Gender and Work-Family Spillover among Registered Nurses

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Family, Work, and Leisure

Abstract

Researchers examining the relationship between work and family have observed that women tend to experience greater negative spillover between these domains than men. If men do experience a negative work-family relationship, it is family that interferes with work, not vice versa. Recently, however, scholars taking a gender theory approach suggest the need to see social institutions as gendered in ways that are distinct from the genders of those that inhabit them. Thus, families and workplaces have gendered components that operate in ways that may or may not be reflected in the lived experiences of the men and women who populate them. The current study examines work-family spillover as it is experienced by male and female nurses. Using 81 audio diary and interview transcripts, I show that although negative work to family spillover remains pervasive– thus suggesting the continuing gendered dominance of the marketplace over the family –fathers employed in this form of caring labor express ideologically similar experiences to those of mothers. Thus, although men now seem to be sharing in the wealth of caring and concern brought about by a more egalitarian conception of fatherhood, they also share in the dearth of time, energy and emotion that result from a patriarchal culture that still prioritizes the public over the private.

Author

• Jamie J. Chapman, Westminster College