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This paper examines life on and off the job for a nationally representative sample of 2958 wage and salaried workers, comparing the situations of parent and nonparent employees within the sample. Although parent and nonparent employees were found to be quite similar in most respects, some notable differences were revealed—in the value they place on different benefits and workplace policies; in the extent of the sacrifices they have made in their family/personal lives for the sake of their jobs or careers, and vice versa; and in the time they have available off the job for themselves and with their spouses after completing household chores and fulfilling child care responsibilities. In addition, parent employees exhibited significantly poorer quality of life outcomes than nonparents—higher levels of conflict between work and family I personal life, more stress, and less effective coping. Analyses designed to identify the workplace conditions under which employed parents fared better found that parents had better outcomes (less conflict, less stress, and better coping) when they had jobs with greater autonomy, more schedule control, fewer demands, and greater security. Parents also fared better when they had more supportive workplaces—more supportive supervisors, more supportive workplace cultures, and opportunities for job advancement that were not inhibited by gender or race. In contrast, access to policies, programs, and fringe benefits specifically intended to be family friendly—flexible time and leave policies and dependent care assistance—was not associated with lower levels of work‐family conflict, and only slightly predictive of lower stress and better coping.

Using a number of empirical studies of human resource policies in Fortune 500 companies, this article focuses on (a) the major work/family problems faced by employees, (b) how work/family programs affect productivity, (c) what trends are emerging among companies, and (d) how a subsample of leading scientific companies and universities are responding to work/family issues. The seven major issues employees face are examined: child care, elder care, work time and timing, relocation, job demands and autonomy, supervisory relationships, and organizational culture. The major characteristics of Stage 1 and Stage 2 companies are compared, the later companies having more comprehensive and multifaceted programs that are responsive to employee needs. The research indicates that although some of the leading corporations and universities are responsive to work/family problems, many are still not aware of nor responsive to work/family strain and conflict.

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This study examined the hypothesis that gender differences in psycho‐logical distress are mediated by job and family role conditions. Previous research has failed to directly test such mediational hypotheses but rather has inferred effects of role conditions from simple role‐occupancy variables. The sample consisted of full‐time employed married respondents including 161 women with full‐time employed spouses, 142 men with nonemployed spouses, and 126 men with full‐time employed spouses. Although the sample reported low psychological symptomatology overall, the women in dual‐earner families reported more psychological symptomatology than did either group of men. Hierarchical regression equations indicated that work and family conditions fully attenuated this gender differential. Women in dual‐earner families also reported less job enrichment, less time at work, and more household labor inequity than did either group of men. They also reported more childcare difficulty than did men with nonemployed spouses. Work‐family interference predicted psychological symptomatology and partially accounted for its relationship with some job and family conditions. We discuss processes through which gender affects psychological distress.

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