research papers on work life balance of female employees

Work-life balance -a systematic review

Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management

ISSN : 0973-1954

Article publication date: 15 December 2021

Issue publication date: 31 July 2023

This study aims to systematically review the existing literature and develop an understanding of work-life balance (WLB) and its relationship with other forms of work-related behavior and unearth research gaps to recommend future research possibilities and priorities.

Design/methodology/approach

The current study attempts to make a detailed survey of the research work done by the pioneers in the domain WLB and its related aspects. A total of 99 research work has been included in this systematic review. The research works have been classified based on the year of publication, geographical distribution, the methodology used and the sector. The various concepts and components that have made significant contributions, factors that influence WLB, importance and implications are discussed.

The paper points to the research gaps and scope for future research in the area of WLB.

Originality/value

The current study uncovered the research gaps regarding the systematic review and classifications based on demography, year of publication, the research method used and sector being studied.

Work-life balance
Flexibility
Individual’s ability to balance work-life
Support system
WLB policy utilization
Societal culture

S., T. and S.N., G. (2023), "Work-life balance -a systematic review", Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management , Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 258-276. https://doi.org/10.1108/XJM-10-2020-0186

Emerald Publishing Limited

Published in Vilakshan – XIMB Journal of Management . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence maybe seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

In this technological era, work is becoming demanding with changing nature of work and working patterns (Thilagavathy and Geetha, 2020 ). The proactive, aggressive and demanding nature of business with the intention of reaching the top requires active involvement and comprehensive devotion from the employees, thereby compromising their work-life balance (WLB) (Turanlıgil and Farooq, 2019 ). Research concerning the work-life interface has exploded over the past five decades because of the changing trends in the nature of gender roles, families, work and careers (Powell et al. , 2019 ). Researchers in this domain has published many literature reviews with regard to WLB. It is argued that the study of WLB remains snowed under by a lack of conceptual clarity (Perrigino et al. , 2018 ). Thus, research and theory only partially view the employees’ work-life needs and experiences.

How WLB is conceptualized in the past?

What are the factors that significantly influenced WLB?

In which geographical areas were the WLB studies undertaken?

Which sectors remain unstudied or understudied with regard to WLB?

Methodology

We systematically conducted the literature review with the following five steps, as shown in Figure 1 . The first step was to review the abstracts from the database like EBSCO, Science Direct, Proquest and JSTOR. The articles from publishers like ELSEVIER, Emerald insight, Springer, Taylor and Francis and Sage were considered. The literature survey was conducted using the search terms WLB, balancing work and family responsibility and domains of work and life between the period 1990 to 2019. This search process led to the identification of 1,230 relevant papers. Inclusion criteria: The scholarly articles concerning WLB published in the English language in journals listed in Scopus, web of science or Australian business deans council (ABDC) were included in this review. Exclusion criteria: The scholarly articles concerning WLB published in languages other than English were not taken into consideration. Similarly, unpublished papers and articles published in journals not listed in Scopus, web of science or ABDC were excluded.

In the second step, we identified the duplicates and removed them. Thus, the total number of papers got reduced to 960. Following this, many papers relating to work-life spillover and work-life conflict were removed, resulting in further reduction of the papers to 416. Subsequently, in the third step, the papers were further filtered based on the language. The paper in the English language from journals listed in Scopus, web of science or ABDC were only considered. This search process resulted in the reduction of related papers to 93. The fourth step in the search process was further supplemented with the organic search for the related articles, leading to 99 papers illustrated in Appendix Table 1 . In the fifth step, an Excel sheet was created to review the paper under different headings and the results are as follows.

Literature review

Evolution and conceptualization of work-life balance.

WLB concern was raised earlier by the working mothers of the 1960s and 1970s in the UK. Later the issue was given due consideration by the US Government during the mid of 1980. During the 1990s WLB gained adequate recognition as the issue of human resource management in other parts of the world (Bird, 2006 ). The scholarly works concerning WLB have increased, mainly because of the increasing strength of the women workforce, technological innovations, cultural shifts in attitudes toward the relationship between the work and the family and the diversity of family structures (Greenhaus and Kossek, 2014 ). The research works on WLB include several theoretical work-family models. Though the research on WLB has expanded to a greater extend, there are considerable gaps in our knowledge concerning work-family issues (Powell et al. , 2019 ).

Moreover, in studies where WLB and related aspects are explored, researchers have used different operational definitions and measurements for the construct. Kalliath and Brough (2008) have defined WLB as “The individual’s perception that work and non-work activities are compatible and promote growth in accordance with an individual’s current life priorities.” WLB is “a self-defined, self-determined state of well being that a person can reach, or can set as a goal, that allows them to manage effectively multiple responsibilities at work, at home and in their community; it supports physical, emotional, family, and community health, and does so without grief, stress or negative impact” (Canadian Department of Labor, as cited in Waters and Bardoel, 2006 ).

Figure 2 depicts the flowchart of the framework for the literature survey. It clearly shows the factors that have been surveyed in this research article.

Individual factors

The individual factors of WLB include demographic variables, personal demands, family demands, family support and individual ability.

Work-life balance and demography.

WLB has significant variations with demographic variables (Waters and Bardoel, 2006 ). A significant difference was found between age (Powell et al. , 2019 ), gender (Thilagavathy and Geetha, 2020 ) and marital status (Powell et al. , 2019 ) regarding WLB. There is a significant rise in women’s participation in the workforce (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). WLB issues are higher for dual-career couples (Crawford et al. , 2019 ).

Many studies were conducted on WLB with reference to sectors like information technology (IT), information technology enabled services, Banking, Teaching, Academics and Women Employment. A few WLB studies are conducted among services sector employees, hotel and catering services, nurses, doctors, middle-level managers and entrepreneurs. Only very scarce research has been found concerning police, defense, chief executive officers, researchers, lawyers, journalists and road transport.

Work-life balance and personal demands.

High work pressure and high family demand lead to poor physical, psychological and emotional well-being (Jensen and Knudsen, 2017 ), causing concern to employers as this leads to reduced productivity and increased absenteeism (Jackson and Fransman, 2018 ).

Work-life balance and family demands.

An employee spends most of the time commuting (Denstadli et al. , 2017 ) or meeting their work and family responsibilities. Dual career couple in the nuclear family finds it difficult to balance work and life without domestic help (Dumas and Perry-Smith, 2018 ; Srinivasan and Sulur Nachimuthu, 2021 ). Difficulty in a joint family is elderly care (Powell et al. , 2019 ). Thus, family demands negatively predict WLB (Haar et al. , 2019 ).

Work-life balance and family support.

Spouse support enables better WLB (Dumas and Perry-Smith, 2018 ). Family support positively impacted WLB, especially for dual-career couples, with dependent responsibilities (Groysberg and Abrahams, 2014 ).

Work-life balance and individual’s ability.

Though the organizations implement many WLB policies, employees still face the problems of WLB (Dave and Purohit, 2016 ). Employees achieve better well-being through individual coping strategies (Zheng et al. , 2016 ). Individual resources such as stress coping strategy, mindfulness emotional intelligence positively predicted WLB (Kiburz et al. , 2017 ). This indicates the imperative need to improve the individual’s ability to manage work and life.

Organizational factor

Organizational factors are those relating to organization design in terms of framing policies, rules and regulations for administering employees and dealing with their various activities regarding WLB ( Kar and Misra, 2013 ). In this review, organizational factors and their impact on the WLB of the employee have been dealt with in detail.

Work-life balance and organizational work-life policies.

The organization provides a variety of WLB policies (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). Employee-friendly policies positively influenced WLB ( Berg et al. , 2003 ). Further, only a few IT industries provided Flexi timing, work from home and crèches facilities (Downes and Koekemoer, 2012 ). According to Galea et al. (2014) , industry-specific nuance exists.

Work-life balance and organizational demands.

Organizations expect employees to multi-task, causing role overload (Bacharach et al. , 1991 ). The increasing intensity of work and tight deadlines negatively influenced WLB (Allan et al. , 1999 ). The shorter time boundaries make it challenging to balance professional and family life (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). Job demands negatively predicted WLB (Haar et al. , 2019 ).

Work-life balance and working hours.

Work does vacuum up a greater portion of the personal hours (Haar et al. , 2019 ). This causes some important aspects of their lives to be depleted, undernourished or ignored (Hughes et al. , 2018 ). Thus, employees find less time for “quality” family life (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ).

Work-life balance and productivity.

Organizational productivity is enhanced by the synergies of work-family practices and work-team design (Johari et al. , 2018 ). Enhanced WLB leads to increased employee productivity (Jackson and Fransman, 2018 ).

Work-life balance and burnout.

WLB is significantly influenced by work exhaustion (burnout). Negative psychological experience arising from job stress is defined as burnout (Ratlif, 1988). Increased work and non-work demands contribute to occupational burnout and, in turn, negatively predict WLB and employee well-being (Jones et al. , 2019 ).

Work-life balance and support system.

Support from Colleagues, supervisors and the head of institutions positively predicted WLB (Ehrhardt and Ragins, 2019 ; Yadav and Sharma, 2021 ). Family-supportive organization policy positively influenced WLB (Haar and Roche, 2010 ).

Work-life balance and employee perception.

The employee’s perception regarding their job, work environment, supervision and organization positively influenced WLB (Fontinha et al. , 2019 ). Employees’ awareness concerning the existence of WLB policies is necessary to appreciate it (Matthews et al. , 2014). The employee’s perception of the need for WLB policies differs with respect to their background (Kiburz et al. , 2017 ).

Work-life balance and job autonomy.

Job autonomy is expressed as the extent of freedom the employee has in their work and working pattern ( Bailey, 1993 ). According to Ahuja and Thatcher (2005) , autonomy and flexibility enable employees to balance competing demands of work-life. Job autonomy will enhance WLB (Johari et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction is the driving force for task accomplishment and employees’ intention to stay (Brough et al. , 2014 ). Employees’ positive perception concerning their job enhances job satisfaction (Singh et al. , 2020 ; Yadav and Sharma, 2021 ). WLB and job satisfaction are positively correlated (Jackson and Fransman, 2018 ).

Work-life balance and organizational commitment.

Alvesson (2002) describes organizational commitment as a mutual and fair social exchange. WLB positively predicted organizational commitment (Emre and De Spiegeleare, 2019 ). Work-life policies offered by an organization lead to increased loyalty and commitment (Callan, 2008 ).

Work-life balance and work-life balance policy utilization.

The utilization of WLB policies (Adame-Sánchez et al. , 2018 ) helps meet job and family demands. Despite the availability of WLB policies, their actual adoption is rather small (Waters and Bardoel, 2006 ) and often lag behind implementation (Adame-Sánchez et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and organizational culture.

Employees perceive WLB policy utilization may badly reflect their performance appraisal and promotion (Bourdeau et al. , 2019 ). Hence, seldom use the WLB policies (Dave and Purohit, 2016 ). The perception of the organization culture as isolated, unfriendly and unaccommodating (Fontinha et al. , 2017 ); a lack of supervisor and manager support and a lack of communication and education about WLB strategies (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). This leads to counterproductive work behavior and work-family backlash (Alexandra, 2014 ). As a result, growing evidence suggests a dark side to WLB policies, but these findings remain scattered and unorganized (Perrigino et al. , 2018 ). Organizational culture significantly affects WLB policy utilization (Callan, 2008 ; Dave and Purohit, 2016 ).

Societal factors

Societal changes that have taken place globally and locally have impacted the individual’s lifestyle. In this modern techno world, a diversified workforce resulting from demographic shifts and communication technology results in blurring of boundaries between work and personal life (Kalliath and Brough, 2008 ).

Work-life balance and societal demands.

Being members of society, mandates employee’s participation in social events. But in the current scenario, this is witnessing a downward trend. The employee often comes across issues of inability to meet the expectation of friends, relatives and society because of increased work pressure. Societal demands significantly predicted WLB (Mushfiqur et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and societal culture.

Societal culture has a strong influence on WLB policy utilization and work and non-work self-efficacy. Specifically, collectivism, power distance and gendered norms had a strong and consistent impact on WLB Policy utilization by employees (Brown et al. , 2019 ). Women’s aspiration to achieve WLB is frequently frustrated by patriarchal norms deep-rooted in the culture (Mushfiqur et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and societal support.

WLB was significantly predicted by support from neighbors, friends and community members (Mushfiqur et al. , 2018 ). Sometimes employees need friend’s viewpoints to get a new perspective on a problem or make a tough decision (Dhanya and Kinslin, 2016 ). Community support is an imperative indicator of WLB ( Phillips et al. , 2016 ).

Analyzes and results

Article distribution based on year of publication.

The WLB studies included for this review were between the periods of 1990–2019. Only a few studies were published in the initial period. A maximum of 44 papers was published during 2016–2019. Out of which, 17 studies were published during the year 2019. In the years 2018, 2017 and 2016 a total of 12, 7 and 8 studies were published, respectively. The details of the article distribution over the years illustrate a rising trend, as shown in Figure 3 .

Geographical distribution

Papers considered for this review were taken globally, including the research works from 26 countries. American and European countries contributed to a maximum of 60% of the publications regarding WLB research. Figure 4 illustrates the contribution of different countries toward the WLB research.

Basic classification

The review included 99 indexed research work contributed by more than 70 authors published in 69 journals. The contribution worth mentioning was from authors like Allen T.D, Biron M, Greenhaus J. H, Haar J.M, Jensen M.T, Kalliath T and Mc Carthy A. The basic categorization revealed that the geographical distribution considered for this review was from 26 different countries, as shown in Figure 4 . The research was conducted in (but not limited to) countries like Africa, Australia, Canada, China, India, Israel, The Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, the USA and the UK. American and European countries together contributed to the maximum of 60% of publications. Further, the categorization uncovered that 7 out of the 99 journals contributed to 30% of the WLB papers considered for this review, clearly illustrated in Table 1 .

Methodology-based categorization of papers

The basic information like research methods, sources of data, the proportion of papers using specific methodologies were considered for methodology-based categorization. The categorization revealed that 27 out of 99 papers reviewed were conceptual and the remaining 72 papers were empirical. The empirical papers used descriptive, exploratory, explanatory or experimental research designs. Further, categorization based on the data collection method revealed that 69 papers used the primary data collection method. Additionally, classification uncovered that 57 papers used the quantitative method, whereas 11 papers used the qualitative approach and four used the mixed method. The most prominent primary method used for data collection was the questionnaire method with 58 papers, while the remaining 20 papers used interview (10), case study (5), experimental studies (3), daily dairy (1) or panel discussion (1).

Sector-based categorization of papers

The sector-based categorization of papers revealed that 41.6% (30 papers) of research work was carried out in service sectors. This is followed by 40.2% (29 papers) research in the general public. While one paper was found in the manufacturing sector, the remaining nine papers focused on managers, women, the defense sector, police and the public sector, the details of which are showcased in Table 2 .

Research gap

Individual factor.

