The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of gendered aspects of work and family conflict on life satisfaction. The data were collected from two major public universities in Turkey, and 349 dual-earner family members were reached by using random sampling method. The study employed linear regression analysis to predict the effect of work and family conflict on women's and men's life satisfaction. The regression analysis model explained 21% of the life satisfaction of women while it explained 20% of the life satisfaction of men. According to the findings, women's life satisfaction was predicted by both strain-based work-to-family conflict and strain-based family-to-work conflict. The life satisfaction of men, however, was only predicted by strain-based family-to-work conflict. In light of the results, the contribution of the study to the literature was highlighted.
TopIntroduction
Work and family occupy a large part of an individuals life. Since work and family are often physically and temporally separate, early research considered work and family systems as two independent operating systems. However, by the 1970s, research findings on work and family life revealed that events at work affect family life, and events at family affect work life that started to reflect an open system approach and the permeability between them (Clark, 2000; Katz & Kahn, 1978).
It is well established in the work and family literature that this permeability between family and work creates work and family conflict. That is, participation in the work (family) role makes it difficult to participate in the family (work) role. The conflict occurs “when time devoted to the requirements of one role makes it difficult to fulfill the requirements of another, strain from participation in one role makes it difficult to fulfill the requirements of another and specific behaviors required by one role make it difficult to fulfill the requirements of another.” (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).
Work and family conflict is bidirectional, from work to family and from family to work (Frone et al., 1992). Low spouse support, young children, and spouse employment are one of the most important factors in the conflict coming from the family domain (family-to-work conflict) excessive work hours, inflexibility of the work schedule, and work overload are the most important ones in the conflict coming from the work domain (work-to-family conflict) (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).
Previous research has shown that work and family conflict generates negative consequences on individuals' life, which is consistently found to be one of the factors impacting life satisfaction (Yucel, 2017). The study conducted by Coşkuner (2013) showed that conflict experienced in both work and family areas negatively affects life satisfaction. Accordingly, the time devoted to work and the perceived workload negatively affect life satisfaction through work-to-family conflict while the perceived family burden undermines the life satisfaction through family-to-work conflict. Yucel’s study (2017) found a negative correlatoon between that work-to-family conflict and life satisfaction.
It can be said that the most researched variable in relation to conflict in the work and family literature is sex (Jones & Mckenna, 2002; Reynolds, 2005). The reason for this is the traditional gender roles approach. Behind this approach lies the reflection of biological sex-based characteristics on the roles of men and women, thus resulting in culturally and socially constructed sex roles. According to this, while the primary responsibility of the man is to provide for the economic life of the house and to meet the needs; the primary responsibility of women is limited to the home and is responsible for the care of children and household activities. (Parsons & Bales, 1955). From this point of view, the gender roles approach assumes that the nature of the role demands varies in men and women (Barnett et al., 1995). For this reason, women's employment and their involvement in work life are considered to be the most important cause of work and family conflict. Because even if the woman works, her responsibilities at home do not disappear or decrease; feel their responsibilities about home and family much more than men (Watkins, 1995). This situation increases the role burden of working women. Women, who have primary responsibilities both at home and at work, may face an excessive role load while trying to fulfill these responsibilities at the same time, and this may cause women to experience work and family conflict (expecially family-to-work) more than men (Bacharach et al., 1991).
Therefore, this study was conducted in order to examine both aspects of the work and family conflict (work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict) on the basis of sex, and to determine to what extent this conflict has an impact on the life satisfaction of male and female participants. In this sense, the questions to be answered in this study are as follows: