Do Mothers Benefit from Flexible Work? Cross-National Evidence for Work Time, Job Quality, and Satisfaction

Abstract

Flexible work is commonly implemented to provide workers with greater discretion to accommodate competing demands. While investigated at the individual and organizational levels, less is known about whether national cultures of flexible work are associated with workers’ ability to match their desired to actual work hours. Applying data from the 2005 International Social Survey Programme (n = 19,134 from 32 nations), we investigate whether workers in countries where flexible work is more common report better work-time compatibility, job quality, and job satisfaction. Paying careful attention to gender and parental status, we find that mothers are more likely to report working their desired hours in countries with more expansive flexible work. Women and mothers also occupy more satisfying jobs in countries with more expansive flexible work. Finally, all workers report working in higher quality jobs and preferences for less than full-time work in countries with more expansive flexible work offerings. Our results highlight the benefits to national-level flexible work across multiple measures of work quality.

Keywords:

• Mothers
• work
• flexible
• job satisfaction

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council (project number DE150100228).

Notes on contributors

Leah Ruppanner

Leah Ruppanner is a sociologist studying gender, family, and inequality at the University of Melbourne. Her current research focuses on cross-national approaches to work and family on issues of time use, gender and sleep.

Rennie Lee

Rennie Lee, Ph.D., is a lecturer of Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her main areas of interest include crossnational research and international migration. Her current research explores the socioeconomic outcomes of immigrants and their offspring in the US, Canada, and Australia.

Matt Huffman

Matt Huffman is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. His primary focus is on how race, gender, and other forms of inequality vary across contexts such as organizations and local labor markets. He is also interested in the sources and consequences of organizational diversity, access to managerial jobs, and the intersection of work and family.