Gender and Work Life Balance
HRMT3345 Literature Review – Work-Life Balance for Women Introduction
Work-life balance has been a concern of those interested in the quality of working life and its role in the broader quality of life. Two factors that can influence work-life balance are autonomy in the workplace and family building. An emerging issue in work-life balance literature concerns the role of gender and the problems associated with achieving a balance between paid work and domestic responsibilities. While gender itself is an unclear factor, the socially constructed perception of the female homemaker has made this a significant variable. Work-life balance is the term used in the literature to refer to policies that strive for a greater complementarity and balance between work and home responsibilities. When addressing this issue from the gendered perspective, Guest (2002) adds that work-life balance policies are a means to reduce welfare dependency, to promote social inclusions and to facilitate gender equality. This review will address the attitudes towards work-life balance from an organisational perspective and the relationship between gender roles and the policies implemented.
Theoretical Review Theoretical research in this area is largely based on the perception of gender inequality in workplace culture. More classic research focuses purely on the constructs of work-life balance, since the role of women in the workplace has been continuously changing over the last century. Zedeck and Mosier (1990) and O’Driscoll (1996) note that there are typically five main models used to explain the relationship between work and life outside work. The segmentation model hypothesizes that work and non-work are two distinct domains of life that are lived quite separately and have no influence on each other. In contrast, a spillover model hypothesizes that one world can influence the other in either a positive or negative way. The third model is a compensation model which proposes that
Work-life balance has been a concern of those interested in the quality of working life and its role in the broader quality of life. Two factors that can influence work-life balance are autonomy in the workplace and family building. An emerging issue in work-life balance literature concerns the role of gender and the problems associated with achieving a balance between paid work and domestic responsibilities. While gender itself is an unclear factor, the socially constructed perception of the female homemaker has made this a significant variable. Work-life balance is the term used in the literature to refer to policies that strive for a greater complementarity and balance between work and home responsibilities. When addressing this issue from the gendered perspective, Guest (2002) adds that work-life balance policies are a means to reduce welfare dependency, to promote social inclusions and to facilitate gender equality. This review will address the attitudes towards work-life balance from an organisational perspective and the relationship between gender roles and the policies implemented.
Theoretical Review Theoretical research in this area is largely based on the perception of gender inequality in workplace culture. More classic research focuses purely on the constructs of work-life balance, since the role of women in the workplace has been continuously changing over the last century. Zedeck and Mosier (1990) and O’Driscoll (1996) note that there are typically five main models used to explain the relationship between work and life outside work. The segmentation model hypothesizes that work and non-work are two distinct domains of life that are lived quite separately and have no influence on each other. In contrast, a spillover model hypothesizes that one world can influence the other in either a positive or negative way. The third model is a compensation model which proposes that