An unforeseen story of alpha-woman: breadwinner women are more likely to quit the job in work-family conflicts

ABSTRACT

Extensive research studied the effect of work-family conflicts on employee turnover, however, limited studies explored how work-family conflicts might influence the turnover decision. This paper utilizes role congruity theory and predicts that the employee vulnerability to work-family conflicts might be enhanced when their perceived and actual parental roles are incongruent. This study examines the life history of 8,616 working parents in the U.S. National Longitudinal Surveys and finds that there is a gender difference in how employees respond to increasing family demands. Ironically, the results of this study indicate that growing family demands influence women to quit the job when they are the dominant financial provider to the family. Family demands did not have a significant effect on employee turnover for non-breadwinner women. Men are more likely to stay in the job as the family demand increases. The findings suggest that role-incongruity might be a substantial influence on how employees handle work-family conflicts. We also discus sthe policy implications from this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Work-family conflict
• work-life balance
• turnover
• role theory

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• J10
• J18

Disclosure statement

There are no sources of funding or conflicts of interest to disclose.