Possibilities for change and new frontiers: introduction to the Work and Family Researchers Network special issue on advancing equality at work and home

Abstract

This special issue showcases recent scholarship that clarifies the nature of inequality as it emerges at the intersection of today's workplaces and homes. We bring together scholarly works presented during the Work and Family Researchers Network conferences from 2018 and 2020. These articles provide a foundation for the development of future knowledge that advances equality at work and home, paying special attention to the complex nature of work and family in diverse contexts. Our introduction to the issue further highlights the need to amplify the voices and experiences of marginalised groups of people around the world who have received limited attention in the work and family literature. We conclude by offering suggestions of the role each of us can play in helping the work-family field become more inclusive and expanding ways of knowing that better represent work-family occurrences across diverse contexts.

Validation of the Hungarian version of the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ)

“…Women raising two or more children reported more cognitive lapses than those caring for a lower number of children, especially when emotional support was low [78]. Furthermore, women also tend to bear more invisible labour such as managing the household or caring for family members which was more pronounced during Covid-19 [79] when the data collection for the present study occurred. This implies that further studies should investigate the background of gender differences in cognitive failures at multiple levels.…”

The association between metamemory, subjective memory complaints, mood, and well-being: the Hungarian validation of Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire

“…Consistent with these findings, previous studies demonstrated that negative affect is associated with enhanced self-monitoring and awareness of errors (Carrigan & Csábi et al Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (2023) 8:15 Burkus, 2016) and these personality traits might cause the greater reported frequency of external and internal strategies. Moreover, we cannot rule out the possibility that women are prone to multitasking (e. g. caring for children or family members, managing the household) (Chung et al, 2021) which also can explain the frequent use of different types of strategies. These results imply that further studies should investigate the background of gender differences in subjective memory complaints and the use of memory aids at multiple levels.…”

Gendered share of housework and the COVID‐19 pandemic: Examining self‐ratings and speculation of others in Germany, India, Nigeria, and South Africa

“…Our findings are consistent with previous studies, that women shoulder most of the female‐typed housework both prior to COVID‐19 (Bianchi et al., 2000 ) and during the lockdowns (Alon et al., 2020 ; Farré et al., 2020 ; Sevilla & Smith, 2020 ). However, even though men performed more MTTs, FTTs are performed more often, are more time consuming, emotionally demanding, and contribute to a mental load which women disproportionately carry (Chung et al., 2022 ).…”

“…During the COVID‐19 lockdowns, unpaid care work increased, together with heightened elderly care needs, and overwhelmed health care systems. Acknowledging that the circumstances have been difficult for both men and women, women have disproportionately experienced this burden (Alon et al., 2020; Chung et al., 2022; Dinella & Fulcher, 2022; Farré et al., 2020). Consistent with social role theory, this can be explained by the gender stereotype expectation of women performing communal and family related tasks (for review see Eagly & Wood, 1999; