Women’s work and “women’s work”: LDS dual-earner couples and the work–family nexus

Abstract

In the context of religious expectations that their primary obligations should be child care and maintenance of the home, how do Church of Latter-day Saint (LDS) women and their spouses view the relationship between women’s work and the family? Are these perceptions similar or dissimilar for men and women? This study addresses the work–family nexus by examining associations among religiosity, traditional gender ideology, work-to-family spillover, and family cohesion using data from a random sample of dual-earner LDS couples. Our findings indicate that for LDS men, women’s work outside the home is negatively associated with perceptions of family cohesion. However, this relationship is not significant for women. Gender, therefore, is a key factor in how women’s work is perceived among dual-earner Latter-day Saints.

Acknowledgements

This article was prepared as a contribution to Western Multi-State Project W-167 with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Utah Agricultural Experiment Station (Project 869). We also gratefully acknowledge funding support from the Women and Gender Research Institute at Utah State University and editorial support from those who reviewed this article.