The impact of poor work-life balance and unshared home responsibilities on work-gender identity integration

ABSTRACT

The degree to which gender and organizational social identities are perceived as compatible has been proven a key factor in promoting creative performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment of female workers. But what are the factors that help them develop a high level of Gender-Work Identity Integration (GWII)? Previous studies have focused on organizational aspects (i.e., gender stereotype threat, perceived respect in the organizational context). We focus on the relational and family sphere and tested a model where the perception of poor Work-Life Balance (WLB) is used as a predictor of GWII. Then, this relationship was moderated by gender and the degree of shared responsibilities in the household (e.g., house chores, care for children and/or elderly, menial household duties, etc.). The model was tested in two separate studies. Study 1 (cross-sectional, N = 916 employees living with a partner, 31% women) revealed that for women whose home responsibilities are not shared, achieving GWII proves more challenging. On the other hand, when home responsibilities are shared with a partner, the effect of poor WLB on GWII is not significant. Cross-lagged analyses in longitudinal Study 2 (N = 82 female workers living with a partner) confirmed the findings in Study 1 and the direction of the hypothesized associations. These findings provide a better understanding of factors that contribute to gender equality in work and home life.

KEYWORDS:

• Work-life balance
• identity integration
• work identity
• gender identity

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CORRECTION NOTICE

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Time spent in unpaid work includes: routine housework; shopping; care for household members; child care; adult care; care for non-household members; volunteering; travel related to household activities; other unpaid activities.

2. Retrieved online at: https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=54757

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an Odysseus grant to CVL (grant number G.O.E66.14N) and a postdoctoral grant to LM (grant number 12X4718N) both from the Research Foundation of Flanders.