The Role of Gender in the Relationship between Family-Friendly Policies and Work-Family Conflict Among Working Fathers and Mothers across 24 Countries

Gender egalitarianism and gender-role attitudes are interwoven in the work–family literature and generally conceived of as precursors to work–family conflict. Understanding gender-role attitudes of individuals is critical to predicting how much conflict they experience in negotiating work and family demands. To promote a better work–life balance, family-friendly policies enacted by Western countries allow working parents to take time off to fulfill familial responsibilities. Research in the work-family domain has separately examined work–family conflict (WFC) at micro levels and parental leave policies at macro levels. However, little is known about whether family-friendly policies effectively decrease work–family conflict in the context of gender role. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) for analysis, the present study aimed to investigate multilevel effects of family-friendly policies, organizational type and family characteristics on work–family conflict among working fathers and mothers in 24 countries.

The present study used quantitative data collected by the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) in 2005 from 6,878 random samples in 24 countries located in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Analyses were conducted separately by gender. Working fathers averaged 40.11 years old, compared to 38.38 years old for working mothers. Most participants—86% of fathers and 73% of mothers—were married. Flexibility of use, length of leave, and income replacement rate are variables created to measure three dimensions of family-friendly public policy. Length of leave was measured as total statutory postnatal leave, ranging from 67 days (the Philippines) to 1,206 days (France). The rate of income replacement indicated how well each nation financially supported parents who took leave, ranging from 15.38% (Taiwan) to 105.45% (Slovenia). Reflecting a bidirectional conceptualization of work–family conflict, two items were used to measure the degree of stress caused by difficulty balancing work and family domains.

Results showed that parental leave policies had greater effects on work–family conflict among working fathers compared to working mothers. Implementing parental leave policies with high flexibility and higher rates of income replacement may help fathers with working spouses or who are employed in the public sector to reduce bidirectional conflicts between work and family. Among three individual dimensions of leave policies, only flexibility of use had a significant effect on working mothers’ family-to-work conflict. Societal attitudes towards gender played a key role in helping mothers reduce bidirectional conflicts between work and family roles.

Individual dimensions of parental leave policies on fathers’ experience of work–family conflict impinged on workplace characteristics (e.g., organizational type) and family characteristics (e.g., having spouses with full-time employment). Although the main objectives of family-friendly policies are to reduce the conflict between family roles and commitment to work and to allow more women to join the labor force, the present study found that mothers generally were not protected by individual dimensions of parental leave policies. Instead, societal attitudes towards gender played a key role in helping women reduce bidirectional conflicts between work and family roles. The results suggested that both fathers and mothers are likely to face costs associated with taking leave from work, which deserves attention in future research.