How individual gender role beliefs, organizational gender norms, and national gender norms predict parents’ work-Family guilt in Europe

Abstract

The guilt that mothers feel about the time and energy that they invest in work instead of their family is often proposed to be an important reason for why mothers 'opt-out' the career track. We sought to understand if mothers indeed experience more workfamily guilt than fathers and how this relates to both their own gender role beliefs and organizational gender norms across nine European countries. Analyses draw on the European Social Workforce Survey, with data from 2619 working parents nested in 110 organizations in 9 European countries. Results showed that when fathers and mothers work more than a full-time week (a) fathers with traditional gender role beliefs felt less guilty, and (b) especially mothers working in an organization with low support for the parent role of working fathers felt guilty. Explorative analyses showed no effect of national gender norms on gender differences in guilt. Our results are beneficial for organizations and policy makers by showing that guilt in working mothers can be reduced by developing egalitarian organizational norms, in which there is support for the parent role of mothers and fathers, potentially helping mothers to focus on their careers alongside their families.

When work–family guilt becomes a women's issue: Internalized gender stereotypes predict high guilt in working mothers but low guilt in working fathers

“…IAT) of gender equality such as Hungary. Although a recent study indicated that while organizational cultures are predictive of fathers' and mothers' work–family guilt, national cultures are not (Aarntzen et al, 2021 ) therefore although, in need of further investigation, these studies may be generalizable to other countries.…”

The impact of poor work-life balance and unshared home responsibilities on work-gender identity integration

“…Similarly, the study limited the assessment of WLB to one's own perception, which is likely to be one of the key causal factors within the study. Nevertheless, in future research, it would be interesting to examine other dimensions of WLB, and enlarge the spectrum of analysis, for example, to the emotional dimensions such as feelings of work-family guilt (Aarntzen et al, 2020(Aarntzen et al, , 2020Korabik, 2015). For instance, even when home responsibilities are shared between partners, gender role prescriptions may still cause guilt among women, when, for example, they feel they should spend more time with their children as prescribed by societal norms of motherhood (Meeussen & Van Laar, 2018;Newman & Henderson, 2014).…”

How Work-Family Guilt, Involvement with Children and Spouse’s Support Influence Parents’ Life Satisfaction in a Context of Work-Family Conflict

“…The present study further highlights the significant role of the spouse on the life satisfaction of parents struggling with strain-based WIF. Considering recent research suggesting that mothers experience more guilt due to the impact of their work on their family than fathers (Aarntzen et al, 2021 ; Borelli et al, 2017 ) and that four in five participants in the present study were mothers, the significant impact of spouse-child activities on participants’ life satisfaction is noteworthy. Furthermore, evidence exists supporting the importance of the source of support and its significance when occurring where it is perceived to be the most needed (French et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Recent research also suggests that organizations can help mothers who experience WFG by developing more egalitarian organizational norms (Aarntzen et al, 2021 ). This could be encouraged by ensuring that organizations present adequate work-family policies (e.g., flexible hours) that apply and are used by both fathers and mothers.…”

“…Recent research suggests that mothers, and especially mothers of young children, are more likely to experience guilt regarding the negative impact of work on family than fathers (Aarntzen et al, 2021 ; Borelli et al, 2017 ). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased levels of WIF and WFG in working parents (Miller and Riley, 2022 ; Montazer et al, 2022 ).…”