Scaling Back and Finding Flexibility: Gender Differences in Parents' Strategies to Manage Work–Family Conflict

• Published date: 01 February 2018
• Author: Scott Schieman,Marisa Young
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12435
• Date: 01 February 2018

M Y McMaster University

S S University of Toronto∗

Scaling Back and Finding Flexibility: Gender

Differences in Parents’ Strategies to Manage

Work–Family Conict

Studies show that fathers report work–family

conict levels comparable to mothers. The

authors examine gender differences in

work-related strategies used to ease such con-

icts. The authors also test whether the presence

of young children at home shapes parents’ use

of different strategies. They address these focal

questions using panel data from the Canadian

Work, Stress, and Health study (N=306 fathers,

474 mothers). The authors nd that mothers with

young children are more likely to scale back on

work demands when compared with fathers with

young children, but mothers and fathers with

older children are equally likely to pursue these

strategies. Furthermore, women with young

children and men with older children are more

likely to seek increased schedule control as a

result of work–family conict when compared

with their parent counterparts. The authors

situate these ndings in the vast literature on

the consequences of work–family conict.

Department of Sociology, McMaster University, 1280 Main

Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4M4, Canada

(myoung@mcmaster.ca).

∗Department of Sociology, Universityof Toronto, 725

Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5S 2J4, Canada.

Key Words: employment, family well-being, gender,women,

work, work–family issues.

Work–family conict is considered a modern

and prevalent role stressor, yet it is tradi-

tionally characterized and even trivialized as

the “professional woman’s” problem (Spain

& Bianchi, 1996; Williams, 2000). Popular

book titles, such as Professor Mommy and

Mama PhD, contribute to these perceptions

(Connelly & Ghodsee, 2011; Evans & Grant,

2008), along with media publications such as

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s (2012) Atlantic opinion

piece titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It

All.” Exclusive focus on elite career women

has hindered our understanding of gender dif-

ferences in the experience and resolution of

work–family conict—particularly in reference

to work-related coping strategies to achieve

balance, such as scaling back on paid work,

transitioning to less demanding jobs, or opting

out of the labor force entirely.

Research documenting the use of such

strategies often relies on small samples of pro-

fessional or executivewomen that do not capture

the broader experiences of women in the labor

force or make adequate gender comparisons

(Blair-Loy, 2003; Landivar, 2014; Stone, 2007;

Sweezy & Jones, 2012; for exceptions, see also

Carr, 2002; Maume, 2006; Reddick, Rochlen,

Grasso, Reilly, & Spikes, 2012; Vanderweyer

& Glorieux, 2008). Several European studies

more adequately reect men’s and women’s

nuanced work–family situations across a myriad

Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (February 2018): 99–118 99

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12435

100 Journal of Marriage and Family

of occupations (Anxo et al., 2011; Craig &

Mullan, 2010; Vanderweyer & Glorieux, 2008).

There is limited evidence from representa-

tive studies of North America, especially in the

Canadian population. Ours is among the rst that

we know of to explore these associations with

representative Canadian survey data (for some

American exceptions, see Carr, 2002; Maume,

2006; Mennino & Brayeld, 2002; Sayer,

2005). Work–family conict is considered

bidirectional, where work intrudes on family

time and expectations (work-to-family conict)

versus the opposite (family-to-work conict).

For our purposes, we focus on work-to-family

conict only (referenced as “work–family con-

ict” throughout), with the assumption that

work-related strategies will most likely be

adopted to assuage this particular direction of

conict when compared with family-to-work

conict, which may prompt changes in the

household. A focus on family-to-work conict

is therefore beyond our study’s scope.

Our contribution of a population-based gen-

der comparison is timely. Recent studies show

that men report levels of work–family conict

comparable to their female counterparts (Aryee,

Srinivas, & Tan, 2005; Aumann, Galinsky, &

Matos, 2011; Nomaguchi, 2009). These trends

may reect women’s increased role in the labor

market coupled with their changing experiences

of work–family conict or fathers’ increased

investment in the family sphere, as suggested

by research on “intimate fatherhood” and “men

who mother” (Bianchi et al., 2012; Dermott,

2008; Doucet, 2006; Williams, 2000). Despite

the underlying reason for the closing gender

gap in work–family conict during the past

decade, we are primarily interested in whether

men and women are adopting (either by choice

or constraint) similar work-related strategies as

women to deal with conicting work and family

experiences. To address this question, we use

two-wave panel data from the 2011–2013 Cana-

dian Work, Stress, and Health study (Schieman,

2011), a national study including key mea-

sures on work–family conict and work-related

strategies. Focusing on married and cohabiting

respondents only with at least one child at Wave

1, we ask the following: Does work–family con-

ict prompt individuals to modify their current

work arrangements? Do mothers and fathers

differ in the implementation of these strategies?

We further consider whether these patterns

depend on the presence of young children in the

household. Work–family conict experiences

and strategies vary among parents with and

without young children (Allen & Finkelstein,

2014; Becker & Moen, 1999). Young chil-

dren require additional time and energy when

compared with older children, which may exac-

erbate work–family conict—especially among

mothers, who bear the lion’s share of child care

(Bianchi et al., 2006; Marshall, 2011). Parents

with younger children may pursue different

strategies when compared with those with older

children to help cope with the demands of

younger children.

We also address the following nal question:

Does the presence of young children at home fur-

ther condition our proposed associations among

work–family conict, gender, and work-related

coping strategies? In the following sections,

we outline our hypotheses by rst discussing

women’s experiences of work–family conict

and their strategies to reduce it. We then discuss

men’s experiences and whether men adopt sim-

ilar strategies as women, based on traditional or

egalitarian gender norms. Finally, we consider

how the gendered adoption of such strategies in

response to work–family conict may vary for

respondents with and without young children.

L R

Women’s Experiences of Work–Family Conict

and Adopted Work-Related Strategies

A majority of women simultaneously combine

work and family, and many feel that they suc-

cessfully do so (Aumann et al., 2011; Young,

Schieman, & Milkie, 2014). Approximately

70% of American and Canadian mothers are in

the paid labor force—a gure that has grown in

recent years (Statistics Canada, 2011; U.S. Cen-

sus Bureau, 2011). Despite these gains, women

still face challenges when combining work

and family obligations, especially if they have

young children (Allen & Finkelstein, 2014). The

inability for women to achieve balance between

these spheres is largely a product of state regula-

tions, labor market demands and discrimination,

organizational policies, and individual-level

demands (Moen, 2015). Persistent inequality

and the mismatch in women’s work and family

demands have been referenced as the “unn-

ished” or “stalled” gender revolution (England,

2010; Gerson, 2010). The incongruence between

work and family demands facilitates what is