The literature survey results demonstrated that the impact of employee education and experience on their WLB had not been examined.

The literature survey has uncovered that the relationship between income and WLB has not been explored.

The influence of domestic help on WLB has not been investigated.

Much of the research work has been carried out in developed countries like the US, UK, European countries and Australia. In contrast, very scarce research works have been found in developing countries and underdeveloped countries.

Not much work has been done in WLB regarding service sectors like fire-fighters, transport services like drivers, railway employees, pilots, air hostesses, power supply department and unorganized sectors.

A review of the relevant literature uncovered that studies concerning the individual’s ability to balance work and life are limited. The individual’s ability, along with WLB policies, considerably improved WLB. Individual strategies are the important ones that need investigation rather than workplace practices.

Kibur z et al . (2017) addressed the ongoing need for experimental, intervention-based design in work-family research. There are so far very scares experimental studies conducted with regard to WLB.

Organizational factor.

A very few studies explored the impact of the WLB policies after the implementation.

Studies concerning the organizational culture, psychological climate and WLB policy utilizations require investigation.

Organizational climates influence on the various factors that predict WLB needs exploration.

Societal factor.

The impact of the societal factors on WLB is not explored much.

Similarly, the influence of societal culture (societal beliefs, societal norms and values systems) on WLB is not investigated.

Discussion and conclusion

The current research work aspires to conduct a systematic review to unearth the research gaps, and propose direction for future studies. For this purpose, literature with regard to WLB was systematically surveyed from 1990 to 2019. This led to identifying 99 scientific research papers from index journals listed in Scopus, the web of science or the ABDC list. Only papers in the English language were considered. The review section elaborated on the evolution and conceptualization of WLB. Moreover, the literature review discussed in detail the relationship between WLB and other related variables. Further, the research works were classified based on the fundamental information revealed that a maximum of 44 papers was published during the year 2016–2019. The geographical distribution revealed that a maximum of research publications concerning WLB was from American and European countries. Further, the basic classification revealed that 7 out of the 69 journals contributed to 30% of the WLB papers considered for this review. The methodology-based classification unearthed the fact that 73% of the papers were empirical studies. Additionally, the categorization uncovered that 79% ( n = 57) of papers used quantitative methods dominated by survey method of data collection. Sector-based categorization made known the fact that a maximum of 41.6% of research work was carried out in the service sector. The research gaps were uncovered based on the systematic literature review and classifications and proposed future research directions.

Limitations

We acknowledge that there is a possibility of missing out a few papers unintentionally, which may not be included in this review. Further, papers in the English language were only considered. Thus, the papers in other languages were not included in this systematic review which is one of the limitations of this research work.

Implications

The discussion reveals the importance and essentiality of the individual’s ability to balance work and life. Consequently, the researchers have proposed future research directions exploring the relationship between the variables. WLB is an important area of research; thus, the proposed research directions are of importance to academicians. The review’s finding demonstrates that there are very scarce studies on the individual’s ability to balance work and life. This leaves a lot of scopes for researchers to do continuous investigation in this area. Hence, it is essential to conduct more research on developing individuals’ ability to balance work and life. There are a few experimental studies conducted so far in WLB. Future experimental studies can be undertaken to enhance the individual’s ability to balance work and life.

research papers on work life balance of female employees

Flow chart of the steps in systematic review process

Framework for the literature review

Distribution of papers based on year of publication

Geographical distribution of papers across countries

Journals details

Table 1 List of papers included in the review

Adame-Sánchez , C. , Caplliure , E.M. and Miquel-Romero , M.J. ( 2018 ), “ Paving the way for competition: drivers for work-life balance policy implementation ”, Review of Managerial Science , Vol. 12 No. 2 , pp. 519 - 533 , doi: 10.1007/s11846-017-0271-y .

Ahuja , M. and Thatcher , J. ( 2005 ), “ Moving beyond intentions and towards the theory of trying: effects of work environment and gender on post-adoption information technology use ”, MIS Quarterly , Vol. 29 No. 3 , pp. 427 - 459 .

Allan , C. , O'Donnell , M. and Peetz , D. ( 1999 ), “ More tasks, less secure, working harder: three dimensions of labour utilization ”, Journal of Industrial Relations , Vol. 41 No. 4 , pp. 519 - 535 , doi: 10.1177/002218569904100403 .

Alvesson ( 2002 ), Understanding Organizational Culture , Sage Publications , London . 10.4135/9781446280072

Bacharach , S.B. , Bamberger , R. and Conely , S. ( 1991 ), “ Work-home conflict among nurses and engineers: mediating the impact of stress on burnout and satisfaction at work ”, Journal of Organizational Behavior , Vol. 12 No. 1 , pp. 39 - 63 , doi: 10.1002/job.4030120104 .

Bailey , T.R. ( 1993 ), “ Discretionary effort and the organization of work: employee participation and work reform since Hawthorne ”, Teachers College and Conservation of Human Resources , Columbia University .

Bardoel , E.A. ( 2006 ), “ Work-life balance and human resource development ”, Holland , P. and De Cieri , H. (Eds), Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Development: An Australian Perspective , Pearson Education , Frenchs Forest, NSW , pp. 237 - 259 .

Berg , P. , Kalleberg , A.L. and Appelbaum , E. ( 2003 ), “ Balancing work and family: the role of high - commitment environments ”, Industrial Relations , Vol. 42 No. 2 , pp. 168 - 188 , doi: 10.1111/1468-232X.00286 .

Bird , J. ( 2006 ), “ Work-life balance: doing it right and avoiding the pitfalls ”, Employment Relations Today , Vol. 33 No. 3 , pp. 21 - 30 , doi: 10.1002/ert.20114 .

Bourdeau , S. , Ollier-Malaterre , A. and Houlfort , N. ( 2019 ), “ Not all work-life policies are created equal: career consequences of using enabling versus enclosing work-life policies ”, Academy of Management Review , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 172 - 193 , doi: 10.5465/amr.2016.0429 .

Brough , P. , Timm , C. , Driscoll , M.P.O. , Kalliath , T. , Siu , O.L. , Sit , C. and Lo , D. ( 2014 ), “ Work-life balance: a longitudinal evaluation of a new measure across Australia and New Zealand workers ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 25 No. 19 , pp. 2724 - 2744 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2014.899262 .

Callan , S.J. ( 2008 ), “ Cultural revitalization: the importance of acknowledging the values of an organization's ‘golden era’ when promoting work-life balance ”, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal , Vol. 3 No. 1 , pp. 78 - 97 , doi: 10.1108/17465640810870409 .

Crawford , W.S. , Thompson , M.J. and Ashforth , B.E. ( 2019 ), “ Work-life events theory: making sense of shock events in dual-earner couples ”, Academy of Management Review , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 194 - 212 , doi: 10.5465/amr.2016.0432 .

Dave , J. and Purohit , H. ( 2016 ), “ Work-life balance and perception: a conceptual framework ”, The Clarion- International Multidisciplinary Journal , Vol. 5 No. 1 , pp. 98 - 104 .

Denstadli , J.M. , Julsrud , T.E. and Christiansen , P. ( 2017 ), “ Urban commuting – a threat to the work-family balance? ”, Journal of Transport Geography , Vol. 61 , pp. 87 - 94 , doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2017.04.011 .

Downes , C. and Koekemoer , E. ( 2012 ), “ Work-life balance policies: the use of flexitime ”, Journal of Psychology in Africa , Vol. 22 No. 2 , pp. 201 - 208 , doi: 10.1080/14330237.2012.10820518 .

Dumas , T.L. and Perry-Smith , J.E. ( 2018 ), “ The paradox of family structure and plans after work: why single childless employees may be the least absorbed at work ”, Academy of Management Journal , Vol. 61 No. 4 , pp. 1231 - 1252 , doi: 10.5465/amj.2016.0086 .

Ehrhardt , K. and Ragins , B.R. ( 2019 ), “ Relational attachment at work: a complimentary fit perspective on the role of relationships in organizational life ”, Academy of Management Journal , Vol. 62 No. 1 , pp. 248 - 282 , doi: 10.5465/amj.2016.0245 .

Emre , O. and De Spiegeleare , S. ( 2019 ), “ The role of work-life balance and autonomy in the relationship between commuting, employee commitment, and well-being ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 32 No. 11 , pp. 1 - 25 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2019.1583270 .

Fontinha , R. , Easton , S. and Van Laar , D. ( 2017 ), “ Overtime and quality of working life in academics and non-academics: the role of perceived work-life balance ”, International Journal of Stress Management , ( in Press ).

Fontinha , R. , Easton , S. and Van Laar , D. ( 2019 ), “ Overtime and quality of working life in academics and non-academics: the role of perceived work-life balance ”, International Journal of Stress Management , Vol. 26 No. 2 , pp. 173 , doi: 10.1037/str0000067 .

Galea , C. , Houkes , I. and Rijk , A.D. ( 2014 ), “ An insider’s point of view: how a system of flexible working hours helps employees to strike a proper balance between work and personal life ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 25 No. 8 , pp. 1090 - 1111 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2013.816862 .

Greenhaus , J.H. and Kossek , E.E. ( 2014 ), “ The contemporary career: a work–home perspective ”, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior , Vol. 1 No. 1 , pp. 361 - 388 , doi: 10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091324 .

Groysberg , B. and Abrahams , R. ( 2014 ), “ Manage your work, manage your life ”, Harvard Business Review , Vol. 92 No. 3 , pp. 58 - 66 , available at: https://hbr.org/2014/03/manage-your-work-manage-your-life

Haar , J.M. and Roche , M. ( 2010 ), “ Family-supportive organization perceptions and employee outcomes: the mediating effects of life satisfaction ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 21 No. 7 , pp. 999 - 1014 , doi: 10.1080/09585191003783462 .

Haar , J.M. , Sune , A. , Russo , M. and Ollier-Malaterre , A. ( 2019 ), “ A cross-national study on the antecedents of work-life balance from the fit and balance perspective ”, Social Indicators Research , Vol. 142 No. 1 , pp. 261 - 282 , doi: 10.1007/s11205-018-1875-6 .

Hughes , R. , Kinder , A. and Cooper , C.L. ( 2018 ), “ Work-life balance ”, The Wellbeing Workout , pp. 249 - 253 , doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-92552-3_42 .

Jackson , L.T. and Fransman , E.I. ( 2018 ), “ Flexi work, financial well-being, work-life balance and their effects on subjective experiences of productivity and job satisfaction of females in an institution of higher learning ”, South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences , Vol. 21 No. 1 , pp. 1 - 13 , doi: 10.4102/sajems.v21i1.1487 .

Jenkins , K. and Harvey , S.B. ( 2019 ), “ Australian experiences ”, Mental Health in the Workplace , pp. 49 - 66 . Springer , Cham .

Jensen , M.T. and Knudsen , K. ( 2017 ), “ A two-wave cross-lagged study of business travel, work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and psychological health complaints ”, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , Vol. 26 No. 1 , pp. 30 - 41 , doi: 10.1080/1359432X.2016.1197206 .

Johari , J. , Yean Tan , F. and TjikZulkarnain , Z.I. ( 2018 ), “ Autonomy, workload, work-life balance, and job performance among teachers ”, International Journal of Educational Management , Vol. 32 No. 1 , pp. 107 - 120 , doi: 10.1108/IJEM-10-2016-0226 .

Jones , R. , Cleveland , M. and Uther , M. ( 2019 ), “ State and trait neural correlates of the balance between work-non work roles ”, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging , Vol. 287 , pp. 19 - 30 , doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2019.03.009 .

Kalliath , T. and Brough , P. ( 2008 ), “ Work-life balance: a review of the meaning of the balance construct ”, Journal of Management & Organization , Vol. 14 No. 3 , pp. 323 - 327 , doi: 10.1017/S1833367200003308 .

Kar , S. and Misra , K.C. ( 2013 ), “ Nexus between work life balance practices and employee retention-the mediating effect of a supportive culture ”, Asian Social Science , Vol. 9 No. 11 , p. 63 , doi: 10.1016/j.soscij.2019.03.008 , doi: 10.5539/ass.v9n11p63 .

Kiburz , K.M. , Allen , T.D. and French , K.A. ( 2017 ), “ Work-family conflict and mindfulness: investigating the effectiveness of a brief training intervention ”, Journal of Organizational Behavior , Vol. 38 No. 7 , pp. 1016 - 1037 , doi: 10.1002/job.2181 .

Mushfiqur , R. , Mordi , C. , Oruh , E.S. , Nwagbara , U. , Mordi , T. and Turner , I.M. ( 2018 ), “ The impacts of work-life balance (WLB) challenges on social sustainability: the experience of nigerian female medical doctors ”, Employee Relations , Vol. 40 No. 5 , pp. 868 - 888 , doi: 10.1108/ER-06-2017-0131 .

Perrigino , M.B. , Dunford , B.B. and Wilson , K.S. ( 2018 ), “ Work-family backlash: the ‘dark side’ of work-life balance (WLB) policies ”, Academy of Management Annals , Vol. 12 No. 2 , pp. 600 - 630 , doi: 10.5465/annals.2016.0077 .

Phillips , J. , Hustedde , C. , Bjorkman , S. , Prasad , R. , Sola , O. , Wendling , A. and Paladine , H. ( 2016 ), “ Rural women family physicians: strategies for successful work-life balance ”, The Annals of Family Medicine , Vol. 14 No. 3 , pp. 244 - 251 .

Powell , G.N. , Greenhaus , J.H. , Allen , T.D. and Johnson , R.E. ( 2019 ), “ Introduction to special topic forum: advancing and expanding work-life theory from multiple perspectives ”, Academy of Management Review , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 54 - 71 , doi: 10.5465/amr.2018.0310 .

Ratliff , N. ( 1988 ), “ Stress and burnout in the helping professions ”, Social Casework , Vol. 69 No. 1 , pp. 147 - 154 .

Singh , S. , Singh , S.K. and Srivastava , S. ( 2020 ), “ Relational exploration of the effect of the work-related scheme on job satisfaction ”, Vilakshan – XIMB Journal of Management , Vol. 17 Nos 1/2 , pp. 111 - 128 , doi: 10.1108/XJM-07-2020-0019 .

Srinivasan , T. and Sulur Nachimuthu , G. ( 2021 ), “ COVID-19 impact on employee flourishing: parental stress as mediator ”, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance Online Publication , doi: 10.1037/tra0001037 .

Thilagavathy , S. and Geetha , S.N. ( 2020 ), “ A morphological analyses of the literature on employee work-life balance ”, Current Psychology , pp. 1 - 26 , doi: 10.1007/s12144-020-00968-x .

Turanlıgil , F.G. and Farooq , M. ( 2019 ), “ Work-Life balance in tourism industry ”, in Contemporary Human Resources Management in the Tourism Industry , pp. 237 - 274 , IGI Global .

Waters , M.A. and Bardoel , E.A. ( 2006 ), “ Work-family policies in the context of higher education: useful or symbolic? ”, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 67 - 82 , doi: 10.1177/1038411106061510 .

