Playing All the Roles: Gender and the Work-Family Balancing Act

Abstract

Much sociological research focuses on employed women's strains in negotiating paid work and family demands. Yet few studies examine women's subjective sense of success in balancing these spheres, especially compared with men. Using a sample of married, employed Americans from the 1996 General Social Survey, we examine feelings about work-family balance, and we find, unexpectedly, that women and men report similar levels of success and kinds of work-family tradeoffs. We find some gender differences, however. For men, imbalance is predicted by longer work hours, wives who work fewer hours, perceived unfairness in sharing housework, marital unhappiness, and tradeoffs made at work for family and at home for work. For women, only marital unhappiness and sacrifices at home are imbalancing, and for women who are employed full-time, young children are. The growing social science literature focusing on the intersection of work and family, as well as much media attention to this issue, testify to how balancing the competing and often overwhelming demands of paid work and family commitments is perhaps the most central challenge in women's lives as we enter a new century (Spain & Bianchi, 1996, p. x). Much recent scholarship has concentrated on the experiences and consequences of the second shift put in by employed women and the balancing act between work and family roles that women negotiate throughout their lives (Becker & Moen, 1998; Hochschild, 1989). Although the nature and consequences of employed women's negotiation of family and work have been well documented, we know less about how these women feel they are doing in balancing the two central roles of work and family and about the factors that affect their feelings of success. Additionally, there is little research that compares women's and men's perceptions of balance and the factors that relate to successful balance. To examine such perceptions, we use a gender perspective (Fenstermaker, West, & Zimmerman, 1991; Ferree, 1990; Pyke & Coltrane, 1996; South & Spitze, 1994), focusing on gender as a hierarchical structure that infuses everyday relations in the family and workplace. This perspective suggests that employed women and men have different role qualities-actual and felt expectations and demands-and that women's demands are higher overall. Additionally, women's location in the social structure affords them less power and control in work and family spheres and likely contributes to a greater total workload, more sacrifices, and difficulties in balancing work and family (Mirowsky & Ross, 1995; Pearlin, 1989). We first discuss the concept of balancing work and family and examine research on the related areas of time use, role harmony, and work-family tradeoffs. Using a representative sample of married employed people, we examine the level of success in balancing work and family that men and women report and the kinds of tradeoffs they make between paid work and family demands. Additionally, we examine how demographic characteristics, time use, role harmony, and tradeoffs relate to men's and women's feelings about balancing paid work and family life. THE BALANCING ACT: TIME AND THE EXPERIENCE OF BALANCE Paid work and family often are discussed in terms of their competing and incessant demands. With only 24 hours in each day and the requirement that we are present at a specific location or are working on certain tasks during particular hours, there are many expectations that may remain unmet. Because time spent on the job may indicate commitment to it and because time spent with one's children or spouse may indicate commitment or even love, it may be difficult to delegate responsibilities to others (Emmons, Biernat, Tiedje, Lang, & Wortman, 1990). The types of roles, as well as the characteristics of those roles, are important to consider in understanding the balancing of work and family. There is mixed evidence of the effects of combinations of roles on well-being. …