A Longitudinal Examination of Work–Family Balance among Working Mothers in the United States: Testing Bioecological Theory

The current study used a bioecological framework to examine three moderated-mediation models testing the mediating effects of positive work-to-family spillover and positive family-to-work spillover in the relationship between a nonstandard work schedule and work–family balance as well as between relationship quality and work-to-family balance. The moderating effects of education, family–friendly workplace policies, and race in the aforementioned models also were tested. Path analyses were used with longitudinal data from four-time periods to test the models. Results showed family-to-work spillover mediated the relationship between relationship quality and work–family balance in two models, whereas the availability of family–friendly policies significantly moderated these relationships. Relationship quality was one of the most consistently significant variables across all models, suggesting its role in helping establish work-family balance is particularly influential regardless of context. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

     

PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE: The impact of Nordic countries’ family friendly policies on employment,wages, and children

The Nordic countries at the same time exhibit a remarkably high participation rate of mothers and a more moderate decline in fertility rates compared to other Western countries. This has been attributed to the fact that the welfare state model and, especially, the family friendly policies chosen in the Nordic countries are unique. In this paper we evaluate the impact of Nordic countries’ family friendly policies on employment, wages and children’s well-being. We demonstrate that, although the ‘Nordic model’ has been successful in boosting female employment, it is a costly solution. Furthermore, family-friendly policies mainly directed towards giving mothers the right to be on long paid maternal leave have adverse effects on women’s wages with consequences for gender equality. Indeed, extensive family-friendly schemes may even have created a ‘system-based glass ceiling’ hindering women’s career progression. There is no evidence however of a trade-off between family-friendly policies and family welfare as effects on child development and children’s well-being of publicly provided child-care are found to be modest or even positive.

Work–Family Conflict and Fertility Intentions: Does Gender Matter?

Fertility among employed women remains far below their desired preferences. Although research has shown that fertility intentions significantly predict subsequent behavior, little is known about the factors that contribute to intentions. We assess the impacts of perceived self and partner work-to-family and family-to-work conflict on the fertility intentions of both women and men. Using a national probability sample of men and women in dual-earner families (N = 630), we find that men’s perceptions of their wives’ work–family conflict significantly predict men’s fertility intentions, even though men’s own work–family conflict does not. Neither women’s own work–family conflict nor their perceptions of their husbands’ work–family conflict predicts women’s fertility intentions.     

How can gender discrimination explain fertility behaviors and family-friendly policies?

This paper focuses on the interaction between gender discrimination and household decisions. It develops a model with endogenous fertility, endogenous labor supply and endogenous size of government spending. Family policies which concern childcare services are assumed to reduce the time that parents spend on their children. The model shows that gender discrimination may explain differences in household decisions between countries. The solution shows a U-shaped relationship between fertility and gender discrimination if the quality of childcare services is sufficiently high. In the decreasing part of this U-shaped curve, a decrease in the discrimination level implies a related increase in fertility, women’s participation in the labor force and in family-friendly policies.     

Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Survey Work–Home Interaction – NijmeGen,the SWING (SWING-J)

ABSTRACT

This study sought to validate the Japanese version of the Survey Work–Home Interaction – NijmeGen, the SWING, which assesses multi-dimensional work–family interaction by differentiating between the direction and quality of influence. We translated the SWING into the Japanese language, the SWING-J. A back-translation procedure confirmed that the translation was appropriate. A total of 2701 dual-earner parents with preschool children (1193 men and 1508 women) were surveyed. The complete questionnaire included the SWING-J, job and family domain variables, and well-being indicators. The reliability and factorial and convergent validity of the used measures were examined. As the results, four dimensions (i.e. work-to-family negative spillover, family-to-work negative spillover, work-to-family positive spillover and family-to-work positive spillover) were determined by an exploratory factor analysis. A series of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the hypothesized four-factor model provided a reasonably good fit to the data. Convergent validity was generally supported by the expected correlations of work–family spillovers with the possible predictors and consequences. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the four subscales of the SWING-J were satisfactory (0.75–0.86). The present study confirmed that the Japanese version of the SWING is an adequate tool to measure positive and negative spillover between working life and family life among Japanese workers.     