Yadav , V. and Sharma , H. ( 2021 ), “ Family-friendly policies, supervisor support, and job satisfaction: mediating effect of work-family conflict ”, Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management , doi: 10.1108/XJM-02-2021-0050 .

Zheng , C. , Kashi , K. , Fan , D. , Molineux , J. and Ee , M.S. ( 2016 ), “ Impact of individual coping strategies and organizational work-life balance programmes on australian employee well-being ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 27 No. 5 , pp. 501 - 526 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2015.1020447 .

Acknowledgements

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Compliance of ethical standard statement: The results reported in this manuscript were conducted in accordance with general ethical guidelines in psychology.

Corresponding author

Related articles, we’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

Redefining work-life balance: women at the helm of the post-pandemic coworking revolution

Original Article
Published: 11 August 2023
Volume 26 , pages 755–766, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

Xinran Guo 1 &
Xiaohong Zhu 2

537 Accesses

1 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

The post-pandemic era has transformed work-life boundaries, driven by factors such as working hours, an increased number of working women and single parents, the implementation of various ICTs, and the rise of flexible work arrangements. This study examines the role of female workers and entrepreneurs in establishing and managing coworking spaces (CSs) designed to improve work-life balance through flexible scheduling and location options. The challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in promoting an inclusive society and economic system are also explored, as well as the benefits experienced by independent workers and teleworkers in terms of networking, social interaction, knowledge exchange, and community building. The “She Economy” is analyzed in three stages: germination, growth, and maturity, considering challenges from both family and workplaces. This paper investigates the background of female identity and the ideological transformation of female identity in the consumption process after the pandemic, using mass media, especially female-focused media, as a lens. Finally, the paper proposes recommendations for the future development of the “She Economy” from the perspectives of communicators, women, and the social environment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

“If Only I Were a Male”: Work, Value, and the Female Body

Happily Exhausted: Work Family Dynamics in India

New Ways of Working During (and After) the COVID-19 Pandemic: Truly Smart for Women?

Blumberg RL (1984) A general theory of gender stratification. Sociol Theory 2:23–101. https://doi.org/10.2307/223343

Bollinger C, Ding X, Lugauer S (2022) The expansion of higher education and household saving in China. China Econ Rev 71:101736

Article Google Scholar

Brooke M (2019) The Singaporean paralympics and its media portrayal: real sport? Men-only? Commun Sport 7 (4):446–465

Chauhan P (2022) “I Have No Room of My Own”: COVID-19 pandemic and work-from-home through a gender lens. Gend Issues 39(4):507–533

Chunchen S (2008) Symbol consumption and identity ethics. J Moral Civ 1:7–10

Google Scholar

Downing NE, Roush KL (1985) From passive acceptance to active commitment: a model of feminist identity development for women. Couns Psychol 13:695–709

Fei W (2003) Economics of mass media. Zhejiang University Press, Hangzhou, p 27

Han W, Zhang X, Zhang Z (2019) The role of land tenure security in promoting rural women’s empowerment: empirical evidence from rural China. Land Use Policy 86:280–289

Kabeer N (2020) Women’s empowerment and economic development: a feminist critique of storytelling practices in “randomista” economics. Fem Econ 26(2):1–26

Lei W (2018) Media, power and gender: the change of women’s media image and gender equality in New China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, Shanghai, p 255

Li X (2020) How powerful is the female gaze? The implication of using male celebrities for promoting female cosmetics in China. Glob Media China 5(1):55–68

Lin Z, Yang L (2019) Individual and collective empowerment: women’s voices in the# MeToo movement in China. Asian J Women's Stud 25(1):117–131

Lyu X, Fan Y (2020) Research on the relationship of work family conflict, work engagement and job crafting: a gender perspective. Curr Psychol 41:1767–1777

Mao C (2020) Feminist activism via social media in China. Asian J Women's Stud 26(2):245–258

Nowak J (2020) Office space development and respective effects on productivity and work-life balance.

Qiao F, Wang Y (2022) The myths of beauty, age, and marriage: femvertising by masstige cosmetic brands in the Chinese market. Soc Semiot 32(1):35–57

Social Media Research Center (2022) Women in the news about COVID-19: an analysis for the content of 23 Chinese media Peking University, March 7, 2022. https://snm.pku.edu.cn/info/1030/1973.html .

United Nations Women (2020) From insight to action: gender equality in the wake of COVID-19, vol 7. UN Women, United States, p 16

Wang Q (2022) Women starting up in the digital creative industries in China (Doctoral dissertation. Curtin University)

Xiao L, Qi C (2016) Consumer group identity and group uniqueness: a study on the impact of culture-targeted advertising evaluation. Consum Econ 5:6

Xueqi S (2020) Under the epidemic, she economy, silver economy and other subdivisions of the economy become popular. In: Chinese consumer news May 26, 2020. https://www.ccn.com.cn/Content/2020/07-29/1622130251.html

Yanyue L (2019) Analysis of female media image and its empowerment logic -- taking SK-II advertising as an example. News Res Guide 10:212–246

Yeung WJJ, Yang Y (2020) Labor market uncertainties for youth and young adults: an international perspective. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci 688(1):7–19

Yin S, Sun Y (2021) Intersectional digital feminism: assessing the participation politics and impact of the MeToo movement in China. Fem Media Stud 21(7):1176–1192

Yu H, Cui L (2019) China’s e-commerce: empowering rural women? China Q 238:418–437

Zani B (2019) Gendered transnational ties and multipolar economies: Chinese migrant women’s Wechat commerce in Taiwan. Int Migr 57(4):232–246

Zeng J (2020) MeToo as connective action: a study of the anti-sexual violence and anti-sexual harassment campaign on Chinese social media in 2018. J Pract 14(2):171–190

Zhang X, Ma L, Xu B, Xu F (2019) How social media usage affects employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intention: an empirical study in China. Inf Manag 56(6):103136

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Ningbo Branch, CITIC Securities Company Limted, Ningbo, China

School of Media and Law, NingboTech Universtiy, Ningbo, China

Xiaohong Zhu

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaohong Zhu .

Ethics declarations

Human and animal rights.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Guo, X., Zhu, X. Redefining work-life balance: women at the helm of the post-pandemic coworking revolution. Arch Womens Ment Health 26 , 755–766 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01352-x

Download citation

Received : 08 May 2023

Accepted : 14 July 2023

Published : 11 August 2023

Issue Date : December 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01352-x

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

She economy
Female media
Post-pandemic era
Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Publications
Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

Advanced Search
Journal List
Indian J Psychol Med
v.32(2); Jul-Dec 2010

Work–Life Balance among Married Women Employees

N. krishna reddy.

Department of Psychiatric Social Work, NIMHANS, Bangalore, India

M. N. Vranda

B. p. nirmala, b. siddaramu.

1 Department of Social Work, Jnana Bharathi Post, University of Bangalore, Bangalore, India

Family–work conflict (FWC) and work–family conflict (WFC) are more likely to exert negative influences in the family domain, resulting in lower life satisfaction and greater internal conflict within the family. Studies have identified several variables that influence the level of WFC and FWC. Variables such as the size of family, the age of children, the work hours and the level of social support impact the experience of WFC and FWC. However, these variables have been conceptualized as antecedents of WFC and FWC; it is also important to consider the consequences these variables have on psychological distress and wellbeing of the working women.

to study various factors which could lead to WFC and FWC among married women employees.

Materials and Methods:

The sample consisted of a total of 90 married working women of age between 20 and 50 years. WFC and FWC Scale was administered to measure WFC and FWC of working women. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Carl Pearson's Correlation was used to find the relationship between the different variables.

Findings and Conclusion:

The findings of the study emphasized the need to formulate guidelines for the management of WFCs at organizational level as it is related to job satisfaction and performance of the employees.

INTRODUCTION

Indian families are undergoing rapid changes due to the increased pace of urbanization and modernization. Indian women belonging to all classes have entered into paid occupations. At the present time, Indian women's exposure to educational opportunities is substantially higher than it was some decades ago, especially in the urban setting. This has opened new vistas, increased awareness and raised aspirations of personal growth. This, along with economic pressure, has been instrumental in influencing women's decision to enter the work force. Most studies of employed married women in India have reported economic need as being the primary reason given for working.[ 1 , 2 ]

Women's employment outside the home generally has a positive rather than negative effect on marriage. Campbell et al .[ 3 ] studied the effects of family life on women's job performance and work attitudes. The result revealed that women with children were significantly lower in occupational commitment relative to women without children; contrary to expectation, women with younger children outperformed women with older children. Makowska[ 4 ] studied psychosocial determinants of stress and well-being among working women. The significance of the work-related stressors was evidently greater than that of the stressors associated with the family function, although the relationship between family functioning, stress and well-being was also significant.

Multiple roles and professional women

Super[ 5 ] identified six common life roles. He indicated that the need to balance these different roles simultaneously is a reality for most individuals at various stages throughout their lives. Rather than following a transitional sequence from one role to another, women are required to perform an accumulation of disparate roles simultaneously, each one with its unique pressures.[ 6 ] Multiple role-playing has been found to have both positive and negative effects on the mental health and well-being of professional women. In certain instances, women with multiple roles reported better physical and psychological health than women with less role involvement. In other words, they cherished motivational stimulation, self-esteem, a sense of control, physical stamina, and bursts of energy.[ 7 ] However, multiple roles have also been found to cause a variety of adverse effects on women's mental and physical health, including loss of appetite, insomnia, overindulgence, and back pains.[ 8 ]

Work–life balance

An increasing number of articles have promoted the importance of work–life balance. This highlights the current concern within society and organizations about the impact of multiple roles on the health and well-being of professional women and its implications regarding work and family performance, and women's role in society. The following variables influencing the experience of work–life balance were identified while reviewing the international literature.

The multiple roles performed by women[ 9 – 11 ]
Role strain experienced because of multiple roles, i.e., role conflict and role overload[ 12 , 13 ]
Organization culture and work dynamics: Organizational values supporting work–life balance have positive work and personal well-being consequences[ 14 , 15 ]
Personal resources and social support: Several studies confirmed the positive relationship between personalities, emotional support and well-being[ 16 – 18 ]
Career orientation and career stage in which women careers need to be viewed in the context of their life course and time lines[ 19 , 20 ]
Coping and coping strategies: Women use both emotional and problem-focused coping strategies to deal with role conflict.[ 21 ]

Work–family conflict and family–work conflict

Work–life balance is the maintenance of a balance between responsibilities at work and at home. Work and family have increasingly become antagonist spheres, equally greedy of energy and time and responsible for work–family conflict (WFC).[ 22 ] These conflicts are intensified by the “cultural contradictions of motherhood”, as women are increasingly encouraged to seek self-fulfillment in demanding careers, they also face intensified pressures to sacrifice themselves for their children by providing “intensive parenting”, highly involved childrearing and development.[ 23 ] Additional problems faced by employed women are those associated with finding adequate, affordable access to child and elderly care.[ 24 , 25 ]

WFC has been defined as a type of inter-role conflict wherein some responsibilities from the work and family domains are not compatible and have a negative influence on an employee's work situation.[ 12 ] Its theoretical background is a scarcity hypothesis which describes those individuals in certain, limited amount of energy. These roles tend to drain them and cause stress or inter-role conflict.[ 26 – 28 ] Results of previous research indicate that WFC is related to a number of negative job attitudes and consequences including lower overall job satisfaction[ 29 ] and greater propensity to leave a position.[ 30 ]

Family–work conflict (FWC) is also a type of inter-role conflict in which family and work responsibilities are not compatible.[ 12 ] Previous research suggests that FWC is more likely to exert its negative influences in the home domain, resulting in lower life satisfaction and greater internal conflict within the family unit. However, FWC is related to attitudes about the job or workplace.[ 31 ] Both WFC and FWC basically result from an individual trying to meet an overabundance of conflicting demands from the different domains in which women are operating.

Workplace characteristics can also contribute to higher levels of WFC. Researchers have found that the number of hours worked per week, the amount and frequency of overtime required, an inflexible work schedule, unsupportive supervisor, and an inhospitable organizational culture increase the likelihood that women employees will experience conflict between their work and family role.[ 12 , 32 , 33 ] Baruch and Barnett[ 34 ] found that women who had multiple life roles (e.g., mother, wife, employee) were less depressed and had higher self-esteem than women who were more satisfied in their marriages and jobs compared to women and men who were not married, unemployed, or childless. However, authors argued quality of role rather than the quantity of roles that matters. That is, there is a positive association between multiple roles and good mental health when a woman likes her job and likes her home life.

WFC and FWC are generally considered distinct but related constructs. Research to date has primarily investigated how work interferes or conflicts with family. From work–family and family–work perspectives, this type of conflict reflects the degree to which role responsibilities from the work and family domains are incompatible. That is “participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role”.[ 12 ]

Frone et al .[ 35 ] suggested that WFC and FWC are related through a bi-directional nature where one can affect the other. The work domain variables such as work stress may cause work roles to interfere with family roles; the level of conflict in the family domain impacts work activities, causing more work conflict, thus creating a vicious cycle. Therefore, work domain variables that relate to WFC indirectly affect FWC through the bi-directional relationship between each construct. Family responsibility might be related to WFC when the employee experiences a very high work overload that impacts the employee's ability to perform even minor family-related roles. Such a situation likely affects WFC through the bi-directional nature of the two constructs. While no researchers have considered the relationship between these constructs in a full measurement model, Carlson and Kacmar[ 36 ] used structural model and found positive and significant paths between WFC and FWC.

Work stress: Its relation with WFC and FWC

Work stress is usually conceptualized as work-role conflict, work-role overload, and work-role ambiguity[ 37 , 38 ] (House et al ., 1983). Each has the potential to affect WFC.[ 39 ] With respect to work-role conflict, the more conflict among work roles, the greater the chances that stress will spill over and cause negative behaviors that interfere with fulfilling family roles.[ 40 ] Role overload is the result of having too many things to do in a given time period.[ 39 ] As time is constrained by having too many tasks to accomplish at work, the employee may need to use time allocated to the family role which could cause WFC.[ 12 ] Work-role ambiguity occurs when workers are unsure of what is expected of them in a work role. As uncertainty concerning work roles increase, employees use more mental energy to decipher it. This requirement may drain mental energy and attention needed for their family roles. Carlson and Kacmar[ 36 ] found that role overload and role conflict were predictors of WFC, yet did not find significant results for role ambiguity.

Kandel et al .[ 41 ] studied the nature of specific strains and stresses among married women in their marital, occupational and house work roles. They found that strains and stresses are lower in family roles than in occupational and household roles among the married women. These have more severe consequences for the psychological well-being of women than occupational strains and stresses. Strains predicted distress through role-specific stress, with strains deriving from contribution of role-specific stress. Chassin et al .[ 42 ] found three types of conflicts in their study research on a sample of 83 dual worker couples with pre-school children. These are: (1) conflicts between demands of multiple roles, (2) conflict between role expectations of self and spouse, and (3) lack of congruence between expectation and reality of roles. The authors felt that self-role congruence in women leads to better mental health.

