The Gender Gap in Work-Family Role Blurring

• In Event: 128 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Paper Session. Work and Family: New Challenges, New Directions

Abstract

We examine the gender gap in two forms of work-family role blurring: engaging in work- and family-related tasks simultaneously while at home (“multitasking”) and contacting or being contacted by family members during work hours (“family contact”). Analyses of data from a 2011 national sample of working adults (N=5,668) find no gender gap in overall levels of multitasking and family contact. However, the gender gap emerges under different family and work conditions—and, more importantly, in starkly divergent ways for the two forms of role blurring. Each of the following are associated more strongly with an increased likelihood of multitasking among women compared to men: being married, having children younger than age six at home, having a spouse who works long hours, respondent’s own long work hours, doing more hours of paid work at home, and having some schedule control. By contrast, each of the following are associated less strongly with the frequency of family contact among women compared to men: being married, having a graduate degree, being an executive or professional, having children younger than age six at home, and having a spouse who works long hours. Only one condition is associated more strongly with greater family contact during work hours among women relative to men: the presence of teenagers in the household. Collectively, our findings elaborate on the dissimilar ways that women and men experience work-family role permeability and blurring—and therefore shed light on new discoveries about the sometimes-unexpected gender contingent influences of family and work contexts.

Author

• Scott Schieman, University of Toronto