Work-to-Family and Family-to-Work Spillover: The Implications of Childcare Policy and Maximum Work-Hour Legislation

This paper addresses the relationship between individual-level work-to-family and family-to-work spillover and two country-level policy measures: childcare policy and maximum work hour legislation. Coupling Gornick and Meyers?? (Families that work: policies for reconciling parenthood and employment, 2003) policy measures with individual-level data (N?=?7,895) from the 2002 International Social Survey Programme, the authors analyze whether men and women in countries with stronger childcare policies and maximum work-hour legislation exhibit work-to-family and family-to-work spillover. The authors find that neither childcare policy nor maximum work-hour legislation is significantly associated with work-to-family spillover. Stronger childcare policy is associated with lower family-to-work spillover for women, especially for women with young children. Maximum-hour legislation is associated with greater family-to-work spillover for women, with a significantly larger effect for mothers of young children.     

Good Jobs, Good Deeds: The Gender-Specific Influences of Job Characteristics on Volunteering

While research has shown that having a “good” job significantly promotes formal volunteering, we have limited knowledge of how this paid work-to-volunteer work relationship may differ between men and women. Based on the gender-identification spillover theory, we hypothesize that because of the societal expectations that women should be caring, giving and communal, positive job traits such as authority and autonomy promote women’s volunteering more than men’s. Our analysis of data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States shows that women who exercise supervisory authority on the job volunteer significantly more hours than women who do not, whereas job authority makes no difference in the number of hours volunteered for men. Meanwhile, job autonomy promotes men’s volunteering, but not women’s. Implications of these and related findings for future research on gender and volunteering are discussed.     

“Whoa! They Could’ve Arrested <Emphasis Type="Italic">Me</Emphasis>!”: Unsuccessful Identity Claims of Women During Police Response to Intimate Partner Violence

Many jurisdictions in the U.S. have implemented mandatory arrest policies in an attempt to limit police officers’ discretion in their arrest decisions when responding to intimate partner violence calls. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with female victims of intimate partner violence, I explore the ways in which mandatory arrest policies have influenced the identity work of women during their interactions with police officers. I focus specifically on women’s “unsuccessful” identity claims: situations where women are unable to convince police officers that they are victims and situations where women are unable to convince officers that they are not victims. I examine the strategies that women use during their identity work and explore the consequences of women’s failed self presentations under mandatory arrest policies, the most significant of which is a woman’s arrest. I argue that under mandatory arrest policies, for many women, the risk of failed identity work is even more consequential than before these policies were established.     

Youth supervision while mothers work: a daily diary study of maternal worry

Using data from a daily diary study of hourly hotel employees in the US and their children, this study examined links between youth supervision arrangements and maternal worry while at work, examining both differences between individuals and day-to-day variation within individuals. Multilevel model analyses revealed both between- and within-person effects linking youth supervision to maternal worry. Mothers’ partner status functioned as moderator, and maternal knowledge also emerged as a protective factor when youth were in self-care, highlighting a potential target for future work–family interventions, particularly those for hourly employees with limited access to family-friendly workplace policies.     

Youth perceptions about parental spillover: influences and impacts

Work and family mutually influence one another. Whereas evidence supports the impact of spillover between these domains on employees and employers, less evidence exists about how it affects other family members, especially children. Using spillover theory as a framework, youth participants (N=111) completed a self-report survey to test parental spillover and work attitudes. Correlation and independent t-test analyses helped answer hypotheses about the role of family structure on youth perceptions of positive and negative spillover as well as on youth reports of anxiety. Results suggest family structure does impact perceptions of positive spillover and that youth perceptions of negative parental spillover is related to levels of anxiety. These findings are important since the impact of parental spillover on youth largely is absent from spillover research.     