Research studies have identified several variables that influence the level of WFC and FWC. Variables such as the size of family, the age of children, the number of hours worked outside the home, the level of control one has over one's work hours, flexible or inflexible work hours and the level of social support impact the experience of WFC and FWC. However, these variables have been conceptualized as antecedents of WFC and FWC; it is also important to consider the consequences these variables have on psychological distress and well-being of the working women. Most of these studies revived are in western context; there is a scarcity of research in this area in the Indian context. Hence, the researchers made an attempt to study various factors which could lead to WFC and FWC among married women employees.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The sample consisted of a total of 90 married working women of age between 20 and 50 years. Thirty married working women were selected using simple random sampling technique from each setting, i.e., industrial setting, school setting and hospital setting. The women who were married at least for 3 years, living with spouse and engaged in work for at least 1 year were included in the study. The women with psychiatric and neurological illness with spouse suffering from physical or psychiatric and neurological illness were excluded from the study. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Carl Pearson's Correlation was used to find the relationship between the different variables.

Instruments

WFC and FWC Scale by Netemeyer et al .[ 31 ]: The WFC and FWC Scale is a 10-item, 7-point Likert scale, which measures WFC and FWC of working individuals. The participants are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree with each item. The responses range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate high level of work/family conflict, while lower scores indicate low levels of work/family conflict. The coefficient alpha of the scale ranged from 0.82 to 0.90. The scale was found to have good content, construct and predictive validity.

The mean age of the respondent was 38.70 (SD 8.66) years. Nearly half (44.4%) of the women employees were aged between 41 and 50 years; majority (83.3%) were Hindus from urban background (72%). With regard to number of children, 41.1% of the women had one child showing trend in small family system and 26.7% had two children. Nearly 70% of the women were working to support their families, 20% of the respondents were working because they were career oriented, and 10% were working to fulfill their personal financial needs. The mean scores of WFC and FWC among the women [ Table 1 ] show that the women scored highest in WFC (Mean 22.73; SD=6.55) and lowest in FWC (Mean 17.01; SD=7.14).

Scores of women on work–family conflict and family–work conflict

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is IJPsyM-32-112-g001.jpg

The result of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) [ Table 2 ] on the ratings of WFC and FWC across the different categories of the women showed significant ( F =3.246; P <0.05) WFC and FWC ( F =5.424; P <0.01) among the women whose eldest child was in the age group of 6–10 years. Similarly, women belonging to different educational attainment, especially SSLC background, differently rated their WFC ( F =3.456; P <0.05) and FWC ( F =4.226; P <0.01). Further, high FWC was found among those who were having one child, whereas less FWC was found among those not having children. However, the rating among different groups on FWC was statistically significant ( F =9.07; P <0.001). There were significant variations in the group means of women working in different settings on WFC ( F =3.376; P <0.05) and FWC ( F =8.713; P <0.001). The women working in hospital setting reported higher WFC compared to those working at school or industry setting. FWC was more among the women working in industry, when compared to those working in school and hospital setting. FWC ( F =4.638; P <0.05) and WFC ( F =3.553; P <0.05) were significantly high among the women whose husbands demanded dual roles from working women. The women working due to financial needs scored significantly high WFC ( F =5.254; P <0.01) in comparison with the other groups.

One-way ANOVA – Background variables and work–family conflict and family–work conflict

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is IJPsyM-32-112-g002.jpg

The results [ Table 3 ] also indicate that age of the children was positively correlated ( P <0.05) with FWC of the working women. However, non-significant relationships were found between age of the women, overall work experience, and number of children on WFC and FWC. In addition, non-significant relationship was also found between the age of the eldest child and WFC.

Intercorrelation among the work–family conflict and family–work conflict with background variables

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is IJPsyM-32-112-g003.jpg

The present study was aimed at exploring the factors which lead to WFC and FWC among married women employees working in different settings. WFC and FWC were found to be more among the women having the eldest child between 6 and 10 years. Moreover, the age of the children was significantly positively correlated with FWC among the working women. The findings of the study support the earlier studies that age of the children is related to more WFC and FWC among married women employees. Chassin et al .[ 42 ] found that women with pre-school children experience different types of conflicts and concluded that self-role congruence in women leads to better mental health. Some researchers used parental overload[ 33 ] which included number of children; others used variables such as family demand[ 43 ] in predicting WFC. Higgins et al .[ 44 ] found that family involvement and family expectations were related to conflict in the family, but not related to WFC. High levels of family responsibility cause increased time requirements and strain on the family, thereby interfering with the employee's work roles.[ 45 ] As children and elderly family members require additional care, the obligation to meet their needs can influence family roles, which can create inter-role conflict[ 46 ] and impact family roles,[ 47 ] producing FWC.[ 45 ] Studies also reported that women having younger children experience more role conflicts.[ 48 , 49 ]

Workplace characteristics also contribute to higher levels of WFC. In the present study, women working in hospital setting reported more WFC, whereas FWC was found to be more among those women working in industrial setting. Researchers have found that the number of hours worked per week, the amount and frequency of overtime, an inflexible work schedule, unsupportive supervisor, and an inhospitable organizational culture for balancing work and family increase the likelihood of women employees to experience conflict between their work and family roles.[ 32 , 33 , 50 ]

Dual role demands and expectation from working women by husbands was significantly related to high WFC and FWC among the working women in the present study. According to Sharma,[ 17 ] the support and involvement of husband postively relates to lower levels of role conflict experienced by the married working women. Carlson et al .[ 11 ] found that experience of work demands negatively influenced family responsiblilites in more instances than family demands that influenced work responisibilites. Job-parent conflict was reported to be the most often experienced conflict among the women.

Survey in West showed that young women are expected to combine a career with motherhood.[ 51 , 52 ] In Indian context, a lot of women, especially those from the lower middle class, are seeking the job market today because they have to augment the family income. They have to provide a better life for their families, pay their children's tuition fees and plan a better future for them. In the present study, it is seen that the women working due to financial needs reported higher WFC when compared to those working for other reasons. Schular[ 53 ] found that the financial need is the chief reported reason for women taking up employment. Phillips and Imholff[ 54 ] argue that many women take up job on compulsion, but it is the career which is extremely gratifying. In the present study, it is noted that only a few women had taken up employment for career. Sharma[ 55 ] reported that problems can arise if woman works for money. In that case, woman needs to be careful not to bring home her frustration and unhappiness, which can affect family relationships.

Future directions

It is critical for work and family research to fully understand the conditions under which the married women employees experience conflict between their roles. There is a need to consider working environment, job satisfaction, family support and number of working hours in the future research. Future studies should also continue to refine the methodology used in the area of work–family research. In order to attain in-depth understanding of one's work and family life, researchers who study work–family roles should include multiple perspectives such as job stress, quality of life, mental health, and work demands. In addition, it is necessary to explore multiple waves of data collection over a longer period of time to better understand the changing nature of work family roles over time. Longitudinal studies need to be conducted to examine how the stages of life (e.g., marriage, child birth, and child rearing) affect work and family concerns. It is clear from the current study that married women employees indeed experience WFC while attempting to balance their work and family lives. Thus, organizations need to formulate guidelines for the management of WFCs since they are related to job satisfaction and performance of the employees.

Like all studies, the current research has limitations. The sample in the present study is quite small; hence, the generalization of the findings is limited. Additional research is needed in other employment settings to explore the relationship between WFC and quality of life among married women employees.

Source of Support: Nil

Conflict of Interest: None.

Research article
Open access
Published: 16 July 2020

Work-life balance and self-reported health among working adults in Europe: a gender and welfare state regime comparative analysis

Aziz Mensah 1 &
Nicholas Kofi Adjei 2 , 3

BMC Public Health volume 20 , Article number: 1052 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

80k Accesses

25 Citations

151 Altmetric

Metrics details

The pressing demands of work over the years have had a significant constraint on the family and social life of working adults. Moreover, failure to achieve a ‘balance’ between these domains of life may have an adverse effect on their health. This study investigated the relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health among working adults in contemporary welfare countries in Europe.

Data from the 6th European Working Conditions Survey 2015 on 32,275 working adults from 30 countries in Europe were analysed. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between work-life balance and self-reported health among men and women. We further used a 2 stage multi-level logistic regression to assess variations in self-reported health among welfare state regimes by gender.

The results showed a strong association between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe (aOR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.93–2.23). However, the magnitude of the effect differed slightly by gender (men: aOR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.78–2.18 vs women: aOR = 2.23; 95% CI: 2.01–2.47). Furthermore, we found variations in the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health between welfare states regimes. The association was found to be weaker in the Nordic and Southern welfare states than the Liberal, Conservative, and Central Eastern European welfare states. Although the associations were more consistent among men than women in the Conservative welfare states regime, we found higher associations for women than men in the Southern, Nordic, Liberal, and Central Eastern European welfare states.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence of some variations in the association between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among men and women across welfare states regimes in Europe. The results demonstrate the need for governments, organizations and policymakers to provide conducive working conditions and social policies for working adults to deal with competing demands from work and family activities.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

The changing patterns of work over the years have had a significant constraint on both the family and the social life of working adults [ 1 ]. With the limited 24 h’ time resource available in a day, working adults may be confronted with many challenges, including deadlines to meet targets, financial obligations, and pressing family responsibilities. These situations may create role conflict, which can affect the level of involvement in their work, family and social life [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Some scholars suggest that higher demands from household activities make it difficult to balance work and family life [ 2 , 3 ]. A recent study on work-life conflict among employees in Europe revealed a work-life ‘imbalance’ among employees in Europe [ 5 ]. This phenomenon has partly been attributed to an increase in the involvement of women in the labour force and the rising involvement of men in performing housework, including child care and family chores [ 6 , 7 ]. The Evidence further suggests that time allocated by men to housework activities has increased over time [ 8 , 9 ], while female participation in the labour market has also increased over the years [ 10 ]. Work-life conflict may arise when there is a role conflict in the satisfaction of work and family life [ 11 ], and failure to achieve a ‘balance’ between these domains may have an adverse effect on working adults’ health [ 5 , 12 , 13 ].

Work-life conflict among employees is known to be related with many health problems, including poor physical health [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], poor-self reported health [ 15 , 17 ], psychological distress [ 14 , 18 ], poor mental health [ 19 , 20 , 21 ] and life dissatisfaction [ 22 ]. However, work-life conflict and health outcomes may differ by gender due to the unequal distribution of work-related roles [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. For example, some previous studies found a positive relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working women than men [ 25 , 26 , 27 ], while other studies suggest similar outcomes between men and women [ 5 , 28 ]. In a longitudinal study among working adults in Sweden, Leineweber et al. [ 27 ] found an association between work-life conflict and suboptimal self-reported health among working women than men. Similarly, Eek and Axmon [ 26 ] found that women in relationship with unequal distribution of work and family activity reported a higher level of fatigue, stress, and physical symptoms than those in relationship with equal distribution of responsibility. In contrast, Kinnunen and his colleagues [ 28 ] found no evidence of gender difference in the association between poor work-life balance and health outcomes such as life satisfaction and well-being.

Gender, work life balance, and welfare policies

Gender plays a key role in understanding how work and other domains of life are distributed and performed [ 29 ]. The term is not static but rather a phenomenon where identity is continuously renegotiated [ 30 , 31 ]. Evidence suggests that traditional and societal expectation of behaviour differs between men and women [ 32 , 33 ], where women are responsible for caregiving (family activities) and other household activities, while men assume the primary role for paid work activities [ 10 , 34 ]. For example, using time use data, Aliaga [ 35 ], Hagqvist [ 36 ] and Adjei et al. [ 37 ] indicated that women spent more time on family activities than men, while men spent more time on paid work activities than women. Similarly, research conducted by Boye [ 38 ] revealed that about 40% of working-age women are not engaged in paid work activities as compared to men (1.5%). The study further showed that women spend about 13 h more on unpaid work per week as compared to men. Hochschild [ 39 ] argued that although women’s contribution and participation in paid work activities have dramatically increased over the years, it has not been accompanied by a proportionate measure of increase in time allocation to unpaid work by men. Women continue to spend more time on household activities as compared to men [ 40 ]. However, recent studies suggest that women have reduced their time and involvement in unpaid work while men have increased the amount of time devoted to unpaid work activities [ 9 ], especially child care [ 8 , 9 ]. Kan et al. [ 41 ] argued that the change in the reduction of time spent on household activities by women could be attributed to the increase of women in the labour market rather than a change of ideology among men in the performance of household activities.

The rational view proposed that work-family conflict will increase when there is an increase in the amount of time spent on both work and family activities [ 32 ]. This phenomenon has been attributed to role strains [ 42 ]. In their study, Frone et al. [ 15 ] noted that long working hours, psychological involvement in work, inflexible working time arrangement, lack of clarity of work function, and role overload are indicators that influence work-life conflict among employees. There have been many studies on gender and work-life conflict [ 33 , 43 , 44 ]; however, the findings from these studies are inconclusive and contradicting [ 45 ]. While some studies found higher work-life conflict among women than men [ 33 , 43 , 44 ], few studies failed to demonstrate any significant difference among men and women [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. In a cross-sectional study in the UK, Emslie et al. [ 46 ] found that both white-collar men and women employees in the Bank have the same level of work-family interference. Similarly, Schiemann et al. [ 47 ] found no gender difference in work-life conflict among higher status workers in Canada. These authors attributed their findings to the egalitarian gender role balance that suggest that the level of expectation in terms of sharing financial and family responsibilities is similar for men and women [ 47 ]. Nonetheless, using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), Busch-Heizmann and Holst [ 44 ] found a higher prevalence of interference between work and family life among working women than men in Netherland. Gutek et al. [ 33 ] attributed some of the reasons to the fact that women still retain their primary role of performing care and other household activities even when they are confronted with higher job demands. Men, on the other hand, are more satisfied when they devote more time and effort to paid work- than household activities [ 49 ]. Ngo and Lui [ 45 ] also suggested that work- life conflict is higher among women due to limited control over conflicting domains of life. It has also been established that women who are affected by work-life conflict may experience higher forms of stress and other adverse health outcomes than men [ 33 , 43 ].

