The Art of Balancing Work-Family Conflict

This book is for all working mothers struggling to find a balance between work and family. The enormous increase of women in the labor force, especially mothers with young children has led to significant work-family conflict. This book draws on role theory to explain stress for women as stemming from competing worker and family roles (as stressors). Traditional gender roles cause stressors which differ for men and women. Yet the latter continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities as they take on roles as workers. The analysis suggests that the effects of stressors or stress can be reduced by drawing on different forms of social support. Family/ childcare support and social networks are used as examples functional and structural social support respectively. The central goal of this book is to demonstrate the positive effect of social support on reducing stressors, especially for working women. The results show childcare and family support reduced the effects of stressors in both wives and husbands, but more so in wives. All forms reduced effects of stress on health, in husbands more than in wives.