Self- and Spouse-Reported Work–Family Conflict and Dual-Earners’ Job Satisfaction

We add to the literature on job satisfaction by examining the role played by self-reported and spouse-reported work–family conflict for dual-earner husbands and wives (N = 156 couples, 312 individuals), a contagion model of work and family. Two path models of job satisfaction were tested: a spillover model, including the respondent's work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict, and a crossover model, including the spouse's perception of the respondent's work-to-family conflict. Workplace and family/respondent characteristics were also included in the models. For wives, job satisfaction is associated with family-to-work conflict (spillover). For husbands, job satisfaction is associated with his spouse's perception of his work-to-family conflict (crossover). For both husbands and wives, coworker support is both directly and indirectly associated with job satisfaction.     

Integrating feminist and sociological thought: The life and work of helena Znaniecka Lopata

This work is a biographical essay on the academic career of Helena Znaniecka Lopata, a noted sociologist in her own right and the daughter of Florian Znaniecki, a principal contributor to qualitative and humanistic sociology. Lopata’s story documents the difficulties of establishing a career in a social climate that did not place high value on women beyond their wife and mothering roles. Once she defied her cultural expectations, she also had to overcome the shadow of her father’s legacy and, finally, she had to find acceptance for doing research on women’s everyday life experiences. Lopata’s work provides important insights into the sociological study of social roles and of gender as a structural component of stratified social systems. She has published articles on the women’s movement, politics and the family, and the abortion controversy. Her book,Feminism and the Women’s Movement: Dynamics of Change in Social Movement Ideology and Activism, is forthcoming from Unwin Hyman. A version of this paper was presented at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA.     

Family,Work, Work‐Family Spillover,and Problem Drinking During Midlife

Using ecological theory as a theoretical framework, this study systematically examined the associations between multiple dimensions of family relationship quality, work characteristics, work‐family spillover, and problem drinking among a national sample of employed, midlife adults (n= 1,547 ). Multivariate analyses confirmed that work and family microsystem factors were associated with problem drinking above and beyond individual characteristics. Consistent with previous research, results indicated that a higher level of marital disagreement and more work‐related pressure were associated with higher odds of problem drinking. Results also indicated that a higher level of positive spillover from family to work was associated with lower odds of problem drinking, whereas a higher level of positive spillover from work to family was associated with higher odds of problem drinking. Psychological well‐being did not account for the association between work and family factors and problem drinking. Associations were similar for men and women.     

I would if I could: precarious employment and childbearing intentions in Italy

This paper carries out an investigation into the socio-economic determinants of childbearing decisions made by couples in Italy. The analysis accounts for the characteristics of both possible parents. Our results do not support established theoretical predictions according to which the increase in the opportunity cost of motherhood connected to higher female labour participation is responsible for the fall in fertility. On the contrary, the instability of women’s work status (i.e. having occasional, precarious, and low-paid positions) is revealed as a significant dissuasive factor in the decision to have children. Couples in which there is an unemployed woman are less likely to plan childbearing as well. Other relevant explanatory variables are women’s age, men’s work status and education, women’s citizenship, marital status and perceived economic well-being.     

HOME-TO-JOB AND JOB-TO-HOME SPILLOVER: The Impact of Company Policies and Workplace Culture

We draw on gender theory and neo-institutional theory to examine the impact of workplace characteristics and family demands on negative job-to-home and home-to-job spillover. Our multivariate analyses of the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce data indicate that family-supportive workplace cultures reduce negative spillover in both directions, whereas the availability of company policies, such as dependent care benefits and flextime, do not. Our results also show that family demands increase spillover more for women than for men. Our findings suggest that the atmosphere of the workplace is more important than the availability of company policies in reducing negative spillover.     

Live-in Foreign Domestic Workers and their Impact on Hong Kong’s Middle Class Families

This paper discusses the impact of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) on parental roles and family dynamics of Hong Kong’s middle class families. The increase in married women’s labor force participation in Hong Kong has led to a greater demand for childcare, which has been filled by FDWs. Based on interviews with 15 dual-earner couples in middle class nuclear families employing FDWs, how FDWs affect the mother’s gender role and family dynamics is discussed. Boundary work is used by parents in their daily interaction with their children and their FDWs so as to reconcile the perceived indispensability of these workers on the one hand, and the challenges they pose to the definition of parenthood on the other. This research was funded by a Lingnan University Social Sciences Program Research Grant RES/SOC010/978. I am grateful to the guest editors and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.     