Gender inequality in work-life conflict has also been linked with socio-economic policies that exist within countries [ 50 ]. According to Gornick [ 51 ], extensive parental leave, support for childcare and elderly care, strong labour regulation, and universal health service that exist within countries are factors that may influence interference between work and family life. The development of welfare policies may also be rooted in historical, social, and economic development that exist in a country [ 52 ]. Hence, there may be variations among countries in terms of generosity, focus, and goals of social and welfare policies [ 53 ]. Contemporary welfare policies may be classified into five distinct regimes, namely, Nordic (social democratic), Liberals (Anglo-Saxon), Conservative (Corporatist), Southern Europe, and Central Eastern Europe (CEE) [ 54 ]. Esping-Andersen [ 53 ] described countries in the Nordic welfare states regime as having policies that are ‘encompassing,’ where the level of social support is generous and universal. This type of welfare system encourages dual-earner family roles, extensive support to single parents, and a regulated labour market, which allows more women to participate in the labour market [ 55 ]. In addition, there is provision for publicly funded child and elderly care services [ 55 , 56 ], and extensive paid parental leave days for working women and men [ 57 ]. Liberal welfare states, on the other hand, are characterized by a strong male-breadwinner model with childcare primarily provided by a private venture with low state support [ 58 ]. These countries are also characterized by weak employment regulations and less generous state provision of social services and benefits [ 53 , 59 ]. Conservative welfare states are characterized by traditional male breadwinner family models and have strong labour market laws to regulate employment [ 53 ]. In this regime type, families bear the responsibility for primary social welfare benefits [ 59 ], and most working mothers engage in part-time or secondary jobs without good economic remuneration [ 60 ]. In the Southern European welfare states regime, social benefits are much lower [ 59 , 61 ] as compared to the Conservative welfare states regime. Moreover, care services are largely provided by family, friends, and volunteers. Familialism is stronger in this regime type [ 39 ], and there are gender roles, where men are known to be ‘breadwinners’ and women as ‘caregivers’ [ 39 ]. The CEE welfare states are also characterized by the dual-earner family model but weak trade unions and labour regulations [ 62 ], and a traditional division of housework [ 63 ].

Welfare policies may influence work-life balance and might subsequently have an effect on health outcomes [ 5 , 14 , 15 , 64 ]. Countries with more generous social policies such as quality child care service, extensive parental leave, and generous social benefits may influence the magnitude of the association between work-life conflict and health-related outcomes [ 5 , 64 , 65 ]. For instance, Artazcoz and his colleagues [ 64 ] could not find any evidence that work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in northern Europe, where many generous welfare policies exist, but the study found an association between work-life conflict and poor health in Conservative and Southern European welfare states with less generous welfare benefits. In contrast, Hagqvist and his colleagues [ 12 ] noted that Nordic countries may show higher association between work-family conflict and low well-being as compared to countries with a more traditional family model in Europe.

A plethora of studies on work-life balance and health status have been based on a single country [ 25 , 41 , 66 ]. Still, only a few studies have focused on cross-country variation in welfare state typologies as well as gender differences [ 9 , 67 ]. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has used a more comprehensive cross-country sample as the underlying conceptual structure for making a comparison. Hence, this study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the gender difference in the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe. In addition, we analyse whether these effects vary across different welfare state regimes in Europe. By drawing on the theoretical relationship that exists between work-life conflict and self-reported health, the following research questions will be addressed:

Is there a relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in contemporary welfare states in Europe?

Does the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health differ by gender?

To what extent do these relationships vary by welfare state regimes among men and women in Europe?

This study was based on the 6th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS 2015), conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The EWCS survey data covered 35 countries in Europe. This includes EU28 countries, two countries from the European Free Trade Association (Norway and Switzerland), and five potential EU candidates’ countries (Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Serbia, and Montenegro). The target population of the survey was working adults who were between the ages of 15 years and above. The EWCS adopted a multistage, stratified, random sample in selecting the target population in each country. The target sample size for most countries was 1000, however, because some countries had larger workforce than others, the sample size varied [ 68 ]. For instance, the target sample size was increased to 1200 for Poland, 1300 for Spain, 1400 for Italy, 1500 for France, 1600 for UK, and 2000 for both Germany and Turkey. Furthermore, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) also offered opportunity for countries to top-up their sample size. This opportunity was taken up by Belgium, Slovenia, and Spain which allowed them to increase their sample size to 2500, 1600, and 3300 respectively. Each country was stratified by region and the degree of urbanization. Primary sampling units (PSU) were randomly selected with probability proportional to size in each of the stratum. A random sample of household or individuals were further selected from each PSU [ 68 ]. A total of about 44,000 respondents were selected for a face-to-face interview in their respective households.

We restricted our analysis to working adults aged 16–64 years who were non-retired, not full-time homemaker, not a full-time student, and nondisabled. Respondents who refused to answer specific questions or do not know answers to specific questions were also excluded from the analysis. We also limited our study to 30 countries in Europe (i.e., the EU 28 countries, Switzerland and Norway). Missing responses were excluded because they accounted for less than 2% of the sample size. In the final analysis, we included a total of 32,275 participants.

Self-reported health, our outcome variable of interest, was measured using the question, “How is your health in general?” Responses were rated from 1 (very good), 2 (good), 3 (fair), 4 (bad), 5 (very bad). Self-reported health has been shown to be a good proxy for measuring health status and a reliable technique as a predictor of mortality [ 69 ]. To avoid much-skewed distribution of responses [ 70 ], we dichotomized the responses as done in previous studies [ 5 , 64 , 71 , 72 ]. Respondents who answered very good and good were categorized as having “good self-reported health”, while those who answered fair, bad, and very bad were categorized as having “poor self-reported health”. Our approach for dichotomizing the responses for the self-reported health was supported by existing research which mentioned that when five multiple options are available for a respondent to choose, the response that falls in the middle is closer to the negative responses as compared to the positive responses [ 73 ].

Work-life balance, our primary exposure of interest, was measured with the following question: “In general, how do your working hours fit in with your family or social commitments outside work?” Responses were: very well, well, not very well, and not at all well. To aid interpretability of our study, we further dichotomized the answers as good work-life balance (“very well” or, “well”) and poor work-life balance or work-life conflict (“not very well”, or “not at all well”).

The working characteristics of respondents were measured based on the Standard Industrial classification (NACE), sector, years of service, working arrangement, form of employment, type of employment, and weekly hours. NACE was classified into four categories (agriculture, industry, service, and other). Sector of employment was classified into five categories (private, public, joint private-public, NGO, and other). Shift work was measured with the question, “do you work shifts?” The responses were grouped as “Yes” or “No”. Working arrangement was categorised as (set by company, can choose between fixed schedule, flexible working time, working time is determined by self). We dichotomized the type of employment (employee and self-employed). Working hour was divided into five categories (30 h and below, 31–40 h, 41–50 h, 51–60 h, 60 h +). Regarding welfare regime types, we grouped countries according to common welfare state regime features. This study adopted Ferrera [ 74 ] and Bambra and Eikemo [ 75 ] classification of welfare typologies: Nordic (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway), Conservative (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherland, Luxembourg, and Switzerland), Liberals (United Kingdom and Ireland), Southern Europe (Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, and Malta), and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Croatia).

Demographic characteristics including gender (male and female), household size, and age, marital status (single or widowed, married or cohabiting), and living with child (yes, no) were further explored. Socio-economic position was measured by education and occupation. Education was categorized in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education-2011 (early childhood, primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, post-secondary, short cycle tertiary, bachelor, master, doctorate). The measurement of occupation was in line with the International Standard Classification of Occupation-08 (managers, armed forces, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, agricultural workers, plant and machine operators, and elementary occupations).

Analytical strategy

Descriptive statistics were used to describe the study population. Furthermore, a bivariate test was performed on the measured variables by gender. We adopted a chi-square test for categorical variables [ 76 ], and a point biserial correlation test for continuous variables [ 77 ]. Variables that were significantly associated with the outcome variable were selected to estimate the odds ratios. In order to determine the association between self-reported health and work-life balance, a multivariate logistic regression was applied, adjusting for socio-economic position, working conditions, and demographic characteristics. Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval for all models estimated were presented for analysis. In addition, we estimated the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) to test for multicollinearity of the independent variable and the covariates. The VIF is a more superior technique in determining collinearity [ 78 ]. According to O’Brien [ 78 ], a threshold value of VIF < 10 is an indication of low multicollinearity or non-existence of multicollinearity. Due to the clustering nature of the sample, we extended our multivariate logistic regression to a multi-level logistic regression to examine variations between welfare regimes and by gender. A two-stage multi-level logistic regression was applied with individual working adults nested within welfare state regimes. This was done across welfare state regimes, where the strength of the associations was compared. Furthermore, we estimated the median odds ratio (MOR) and the variance partition coefficient (VPC). The VPC is the percentage of variation that may occur in higher levels (welfare state regimes) [ 79 ]. Similarly, the MOR quantifies the level of variations that may exist between countries in Europe [ 5 ]. If the MOR is equal to 1, then there is no variation between countries across welfare state regimes, however, if the MOR is larger than 1, then there is a variation between countries in Europe [ 80 ]. All analyses were performed using Stata V14 [ 81 ] and done separately for men and women.

General distribution and sample characteristics

Table 1 provides information on the general descriptive statistics of working men and women of the 6th EWCS 2015. The mean age across welfare states regimes was quite similar among men and women. We observed good work-life balance among working men to be higher in the Nordic welfare states regime (85.6%), followed by the Conservative welfare states regime (82.0%). Women in the Nordic welfare states regime also had the highest (86.9%) frequency of good work-life balance, followed by the Conservative welfare states regime (85.1%). Furthermore, the highest proportion of poor work-life balance was reported among men (23.5%) and women (19.0%) in the Southern welfare states. In general, we found higher proportions of poor work-life balance among men than women across welfare states regimes. Regarding self-reported health, some gender differences were observed across welfare states. We observed the highest percentage of good self-reported health among men (84.8%) and women (87.2%) in the Liberal welfare states as compared to the other welfare states. In contrast, both working men (23.8%) and women (27.0%) in the CEE welfare states reported the highest poor self-reported health. In general, women reported slightly higher levels of education than men across the welfare states regimes. Also, the frequency of engaging in shift work was higher among women than men, particularly in the CEE welfare states regime (men: 24.8% vs women: 30.0%). Men were more likely to have their working time determined by themselves as compared to women in all the welfare states regimes. On the other hand, women frequently had their working time arrangements set by their companies. The results further revealed that men had long working hours and higher occupational status than women across all welfare states regimes.

Bivariate analysis

The results of the bivariate analysis between self-reported health and the measured variables are shown in Table 2 . The bivariate analysis showed a significant association between work-life balance and self-reported health for both working men and women. Age was positively associated with self-reported health (men ( r = 0.213) vs. women ( r = 0.207)). We, however, found a negative but low correlation between household size and self-reported health for both men ( r = − 0.056 ) and women ( r = − 0.057). Marital status was found to be significantly associated with self-reported health for women, but not men. Meanwhile, a significant association was found between type of employment and self-reported health among men but not women. Overall, there were similar patterns of associations between measured variables and self-reported health among men and women.

The results for the VIF’s are shown in an additional file supplied in the table: S 1 and S 2 . We compared the VIF’s of all the measured variables by gender. The maximum VIF for working men was 2.16, and the mean VIF was 1.45. For working women, the maximum VIF was 2.01, and the mean VIF was 1.33. The VIF estimated for men and women were quite similar. In fact, the estimated VIF’s were less than 2.5, which meets the threshold [ 78 ], for non-existence of multicollinearity.

Multivariate analysis

Table 3 provides information on the multivariate logistic regression. After adjusting for socio-economic factors, working characteristics, and demographic characteristics, the results showed a significant association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health among working adults (aOR = 2.07; 95% CI: (1.93–2.23)). We also found a significant association between poor work-life balance and self-reported health for both men (aOR = 1.97; 95% CI: (1.78–2.18) and women (aOR = 2.21; 95% CI: (1.99–2.45)). However, the magnitude of the association differs slightly among men and women.

Multilevel logistic regression

Table 4 shows the country variation that exists in the relationship between poor self-reported health and work-life conflict. We used a two-stage multilevel logistic regression to assess variations that exist between welfare states regimes. After controlling for socio-economic positions, working characteristics, and demographic characteristics, the multilevel models showed a significant relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported. However, the magnitude of the associations differs slightly across welfare states regimes. For instance, we found the association to be slightly higher for women than men in the Nordic (men: aOR = 1.77; 95% CI: (1.26–2.47) vs women: aOR = 1.92; 95% CI: (1.37–2.69)), Liberal (men: aOR = 2.23; 95% CI: (1.55–3.21) vs women: aOR = 2.39; 95% CI: (1.51–3.78)), Southern (men: aOR = 1.65; 95% CI: (1.36–2.00) vs women: aOR = 2.02; 95% CI: (1.64–2.48)), and CEE welfare states (men: aOR = 1.91; 95% CI: (1.59–2.30) vs women: aOR = 2.29; 95% CI: (1.92–2.73)), but slightly higher for men than women in the Conservative welfare states (men: aOR = 2.62; 95% CI: (2.17–3.17) vs women: aOR = 2.42; 95% CI: (2.00–2.94)). While the largest odds between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among men were found in the Conservative welfare states, the Liberal and the CEE welfare states, the smallest association was observed in the Southern European welfare states followed by the Nordic welfare states. Among women, the highest association was found in the Liberal and Conservative welfare states, while, the lowest association was observed in the Nordic welfare states regime.

Overall, we found small variation in the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health between countries in Europe (men: MOR = 1.18 vs women: MOR = 1.29), and the percentage of variations were slightly higher for women (VPC = 2.07%) than men (VPC = 0.9%).

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine gender and welfare state regime differences in the relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health among working adults with a comprehensive cross-country sample in Europe. The descriptive results revealed that working men in Europe had poor work-life balance than women in the Nordic, Conservative, Liberal, Southern, and CEE welfare states. We found the highest proportion of good work-life balance in the Nordic welfare states regime, while the highest proportion of poor work-life balance was found in the Southern European welfare states regime. More importantly, the result showed that poor work-life balance, as measured in the EWCS 2015 was strongly associated with poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe. However, the magnitude of the association was slightly higher for working women than men. Furthermore, we observed slight variations in the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health across welfare states regimes in Europe. While the largest association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health for both men and women were observed in the Liberal welfare states and the Conservative welfare states, the smallest association was found in the Nordic and Southern welfare states.

Work-life balance and health

Prior evidence that examined work-life conflict among men and women showed inconsistent findings [ 5 , 33 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. Overall, our study found a higher frequency of poor work-life balance among men than women across welfare states regimes in Europe. This finding is consistent with a study conducted by Jansen et al. [ 82 ], who found evidence that men are most affected by work-life conflict as compared to women. While working men and women in the Nordic (men = 85.6% vs. women = 86.9%) and the conservative (men = 82.0% vs. women = 85.1%) welfare states reported the highest proportions of good work-life balance, the highest proportion of poor work-life balance among men and women were found in the Southern (men = 23.5% vs women = 19.0%), CEE (men = 19.1% vs women = 15.3%), and Liberal (men = 19.0% vs women = 15.4%) welfare states. These findings were partly in agreement with the findings of the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey by Lunau et al. [ 5 ]. They found a higher prevalence of poor work-life balance among working men and women in the Southern, CEE, and Former Soviet Union welfare states. Juxtaposing our results to the findings by Luanu et al. [ 5 ] revealed that poor work-life balance among employees in Europe appears to have reduced over time, perhaps, due to improvement in working conditions for employees [ 83 ].

