Work-to-family enrichment and gender inequalities in eight European countries |
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Authors: | Barbara Beham Sonja Drobnič Patrick Präg Andreas Baierl Suzan Lewis |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Business and Economics, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Berlin, Germanybarbara.beham@hwr-berlin.de;3. Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences BIGSSS, and Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy SOCIUM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany;4. Department of Sociology, University of Oxford and Nuffield College, Oxford, UK;5. Austrian Institute for Family Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria;6. Department of Leadership Work and Organization, Middlesex University Business School, London, UK |
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Abstract: | AbstractAll social roles have positive and rewarding as well as negative/problematic aspects. Research on the work–family interface has predominantly focused on conflicting roles. In contrast, this paper extends research on work–family enrichment (WFE), a positive aspect of work and gender differences in WFE in a cross-national context. Drawing upon social role theory and the culture sensitive theory on work–family enrichment, we examined gender differences in experiences of developmental WFE in a sample of service sector employees in eight European countries. In line with traditional gender roles, women reported more WFE than men. The relationship was moderated by both an objective and subjective measure of gender egalitarianism but in the opposite direction as hypothesized. The gender gap in WFE was larger in more gender-egalitarian countries, where women may be better able to transfer resources from the work domain to benefit their family role than in low egalitarian societies. National differences in labour market factors, family models and the public discourse on work–life balance mainly explain the unanticipated findings. |
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Keywords: | Work-family enrichment gender gender inequality Europe |
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