Dual Earner Husbands and Wives: Marital Satisfaction and the Workplace Culture of Each Spouse

This article focuses on the relationship between workplace culture and marital satisfaction for dual-earner husbands and wives (N?=?156 couples). We use contagion theory as a framework, and posit that the experiences of both partners contribute to perceptions of marital satisfaction held by individual spouses. Breaking workplace culture into three components (time demands, work pressure, and workplace social support), we find evidence in the full model of both individual (spillover) and spousal (crossover) effects for the marital satisfaction of dual-earner wives, and spousal (crossover) effects for dual-earner husbands. In particular, our analyses highlight the important role played by wives?? workplace social support. Implications of the study are discussed.     

The “Peculiar Eclipsing” of Women in Sociological Theory: Moving from Nearly Total to Partial

This paper revisits the observation made by Ward and Grant (Current Perspective in Social Theory 11:117–140, 1991) that there had been a “peculiar eclipsing” of women in sociological theory. It provides longitudinal studies of women’s participation and recognition in three conventional outlets for sociological theorizing: the theory section of the American Sociological Association (ASA); sociological theory textbooks; and sociological theory journals. It finds that the percentage of ASA Theory Section members who were women increased from 12% in 1982 to 31% in 2008, but is not nearly as high as the 53% in all ASA sections taken together; that women’s recognition in sociological theory textbooks grew, more between the 1980s and the 2000s than between the 1960s and the 1980s, undoubtedly reflecting the increasing respectability of feminist theory within the profession; and that women’s relative participation as authors in sociology theory journals increased from the 1980s to the 2000s by about 33%, but nowhere near as much as their participation as authors in the American Sociological Review, where their relative participation in the 2000s was more than three times what it had been in the 1980s. We speculate that, given women’s increasing leadership roles in both the Theory section and the theory journals, women may be using less conventional outlets for their theorizing than is offered by either the section or the journals.     

Work–Family Balance and Tenure Reasonableness: Gender Differences in Faculty Assessment

Abstract

Perceptions of work–family balance and of the reasonableness of tenure expectations are key faculty retention factors. Using a national job satisfaction survey with 2438 tenure-track assistant professors, we explore whether faculty assessment of departmental and institutional support for family–work balance and their satisfaction with family-friendly policies influence their perceptions of the reasonableness of tenure expectations. We pay attention to the importance of gender in our models. Results reveal that women are less likely than men to report tenure expectations as scholars are reasonable and that departments and institutions are supportive of family–work balance. Departmental support for family–work balance, caring for an ill family member, satisfaction with family-friendly policies, and workload have the strongest association with reasonableness. Satisfaction with family-friendly policies has a significant relationship with reasonableness of tenure expectations only for faculty with family care responsibilities. Implications for family-friendly policies and practices in academia are discussed.     

Marital Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Women’s Autonomy and Socioeconomic Situation Matter?

One key hypothesis that has received considerable attention in recent family discourse is the notion that improvements in women’s socioeconomic circumstances (also called female autonomy) has a positive effect on familial processes and outcomes such as marital instability. Absent from this debate are cross-cultural research that test the applicability of these findings with non-U.S. data. We use representative data from Ghana to explore whether dimensions of women’s autonomy have the hypothesized positive effect on divorce processes in Africa. Consistent with findings from the United States, results from our African data demonstrate that women’s autonomy has a positive effect on divorce. This observation is true not only with the use of conventional autonomy measures such as work and education, but also with regard to institutional measures of autonomy such as matrilineal kinship ties.Baffour K. Takyi, Department of Sociology, Olin 266, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-1905; e- mail: btakyi@uakron.edu.Christopher L. Broughton, Department of Sociology, Olin 266, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-1905; e-mail: Christopher.L.Broughton@cmsdnet.net.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the North Central Sociological Society, April 13–16, 2000, Pittsburgh, PA. We are grateful to several anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.