Our results further revealed a strong association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe. This finding is in congruence with other studies that found a negative association between poor work-life balance and self-reported health [ 5 , 41 , 66 , 84 ]. For instance, a systematic review by Allen, Herst, et al. [ 66 ] suggest that poor work-life balance was associated with poor health outcomes including psychological strain, depression, burnout, stress, and substance abuse. Likewise, research conducted among workers in Korea indicated that poor work-life balance was positively associated with poor health outcomes such as fatigue, general health, mental health, sickness absenteeism, musculoskeletal diseases, and work-related risks to health and safety [ 41 ]. This adverse relationship can partly be explained by the multiple role engagement and overload of demands and responsibilities among working adults [ 43 ].

Regarding gender, while some studies suggest that there is no difference in the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among men and women [ 5 , 28 ], few studies noted higher adverse health outcomes among women than men [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Our findings from the multivariate analysis indicated that there is a negative relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health among men and women in contemporary welfare states in Europe, consistent with prior studies [ 5 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. However, there is a slight difference in the strength and magnitude of the association, where the association is slightly higher among women than men. This outcome has been attributed to behavioural norms and societal expectations for men and women [ 33 ], and differential exposure to multiple role engagement and overloads, pressures of family, work demands, and social commitment [ 43 ]. While women are expected to devote more time to family roles such as housekeeping, elderly care, and child care, men are expected to engage more in paid work activities [ 10 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 85 ]. This finding was evident in our study as the proportion of weekly working hours was higher among men than women, even though women reported higher levels of education than men in Europe. This unequal distribution of work-related activities (i.e. paid work and housework) may partly explain the gender work-life “imbalance” [ 25 , 26 ] and adverse health outcomes, especially among women [ 27 ].

In terms of the variations between welfare states, the two-stage multilevel logistic regression showed a higher magnitude in the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health for both men and women in the Liberal welfare states regime, where there is a strong male breadwinner tradition, minimal social policies, and poorly regulated labour market [ 58 , 59 ]. Meanwhile, the magnitude of the association for both genders in the Conservative welfare states regime was slightly higher than the Nordic, Southern, and the CEE welfare states. Women had higher associations between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health in this welfare states than men. We speculate that the presence of weak employment regulation and weak unions may allow for strict managerial control, which may increase job pressure and job insecurity [ 86 ]. In addition, the weak provision of social benefits for ‘child and elderly care’ [ 58 ] may exert pressure on women than men when combining care, household activities, and work demands [ 64 ].

Similar to other studies [ 13 , 64 , 87 ], we found a negative relationship between poor work-life balance and self-reported health for both men and women in the Conservative welfare states regime which is characterised by traditional breadwinner model and strong labour laws which regulate the labour market [ 53 , 74 ]. Surprisingly, working men and women in the Conservative welfare states regime had the highest magnitude regarding the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health. There is some evidence that women who live in Conservative welfare states report poorer health status than men due to poor work-life balance [ 87 ]. In contrast, our findings suggest a slightly higher magnitude in the association for men than women. These gender differences may probably be due to temporary contracts [ 88 ], as well as part-time employment for women as compared to men [ 60 ], which may provide women with more time resources to deal with competing demands than men [ 12 , 13 ]. Further, we found a lower association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health for working adults in the Nordic welfare states regime than the Conservative, Liberal, and CEE welfare states. This may partly be attributed to the generous and encompassing social policies including child care for pre-school, universal health care, elderly care, and long parental leave days that exist in the Nordic welfare states [ 53 , 55 , 56 , 57 ], which may contribute to lower levels of work-life conflict and consequently better self-reported health [ 5 , 12 , 13 ]. However, poor work- life balance was slightly associated with poor self-reported health among women than men in the Nordic welfare states. The slight gender difference in the association may be related to the so-called “parallel ideals” that exist in the Nordic countries where equality is important; yet societal and cultural expectation of women as caregivers still exist [ 12 , 64 , 89 ]. Surprisingly, we found weaker associations between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health among working adults in the Southern European welfare states as compared with Conservative and Liberal welfare states, especially among men. This is very striking considering the fact that Southern welfare states are characterized by minimal social welfare benefits than the conservative welfare state [ 64 ]. In view of the above discussion, and based on the median odds ratios (MOR) and the variance partition coefficients (VPC) that were estimated in the two-stage multi-level logistic regression, our findings suggested that the effect size of work-life balance on health status may vary between welfare states in Europe, particularly, among women than men. Nonetheless, the magnitude of the variation between welfare state regimes that was identified in our study were quite marginal.

In order to address the issue of work-life conflict among working adults in the welfare states in Europe, countries must design, and implement effective industrial relation laws, legislation, and policies that can effectively protect the health and safety of working adults [ 90 , 91 ]. The existing laws and regulation can also be effectively enforced through agencies, where labour inspectorate can oversee the enforcement of existing labour protection laws and work-life policies such as work time arrangement, paid parental leave days, and child and elderly care. Furthermore, welfare states should establish strong state institutions and judicial systems to serve as mediators that can assist workers and employers in the resolution of disputes [ 90 ]. For example, there must be well-functioning labour court, special tribunal and arbitration system which is easily accessible for workers and employers to address disputes pertaining to work and family life [ 90 ]. Finally, governments must encourage and strengthen frequent tripartite negotiation between welfare states and its representatives, employers, trade unions, and other stakeholders to dialogue on the implementation and sustainability of family-friendly policies [ 90 , 91 ].

Limitation and strength

Although the findings of this research are in line with previous research and empirical reviews, there are some conceptual limitations that need to be addressed. Firstly, the measure of work- life balance by the EWCS 2015 was assessed by using only one question on “whether working hours fit in with family or social commitments”. Although work-family fit serves as an important proxy in dealing with issues of work-life balance, it lacks the theoretical basis in describing how the dimensions of work-life conflict and facilitation operate together in shaping the individual and organization [ 92 ]. Greenhaus and Beutell [ 3 ] noted that work-life conflict can be measured through different dimensions such as time, strain, and behaviour based conflict. However, the EWCS 2015 only captured the time conflict dimension and not strain and behaviour-based conflict. As suggested by Choi and Kim [ 41 ], future studies should combine both the work-life balance measurement in the EWCS to the OECD measurement of work-life balance to form one comprehensive question that includes all the dimensions. Secondly, we used self–reported health as the outcome variable. This subjective measure has been linked with heterogeneity problems [ 93 , 94 ], where people living in different locations, and with different socio-economic status, family demographic status, and gender may adopt different thresholds in assessing their health [ 94 ]. Nevertheless, self-reported health has been shown to be an accurate measure and a strong predictor for mortality [ 95 ]. Thirdly, our findings were based on cross-sectional data, which makes it difficult to make definitive conclusions on the direction of the relationship between work-life balance and health status among employees [ 96 ]. Notwithstanding these limitations, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of the relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health according to welfare state regime typology.

We conclude that poor work-life balance is associated with poor self-reported health among working adults, particularly among working women than men in Europe. However, the magnitude and strength of these associations slightly differ across countries in different welfare states regimes. This study thus serves as the baseline for policymakers and stakeholders to fully understand the need to help reduce pressing demands from life domains. Organizations must also create good working atmosphere and flexible working time to deal with issues of jobs strain in order to reduce health problems.

Availability of data and materials

The data used for this study comes from European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Detailed information on the survey design and characteristics are provided on the https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/european-working-conditions-surveys/sixth-european-working-conditions-survey-2015 homepage.

Risti Z, Balaban N, Tumbas P. Work-life balance, processes of organization and performance: rationale for an empirical research. Strategic Manage J. 2009;14:37–47..

Google Scholar

Barling J, Macewen KE. Linking work experiences to facets of marital functioning. J Organ Behav. 1992;13:573–83.

Greenhaus JH, Beutell NJ. Sources of conflict between work and family roles. Acad Manag Rev. 1985;10:76–88.

Voydanoff P. Linkages between the work-family interface and work, family, and individual outcomes: an integrative model. J Fam Issues. 2002;23:138–64.

Lunau T, Bambra C, Eikemo TA, van Der Wel KA, Dragano N. A balancing act? Work–life balance, health and well-being in European welfare states. Eur J Public Health. 2014;24:422–7.

PubMed Google Scholar

Kelly EL, Moen P, Oakes JM, Fan W, Okechukwu C, Davis KD, et al. Changing work and work-family conflict: evidence from the work, family, and health network. Am Sociol Rev. 2014;79:485–516.

PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Nomaguchi KM. Change in work-family conflict among employed parents between 1977 and 1997. J Marriage Fam. 2009;71:15–32.

Bianchi SM, Milkie MA, Sayer LC, Robinson JP. Is anyone doing the housework? Trends in the gender division of household labor. Social forces. 2000;79:191–228.

Bianchi SM, Milkie MA. Work and family research in the first decade of the 21st century. J Marriage Fam. 2010;72:705–25.

Hochschild A, Machung A. The second shift: Working parents and the revolution at home; 1989. p. 1989.

Clark SC. Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balance. Hum Relat. 2000;53:747–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700536001 .

Article Google Scholar

Hagqvist E, Gådin KG, Nordenmark M. Work–family conflict and well-being across Europe: the role of gender context. Soc Indic Res. 2017;132:785–97.

Chandola T, Martikainen P, Bartley M, Lahelma E, Marmot M, Michikazu S, et al. Does conflict between home and work explain the effect of multiple roles on mental health? A comparative study of Finland, Japan, and the UK. Int J Epidemiol. 2004;33:884–93.

Frone MR, Russell M, Barnes GM. Work–family conflict, gender, and health-related outcomes: A study of employed parents in two community samples. J Occup Health Psychol. 1996;1:57.

CAS PubMed Google Scholar

Frone MR, Russell M, Cooper ML. Antecedents and outcomes of work-family conflict: testing a model of the work-family interface. J Appl Psychol. 1992;77:65.

Thomas LT, Ganster DC. Impact of family-supportive work variables on work-family conflict and strain: A control perspective. J Appl Psychol. 1995;80:6.

Johansson G. Work-life balance: the case of Sweden in the 1990s. Soc Sci Inf. 2002;41:303–17.

Parasuraman S, Greenhaus JH, Granrose CS. Role stressors, social support, and well-being among two-career couples. J Organ Behav. 1992;13:339–56.

Hämmig O, Bauer G. Work-life imbalance and mental health among male and female employees in Switzerland. Int J Public Health. 2009;54:88–95.

Jang SJ, Zippay A. The juggling act: managing work-life conflict and work-life balance. Fam Soc. 2011;92:84–90.

Wang J, Lesage A, Schmitz N, Drapeau A. The relationship between work stress and mental disorders in men and women: findings from a population-based study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2008;62:42–7.

Yucel D. Work-to-family conflict and life satisfaction: the moderating role of type of employment. Appl Res Qual Life. 2017;12:577–91.

Winter T, Roos E, Rahkonen O, Martikainen P, Lahelma E. Work-family conflicts and self-rated health among middle-aged municipal employees in Finland. Int J Behav Med. 2006;13:276–85.

MacEwen KE, Barling J. Daily consequences of work interference with family and family interference with work. Work Stress. 1994;8:244–54.

Griep RH, Toivanen S, Van Diepen C, Guimarães JM, Camelo LV, Juvanhol LL, et al. Work–family conflict and self-rated health: the role of gender and educational level. Baseline data from the Brazilian longitudinal study of adult health (ELSA-Brasil). Int J Behav Med. 2016;23:372–82.

Eek F, Axmon A. Gender inequality at home is associated with poorer health for women. Scand J Public Health. 2015;43:176–82.

Leineweber C, Baltzer M, Magnusson Hanson LL, Westerlund H. Work–family conflict and health in Swedish working women and men: a 2-year prospective analysis (the SLOSH study). Eur J Public Health. 2012;23:710–6.

Kinnunen U, Geurts S, Mauno S. Work-to-family conflict and its relationship with satisfaction and well-being: A one-year longitudinal study on gender differences. Work Stress. 2004;18:1–22.

Emslie C, Hunt K. ‘Live to work’or ‘work to live’? A qualitative study of gender and work–life balance among men and women in mid-life. Gender Work Organ. 2009;16:151–72.

Connell R. Accountable conduct: “doing gender” in transsexual and political retrospect. Gend Soc. 2009;23:104–11.

West C, Zimmerman DH. Doing gender. Gend Soc. 1987;1:125–51.

Duxbury LE, Higgins CA. Gender differences in work-family conflict. J Appl Psychol. 1991;76:60.

Gutek BA, Searle S, Klepa L. Rational versus gender role explanations for work-family conflict. J Appl Psychol. 1991;76:560.

Atkinson C, Hall L. The role of gender in varying forms of flexible working. Gender Work Organ. 2009;16:650–66.

Aliaga C. How is the time of women and men distributed in Europe. Luxembourg: EUROSTAT; 2006.

Hagqvist E. The juggle and struggle of everyday life. Gender, division of work, work-family perceptions and well-being in different policy contexts. PhD Thesis. Ostersund: Mid Sweden University; 2016.

Adjei NK, Brand T, Zeeb H. Gender inequality in self-reported health among the elderly in contemporary welfare countries: A cross-country analysis of time use activities, socioeconomic positions and family characteristics. PLOS ONE. 2017;12:e0184676. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184676 .

Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Boye K. Relatively different? How do gender differences in well-being depend on paid and unpaid work in Europe? Soc Indic Res. 2009;93:509–25.

Ferrera M. The south European countries; 2010.

Heras MAD. Concentración y reparto del trabajo no remunerado en los hogares. Cuadernos de relaciones laborales. 2000;17:91–122.

Choi E, Kim J. The association between work–life balance and health status among Korean workers. Work. 2017;58:509–17.

Greenhaus JH, Allen TD, Spector PE. Health consequences of work–family conflict: The dark side of the work–family interface. Employee health, coping and methodologies. Amsterdam: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 2006. p. 61–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1479-3555(05)05002-x .

Lundberg U, Mårdberg B, Frankenhaeuser M. The total workload of male and female white collar workers as related to age, occupational level, and number of children. Scand J Psychol. 1994;35:315–27.

Busch-Heizmann A, Holst E. Do women in highly qualified positions face higher work-to-family conflicts in Germany than men? 2017.

Ngo H-Y, Lui S-Y. Gender differences in outcomes of work-family conflict: the case of Hong Kong managers. Sociol Focus. 1999;32:303–16.

Emslie C, Hunt K, Macintyre S. Gender, work-home conflict, and morbidity amongst white-collar bank employees in the United Kingdom. Int J Behav Med. 2004;11:127.

Schieman S, Whitestone YK, Van Gundy K. The nature of work and the stress of higher status. J Health Soc Behav. 2006;47:242–57.

Winslow S. Work-family conflict, gender, and parenthood, 1977-1997. J Fam Issues. 2005;26:727–55.

