Ida Öun

Rethinking work-family conflict: dual-earner policies, role conflict and role expansion in Western Europe

The aim of this article is to deepen the understanding of work—family conflict and the impact of social policies by integrating the theoretical perspectives of role conflict and role expansion. First, we present a theoretical model identifying different mechanisms through which policy may affect both role conflict and role expansion, with a particular focus on dual-earner policies. Second, we examine some of its implications, using data from the European Social Survey comprising 10,950 employees in 15 countries. In contrast to traditional theories presenting conflict and expansion as mutually exclusive, we find that work—family conflict and experiences of role expansion, measured with indicators of life satisfaction and psychological well being, may go hand in hand. The results also indicate that such a balance is more common in countries with dual-earner policies than in other countries. Women committing as strongly to work as men experience more work—family conflict, but also high levels of well being and satisfaction. The findings largely support our theoretical arguments and imply that future research should examine the conflict-expansion nexus rather than focussing on either of the two. In this context, both gender and policy need to be considered.

Who should work and who should care? Attitudes towards the desirable division of labour between mothers and fathers in five European countries

In this article, we study attitudes towards the gendered division of paid and unpaid work from a comparative perspective. Based on the notion that political institutions are important in structuring individuals’ orientations, five countries with different family policy arrangements are included in the analysis: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland and Sweden. Previous comparative attitude research has a strong bias towards public opinion about women’s employment, while research on attitudes towards men’s participation in care work is rare. Drawing on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2012, we use latent class analysis to explore public opinion about: (a) how parents should divide the responsibilities of economic provision and unpaid work; and (b) whether and how parents should divide paid parental leave between them. The strongest support for a traditional organization of work and care is found in Poland, while the strongest support for an equal sharing of work and care responsibilities is found in Sweden. Among the Nordic countries, results differ. While those holding non-traditional ideals in Denmark and Finland emphasize the importance of full-time work for both parents, non-traditional Swedes instead emphasize that both parents should cut back their work hours and thereby share the responsibility for earning and caring in the family.

The gender-job satisfaction paradox and the dual-earner society : are women (still) making work-family trade-offs?

BACKGROUND Despite their disadvantaged labour market position, women consistently report higher levels of job satisfaction than men. Researchers have attributed womens higher job satisfaction to their lower expectations, arguing that gender differences will fade away as womens labour market prospects improve. Others, however, argue that women are more contented than men because their jobs satisfy a need for family adaptions. OBJECTIVE In this article, we put the hypotheses of transitions and trade-offs to a strong test, by comparing men and women with comparable human capital investments living in a country where womens employment is strongly supported by policies, practices and social norms. METHODS The relationship between gender and job satisfaction is analysed with stepwise OLS regressions. The analysis is based on a survey to newly graduated highly educated men and women in five occupations in Sweden (n ≈ 2 450). RESULTS First, we show that, after controlling for a range of job characteristics, women report a higher level of job satisfaction than men. Second, although the paradox appears to be surprisingly persistent, it cannot be attributed to work-family trade-offs. CONCLUSIONS Future research should consider job satisfaction more broadly in the light of gender role socialization and persistent gender inequalities.

In search of family-friendly careers? Professional strategies, work conditions and gender differences in work–family conflict

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to investigate whether women in a dual-earner context acquire family-friendly jobs as a strategy to keep work–family conflict down. The analysis is based on a survey of newly graduated highly educated men and women in five occupations in Sweden (n ≈ 2400). The sample was stratified by occupation and gender to minimize the influence of factors other than gender. The results show that women are more family-oriented, but also more career-oriented than men in their professional strategies. In their jobs, women have less control over work and schedules than men but a similar level of work demands. However, women face lower requirements for employer flexibility (e.g. frequent over time) and this is related to their professional strategies. Finally, women report a higher level of work–family conflict than men in the same occupation, but this gender difference becomes non-significant when accounting for women’s lower level of control. In sum, women in this sample clearly aim for both family and career and do not acquire family-friendly jobs, but aim to avoid ‘family-unfriendly’ requirements for constant availability. To some extent, this enables them to limit their work–family conflict but due to their lower control over work, women still experience more conflict than men in the same occupation.