitative information on a group of Mexican urban, middle-class women. One of the means we have found of linking the two sources has been to construct a typology—with quantitative data and similar to one previously elaborated in a qualitative study—to describe the possible links between four life trajectories (school, work, marriage and child-bearing). Combining a quantitative analysis with the results of a previous qualitative study was precisely what made it possible to both enrich and reinforce the proposal of the existence of diversity within homogeneity. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0801281