Doble N, Supriya MV. Gender differences in the perception of work-life balance. Managing Global Transitions Int Res J. 2010;8(4):331–42.

Treas J, Drobnič S. Dividing the domestic: men, women, and household work in cross-national perspective. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press; 2010.

Gornick JC. Special issue on does policy matter? The impact of work-family reconciliation policies on workers and their families. J Comp Policy Anal Res Pract. 2007;9:111–214.

León M. Welfare state regimes and the social organization of labour: childcare arrangements and the work/family balance dilemma. Sociol Rev. 2005;53:204–18.

Esping-Andersen G. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1990.

Bambra C. Going beyond the three worlds of welfare capitalism: regime theory and public health research. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007;61:1098–102.

CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Korpi W. Faces of inequality: gender, class, and patterns of inequalities in different types of welfare states. Social Politics: international studies in gender, state & society. 2000;7:127–91.

Crompton R, Lyonette C. Work-life ‘balance’in Europe. Acta sociologica. 2006;49:379–93.

Bruning G, Plantenga J. Parental leave and equal opportunities: experiences in eight European countries. J Eur Soc Policy. 1999;9:195–209.

Lewis J. Gender and the development of welfare regimes. J Eur Soc Policy. 1992;2:159–73.

Esping-Andersen G. Social foundations of postindustrial economies. OUP Oxford; 1999.

Stier H, Lewin-Epstein N, Braun M. Welfare regimes, family-supportive policies, and women’s employment along the life-course. Am J Sociol. 2001;106:1731–60.

Bambra C. Defamilisation and welfare state regimes: a cluster analysis. Int J Soc Welf. 2007;16:326–38.

Adascalitei D. Welfare state development in central and Eastern Europe: A state of the art literature review. Stud Transit States Soc. 2012;4(2). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2186015 .

Aidukaite J. Old welfare state theories and new welfare regimes in Eastern Europe: challenges and implications. Communist and post-communist studies. 2009;42:23–39.

Artazcoz L, Cortès I, Puig-Barrachina V, Benavides FG, Escribà-Agüir V, Borrell C. Combining employment and family in Europe: the role of family policies in health. Eur J Public Health. 2013;24:649–55.

Grönlund A, Öun I. Rethinking work-family conflict: dual-earner policies, role conflict and role expansion in Western Europe. J Eur Soc Policy. 2010;20:179–95.

Allen TD, Herst DE, Bruck CS, Sutton M. Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. J Occup Health Psychol. 2000;5:278.

McGinnity F, Calvert E. Work-life conflict and social inequality in Western Europe. Soc Indic Res. 2009;93:489–508.

Eurofound. 6th European working conditions survey–technical report. Publications Office of the European Union. Luxembourg. 2015. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_survey/field_ef_documents/6th_ewcs_-_technical_report.pdf . Accessed 15 July 2019.

Jylhä M. What is self-rated health and why does it predict mortality? Towards a unified conceptual model. Soc Sci Med. 2009;69:307–16.

Yang Y, Wen M. Parental dissatisfaction, health, and well-being among older Chinese adults: the mediating role of self-esteem and feeling useless. J Fam Issues. 2019;40:2456–77.

Bambra C, Lunau T, Van der Wel KA, Eikemo TA, Dragano N. Work, health, and welfare: the association between working conditions, welfare states, and self-reported general health in Europe. Int J Health Serv. 2014;44:113–36.

Kwon K, Park JB, Lee K-J, Cho Y-S. Association between employment status and self-rated health: Korean working conditions survey. Ann Occup Environ Med. 2016;28:43.

Cullati S. The influence of work-family conflict trajectories on self-rated health trajectories in Switzerland: A life course approach. Soc Sci Med. 2014;113:23–33.

Ferrera M. The’Southern model’of welfare in social Europe. J Eur Soc Policy. 1996;6:17–37.

Bambra C, Eikemo TA. Welfare state regimes, unemployment and health: a comparative study of the relationship between unemployment and self-reported health in 23 European countries. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2009;63:92–8.

McHugh ML. The chi-square test of independence. Biochem Med. 2013;23:143–9.

CAS Google Scholar

Varma S. Preliminary item statistics using point-biserial correlation and p-values. Morgan Hill: Educational Data Systems Inc; 2006. p. 16.

O’brien RM. A caution regarding rules of thumb for variance inflation factors. Qual Quant. 2007;41:673–90.

Goldstein H. Multilevel statistical models. Chichester: Wiley; 2011.

Merlo J, Chaix B, Ohlsson H, Beckman A, Johnell K, Hjerpe P, et al. A brief conceptual tutorial of multilevel analysis in social epidemiology: using measures of clustering in multilevel logistic regression to investigate contextual phenomena. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2006;60:290–7.

StataCorp LP. Stata statistical software (version release 14). College Station: Author; 2015.

Jansen NW, Kant I, Kristensen TS, Nijhuis FJ. Antecedents and consequences of work–family conflict: A prospective cohort study. J Occup Environ Med. 2003;45:479–91.

Chung H. Work autonomy, flexibility and work-life balance final report; 2017.

Artazcoz L, Cortès I, Escribà-Agüir V, Bartoll X, Basart H, Borrell C. Long working hours and health status among employees in Europe: between-country differences. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2013;39:369–78.

Fujimoto Y, Azmat F, Härtel CE. Gender perceptions of work-life balance: management implications for full-time employees in Australia. Aust J Manag. 2013;38:147–70.

Gallie D. Welfare regimes, employment systems and job preference orientations. Eur Sociol Rev. 2007;23:279–93.

Borgmann LS, Rattay P, Lampert T. Health-related consequences of work-family conflict from a European perspective: results of a scoping review. Front Public Health. 2019;7:189. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00189 .

Artazcoz L, Benach J, Borrell C, Cortès I. Social inequalities in the impact of flexible employment on different domains of psychosocial health. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2005;59:761–7.

Hook JL. Care in context: Men’s unpaid work in 20 countries, 1965–2003. Am Sociol Rev. 2006;71:639–60.

Trebilcock A. Labour relations and human resources management: an overview. Geneva: ILO available online at http://www.ilocis.org/documents/chpt21e.htm .

Vargas O, Boehmer S. Policies to improve work-life balance. Eurofund website. 2015. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2015/eu-member-states/policies-to-improve-work-life-balance . Accessed 7 May 2020.

Grzywacz JG, Bass BL. Work, family, and mental health: testing different models of work-family fit. J Marriage Fam. 2003;65:248–61.

Kerkhofs M, Lindeboom M. Subjective health measures and state dependent reporting errors. Health Econ. 1995;4:221–35.

Lindeboom M, Van Doorslaer E. Cut-point shift and index shift in self-reported health. J Health Econ. 2004;23:1083–99.

Gérard Vaillant N, Wolff F-C. Retirement intentions of older migrant workers: does health matter? Int J Manpow. 2012;33:441–60.

Kesmodel US. Cross-sectional studies–what are they good for? Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2018;97:388–93.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Dr. Martin Diewald for his useful comments and suggestions.

There was no funding source.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS), Bielefeld University, Universitätsstrasse 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

Aziz Mensah

Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany

Nicholas Kofi Adjei

Health Sciences Bremen, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

AM conceived the study. AM performed statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. AM and NKA critically revised and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aziz Mensah .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

The authors were granted approval from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions to obtain and use the collected data for analysis. All data were anonymized prior to the authors receiving the data.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Additional file 1: table s1.

Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) of measured variables by men. Table S2 Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) of measured variables by women.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Mensah, A., Adjei, N.K. Work-life balance and self-reported health among working adults in Europe: a gender and welfare state regime comparative analysis. BMC Public Health 20 , 1052 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09139-w

Download citation

Received : 28 January 2020

Accepted : 17 June 2020

Published : 16 July 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09139-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Work-life balance
Self-reported health
Welfare states
Working adults

BMC Public Health

ISSN: 1471-2458

General enquiries: [email protected]

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

We're Hiring!
Help Center

Work Life Balance of Women Employees in the Information Technology Industry

Related Papers

Jayesh Patil

Journal ijmr.net.in(UGC Approved)

With continuing boom of IT sector in India, the industry not only depends male employees, but more on female employees. With increasing participation in IT sector, the question of Work Life Balance playing major role in not only personal life but also professional life of women. This paper is about the Work Life Balance for women working in IT sector. The researcher has concentrated her efforts for this study to the Navi Mumbai region, as the literature review clearly indicates gap in analysis. Here, the sample of 85 respondents is considered for analysis, and the hypothesis is made and divided into 3 different sub-hypothesis. All sub hypothesis were tested with correlations and dependency tests. With acceptance of alternative hypothesis of all three sub hypotheses, it was proved that, there is no significant Work-Life-Balance with women in IT sector working in Navi Mumbai region and this is leading to their personal and professional life on being toss. The data shows that many respondents having physical and mental problems arising from unbalanced work-life and the analysis shows that, personal factors, organizational factors, customized WLB policies were most important factors for women employees and the researcher recommend requirement by both-organization and individual for better work life balance.

International Journal of Management and Humanities

Rajesh Veluthan

Indian journal of industrial relations

Balu Anthony

Work life balance becoming an area of growing concern in the Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services sector (ITeS). The present paper provides a greater understanding of the work-life balance of women employees in IT and ITeS industries. An experiential survey of 80 IT employees and 80 ITeS employees was carried out. Both the sub-sectors were evaluated on five sub-scales- workload and responsibility, work environment, feelings about work, family dependants and absence from work. The sector wise regression analysis demonstrated that feelings about work, family dependants and absence from work are strong contributors to a sense of balance for an employee. However, no significant relationship has been obtained between work environment and work-life balance.

Sathish Kumar

The dynamics of socioeconomic , personal and career advancement aspects were analysed from 75 information and communication technology (ICT) women professionals, from 7 various ICT organisations from Bengaluru, India. ICT industry continues to be the largest private sector employer in India for women in that 800,000 women currently working in this sector account for over 30 per cent of the existing hires and this figure is all set to rise in the future. The characteristics of the ICT industry in India and the nature of the work pose some unique challenges for women professionals in the industry. This study focuses on how does work and family related factors influence the work life balance and work conflict of women professionals. It is very evident that career oriented women has to manage / balance work & life due to stereotypic roles played. ICT women professionals have agreed that their career advancement is influenced by work or personal life enhancement. ICT Women Professionals ...

International Journal of Special Education

Dr. Amit Verma

Work-life balance is a crucial factor for every female employee to achieve success. Each Industry has diverse plans, policies, procedures, practices, and programs to help their employees to succeed in the balance between their work engagements and family engagements. Some policies are legal while others are involuntarily implemented. The main motto of this study is to insight out about the technology change, increased work Pressure with constant deadlines, co-existing virtual workplace and changing demographic profile such as gender, experiences, an increase of disposable income inflation, improving living standard have encouraged the importance of the provision of work-life balance in the industrial sector. In the modern era, it is essential especially for females as they play a dual role. The Research Paper depicts the direction of work-life arrangement for the female employee in the Indian industry.

International Journal of Engineering Technologies and Management Research

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH I J E T M R JOURNAL

Work life balance of women employees plays the major role because they have to manage their personal life for their good quality of life. The employee's satisfaction is based on the employee to be happy and deliver the level best. Even in the Worst scenario the employee is very loyal to their organization because of the employee Satisfaction. The quality of life is based on the professional life of each and every women employee who are coming forward to support to their family. The problem of the women employee's face is health condition, Pregnancy discrimination, Sexual harassment, no equal pay, etc. This paper says that how the women employees are balanced and Satisfied in IT sector and the factors that affect the work life balance of women employees are working hours, Job satisfaction, working condition, etc. and find out the women employee job satisfaction were analyzed by using statistical method that is Chi-square and Correlation test.

Shanlax International Journal of Commerce

Dr. M SRINI VASAN

Work life and personal life are the two sides of the same coin. According to various work /life balance surveys, more than 60% of the respondent employees surveyed said that are not able to find a balance between their personal and working lives. The paper highlights how the Indian ITES are motivated to balance the work-life of its employees and how employee balances the professional life and personal life in excited work environment. They have to make tough choices even when their work and personal life is nowhere close to equilibrium. ITES is all about working 24*7 and managing of personal relations and giving enough time to family has become greater concern for employees in the modern corporate world and employers also should think what should be done to keep employees free of family issues and concentrate on work. Traditionally creating and managing a balance between the work-life was considered to be a women"s issue. But increasing work pressures, globalization and technological advancement have made it an issue with both the sexes, all professionals working across all levels and all industries throughout the world. Achieving "worklife balance" is not as simple as it sounds.

The role of working women has changed throughout the world due to economic conditions and social demands. This has resulted in a scenario in which working women have tremendous pressure to develop a career as robust as their male counterparts while sustaining active engagement in personal life. The ever-increasing work pressure is taking a ring on the working women leaving them with less time for themselves. The increasing responsibilities on the personal front with the technological blessings like advanced mobile phones, notepads, etc. that keeps work life integrated with personal life also creates stress on personal and professional fronts in this knowledge age. This affects the person's physical, emotional and social well-being. Thus, achieving work life balance is a necessity for working women to have a good quality of life. This paper is an attempt to explore the tough challenges faced by working women in maintaining a balance between their personal and professional life. The various factors affecting the work-life balance of married working women have been examined in this study. The tool used for the study is the manual on work–life balance of The Industrial Society. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics and it was found that the problems faced by the working women of Pune Maharashtra state in terms of work-life balance are quite high. The results also indicate that the work-life balance of individuals affect their quality of life.

Indian Journal of Business Administration (IJBA)

manisha ahire

Work plays a significant part in all our lives. Our earnings ensure that the lights stay on, there's food on the table and the rainy-day pot is full. In today's fast paced & uncertain or unpredictable business world environment, it is very challenging task to achieve work life balance. It is very difficult to separate work from our personal lives due to advancement in IT & social media. Though we are at home till we check emails at all hours, take business calls at the dinner table and work on our laptops on weekends. Oxygenated work-life balance is a not only important part of good health & relationships but also it increases efficiency & effectiveness of employees. Put simply, if your people don't view work as a chore, then they will work harder, make fewer mistakes and are more likely to become advocates for your brand. The research study was focused on Women Employee Work-Life Balance of service sector namely Academics, Banks and IT sector located in SPPU Region. An Attempt was done to study the existence of work-life balance problem among the working women in the specified area. It was tried to examine how the factors affecting work-life balance influence quality of life of married working women.

What employees are saying about the future of remote work

As organizations look to the postpandemic future, many are planning a hybrid virtual model that combines remote work with time in the office. This sensible decision follows solid productivity increases during the pandemic.

But while productivity may have gone up, many employees report feeling anxious and burned out. Unless leaders address the sources of employee anxiety, pandemic-style productivity gains may prove unsustainable in the future. 1 Besides anxiety and burnout, longer-term productivity in a hybrid virtual model will also require addressing the organizational norms that help create a common culture, generate social cohesion, and build shared trust. See Andrea Alexander, Aaron De Smet, and Mihir Mysore, “ Reimagining the postpandemic workforce ,” McKinsey Quarterly , July 7, 2020. That’s because anxiety is known to reduce job satisfaction, negatively affect interpersonal relationships with colleagues, and decrease work performance.

A McKinsey Live event on ‘Getting hybrid work right: What employees are saying’

As organizational leaders chart the path toward the postpandemic world, they need to communicate more frequently with their employees—even if their plans have yet to solidify fully. Organizations that have articulated more specific policies and approaches for the future workplace have seen employee well-being and productivity rise.

The following charts examine our survey findings and shed light on what employees want from the future of work.

Feeling included. Even high-level communication about post-COVID-19 working arrangements boosts employee well-being and productivity. But organizations that convey more detailed, remote-relevant policies and approaches see greater increases. Employees who feel included in more detailed communication are nearly five times more likely to report increased productivity. Because communicating about the future can drive performance outcomes today, leaders should consider increasing the frequency of their employee updates—both to share what’s already decided and to communicate what is still uncertain.

Communication breakdown. Valuable as a detailed vision for postpandemic work might be to employees, 40 percent of them say they’ve yet to hear about any vision from their organizations, and another 28 percent say that what they’ve heard remains vague.

Anxiety at work. At organizations that are communicating vaguely, or not at all, about the future of postpandemic work, nearly half of employees say it’s causing them concern or anxiety. Anxiety is known to decrease work performance, reduce job satisfaction, and negatively affect interpersonal relationships with colleagues, among other ills. For the global economy, the loss of productivity because of poor mental health—including anxiety—might be as high as $1 trillion per year .

Burning out. The lack of clear communication about the future of postpandemic work also contributes to employee burnout. Nearly half of employees surveyed say they’re feeling some symptoms of being burned out at work. That may be an underestimate, since employees experiencing burnout are less likely to respond to survey requests, and the most burned-out individuals may have already left the workforce—as have many women, who’ve been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

Share more. Burnout is especially pronounced for people feeling anxious due to a lack of organizational communication. These employees were almost three times more likely to report feeling burned out. The obvious recommendation for organizational leaders: share more with employees, even if you’re uncertain about the future, to help improve employee well-being now.

Employees want flexibility. So how do organizations help their anxious and burned-out employees? One way is to find out what employees want for the future. More than half of employees told us they would like their organizations to adopt more flexible hybrid virtual-working models , in which employees are sometimes on-premises and sometimes working remotely. A hybrid model can help organizations make the most of talent wherever it resides, lower costs, and strengthen organizational performance .

Talent at risk. In fact, more than a quarter of those surveyed reported that they would consider switching employers if their organization returned to fully on-site work. Of course, even employees who say they might depart could ultimately decide to remain, depending on the policies companies end up adopting, the availability of jobs at the same or better rates of pay, and the role of automation in shifting the tasks people do .

Staying home. In describing the hybrid model of the future, more than half of government and corporate workers report that they would like to work from home at least three days a week once the pandemic is over. Across geographies, US employees are the most interested in having access to remote work, with nearly a third saying they would like to work remotely full time.

What parents say. Employees with young children are the most likely to prefer flexible work locations, with only 8 percent suggesting they would like to see a fully on-site model in the future. Employees without children under 18 are nearly three times as likely to prefer on-site work, but the majority still prefer more flexible models.

Hopes and fears. Across the board, employees are eager to see organizations put a greater emphasis on flexibility, competitive compensation, and well-being once the pandemic is over—and conversely, they’re concerned that future work, regardless of whether it is on-site or remote, will negatively affect these needs. Employees also fear that on-site work will lead to a greater chance of getting sick and that remote work will reduce community and collaboration between colleagues.

Policy matters. Which working arrangements and related policies do employees say will lead to the highest levels of well-being, social cohesion, and productivity? More than a third of respondents ranked clear hours and expectations for collaboration in their top five policies; several other collaboration policies, including technologies that enable on-site employees to dial-in to remote meetings and guidelines for documentation, also received significant support. Collaboration tools, and training for those tools, also rate highly for employees, as does reimbursement for remote-work office setups. Microconnectivity policies, meanwhile—from small team events to a listening and response strategy—were top policies for more than a quarter of all respondents.

Andrea Alexander is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Houston office. Aaron De Smet is a senior partner in the New Jersey office. Meredith Langstaff is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office, where Dan Ravid is a fellow, research and knowledge.

This article was edited by Lang Davison, an executive editor in the Seattle office.

Explore a career with us

Reimagining the postpandemic workforce

What’s next for remote work: An analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries

The future of work after COVID-19

IMAGES

(PDF) Work Life Balance of Women Employees
(PDF) Work Life Balance of Women Employees in the Information
Work Life Balance Free Essay Example
(PDF) Work-Life Balance of Women Employees in Service sector: A Pilot Study
(PDF) WORK LIFE BALANCE: A STUDY OF PUBLIC SECTOR WORKING WOMEN IN
Work-Life Balance in Employed Women

VIDEO

The State of Women at Work in 2018

COMMENTS

(PDF) Work-Life Balance of Women Employees
An effective work life. balance assists a person in achieving both personal and professional goals (Oludayo et al., 2015). This paper explores the literature related to work-life balance of women ...
A STUDY OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
Abstract. Work-life balance is considered to be important for both, business practice and academic research. The literature shows that work-life balance is a central issue affecting wellbeing, as ...
A WORK LIFE BALANCE OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES: A LITERATURE REVIEW
the personal life of the emplo yees such as job satisfaction, role conflict, participation, stress, commitment, workload, absenteeism, burnout, motivation, turnover, and intention to leave. Role ...
(PDF) Women at workplace and Work life balance
work life balance (Revathy & Geetha, 2013). An increasing number of women at workplace. have generated a 'diverse workforce' and. a greater need for employees to achieve a. balance between ...
Recovery for Resilience: The Mediating Role of Work-Life Balance on the
Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. ... Regarding women's work-life balance, there is a contradiction that we need to consider, to the extent that both spheres ... The Mediating Role of Work-Life Balance on the Quality of Life of Women Employees" Sustainability 15 ...
PDF Work-Life Balance of Women Employees
An effective work life balance assists a person in achieving both personal and professional goals (Oludayo et al., 2015). This paper explores the literature related to work-life balance of women employees. Work-life balance confirms to be a necessity for personal satisfaction. Moreover, work-life balance has grabbed even more attention, as ...
Work-life balance -a systematic review
Introduction. In this technological era, work is becoming demanding with changing nature of work and working patterns (Thilagavathy and Geetha, 2020).The proactive, aggressive and demanding nature of business with the intention of reaching the top requires active involvement and comprehensive devotion from the employees, thereby compromising their work-life balance (WLB) (Turanlıgil and ...
PDF Work-life Balance Among Women Employees in Banking Sector
related to Work life balance. This study provides another view about the importance of Work life balance and job factors for organizational effectiveness and performance. Swathi and Mohapatra(2017) The present study makes an attempt to compare the Work-life Balance of women employees in Indian Public and Private sector organizations.
Insights of Work-life Balance from Women's Perspective
This paper presents some insights into work-life balance from the perspective of women working in different sectors (education, industry and business). The study aims to exhibit an in-depth analysis of the challenges faced by women in their workplace, homes or society at large as well as how these challenges are being mitigated by the women ...
Work-Life Balance and Well-Being at Work
Work-life balance (WLB) is a concept that refers to "a state wherein an individual's work and family lives experience little conflict while enjoying substantial facilitation" (Frone 2003; Nielsen et al. 2002).Work-life balance is also defined as "the accomplishment of role-related expectations that are negotiated and shared between an individual and his/her role-related partners in the ...
Full article: Remote work and work-life balance: Lessons learned from
Research conducted during the pandemic suggests that adequate workspace at home - characterized as good physical conditions, free from distraction and noise - was a key to employees' successful adjustment to remote work and to their work-life balance (Akuoko, Aggrey, and Dokbila Mengba Citation 2021; Carillo et al. Citation 2021; Craig ...
Redefining work-life balance: women at the helm of the post-pandemic
The post-pandemic era has transformed work-life boundaries, driven by factors such as working hours, an increased number of working women and single parents, the implementation of various ICTs, and the rise of flexible work arrangements. This study examines the role of female workers and entrepreneurs in establishing and managing coworking spaces (CSs) designed to improve work-life balance ...
Work-Life Balance: Weighing the Importance of Work-Family and Work
To date, research directed at the work-life balance (WLB) has focused mainly on the work and family domains. However, the current labor force is heterogeneous, and workers may also value other nonworking domains besides the family. The aim of this study was to investigate the importance of other nonworking domains in the WLB with a particular ...
An Empirical Analysis of Work Life Balance: A Study on Women Employees
The research is made on the current issues of work-life balance of women bank employees to find the factors influencing their work life balance. The study is based on both the public and private sector bank employees positioned as clerk, cashier and officers. Bank employees deal with a wide variety of population daily at their working schedules.
PDF Work Life Balance of Working Women: a Literature Review
8. Dr. G. Balamurugan, M. Sreeleka (2020) attempt to identified the, "Work life balance of women employees in IT sector" they identified that how the women employees are balanced and Satisfied in IT sector and the factors that affect the work life balance of women employees are working hours, Job satisfaction, working condition etc. 9.
Administrative Sciences
The idea of work-family balance has generated considerable interest for researchers who tried to focus mainly on the increased female engagement in the labor market, the rise in dual-income households, as well as the changing nature of organizations, work and the workplace. While some individuals prefer work-life balance (WLB) strategies that set fair and realistic limits between their ...
Work-Life Balance among Married Women Employees
Work-life balance. An increasing number of articles have promoted the importance of work-life balance. This highlights the current concern within society and organizations about the impact of multiple roles on the health and well-being of professional women and its implications regarding work and family performance, and women's role in society.
PDF Work Life Balance of Women Employees in Banking Sector
Parminder Walia (2014) in their study 'Work Life Balance of Bank Employees : A Comparison', reached into a conclusion that public sector bank employees have a better work life balance and there is a need to improve work life balance in the private sector banks. Private sector banks need to provide for a variety of
PDF A Study on Work-life Balance in Working Female Employees
duties, affect married working female's work-life balance. • To analyze the work-life balance crisis of married working women across their demographic distinctiveness such as age group, number of kids and spouse's occupation. • To analyze the outcome of work-life balance on the quality of life of working women. Research Methodology
PDF Work-life Balance Study Focused on Working Women
This paper focuses on the tough life of married working ... Work-life balance is defined as an employee's perception that multiple domains of personal time, family care, and work are maintained and integrated with a minimum of role conflict (Clark, 2000; ... Research suggests that female respondents in all [Deshmukh *, Vol.5 ...
PDF Work Life Balance of Women Employees: a Study on Banking Sector of India
The scope of this research is to study the work life balance of working women in Public Sector Banks of India. The main influence is on attaining equilibrium between professional and personal life responsibilities. There can be so many factors affect the work life balance like
Work-Life Balance among Married Women Employees
Work-Life Balance among Married Women Employees N. Krishna Reddy , M. N. Vranda , […] , Atiq Ahmed , B. P. Nirmala , and B. Siddaramu +2 -2 View all authors and affiliations Volume 32 , Issue 2
PDF A Study on Work-life Balance in Working Women
2) As a working woman, my biggest challenge is work-life balance. 3) There is a strong relationship between work-life balance and quality of life. 4) I feel that better work-life balance in my life can guarantee me a better quality of life. 5) In general, my level of satisfaction towards my Quality of life is good.
A Study on the Effect of Quality of Work Life (QWL) on Work-Life
The study suggests that effective implementation of QWL at the workplace can improve work-life balance and there is a significant relationship between QWL and WLB among women IT professionals in India. In recent years, the concept of QWL has gained much popularity. Cultivating the work environment for improving human resources is the aim of QWL. QWL is focused on enhancing the experience for ...
Work-life balance and self-reported health among working adults in
General distribution and sample characteristics. Table 1 provides information on the general descriptive statistics of working men and women of the 6th EWCS 2015. The mean age across welfare states regimes was quite similar among men and women. We observed good work-life balance among working men to be higher in the Nordic welfare states regime (85.6%), followed by the Conservative welfare ...
(PDF) Work Life Balance of Women Employees in the Information
This paper says that how the women employees are balanced and Satisfied in IT sector and the factors that affect the work life balance of women employees are working hours, Job satisfaction, working condition, etc. and find out the women employee job satisfaction were analyzed by using statistical method that is Chi-square and Correlation test.
What employees are saying about the future of remote work
Anxiety at work. At organizations that are communicating vaguely, or not at all, about the future of postpandemic work, nearly half of employees say it's causing them concern or anxiety. Anxiety is known to decrease work performance, reduce job satisfaction, and negatively affect interpersonal relationships with colleagues, among other ills.

Work-life balance -a systematic review

Design/methodology/approach

Originality/value

Introduction

Methodology

Literature review

Individual factors

Work-life balance and demography.

Work-life balance and personal demands.

Work-life balance and family demands.

Work-life balance and family support.

Work-life balance and individual’s ability.

Organizational factor

Work-life balance and organizational work-life policies.

Work-life balance and organizational demands.

Work-life balance and working hours.

Work-life balance and productivity.

Work-life balance and burnout.

Work-life balance and support system.

Work-life balance and employee perception.

Work-life balance and job autonomy.

Work-life balance and job satisfaction.

Work-life balance and organizational commitment.

Work-life balance and work-life balance policy utilization.

Work-life balance and organizational culture.

Societal factors

Work-life balance and societal demands.

Work-life balance and societal culture.

Work-life balance and societal support.

Analyzes and results

Geographical distribution

Basic classification

Methodology-based categorization of papers

Research gap

Organizational factor.

Societal factor.

Discussion and conclusion

Limitations

Implications

Further reading

Acknowledgements

Corresponding author

All feedback is valuable

Join us on our journey

Questions & More Information

Redefining work-life balance: women at the helm of the post-pandemic coworking revolution

Cite this article

Access this article

Similar content being viewed by others

“If Only I Were a Male”: Work, Value, and the Female Body

Happily Exhausted: Work Family Dynamics in India

New Ways of Working During (and After) the COVID-19 Pandemic: Truly Smart for Women?

Author information

Corresponding author

Ethics declarations

Informed consent

Consent to participate

Consent for publication

Additional information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Share this article

Work–Life Balance among Married Women Employees

M. N. Vranda

Materials and Methods:

Findings and Conclusion:

INTRODUCTION

Multiple roles and professional women

Work–life balance

Work–family conflict and family–work conflict

Work stress: Its relation with WFC and FWC

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Instruments

Future directions

Work-life balance and self-reported health among working adults in Europe: a gender and welfare state regime comparative analysis

Conclusions

Introduction

Gender, work life balance, and welfare policies

Analytical strategy

General distribution and sample characteristics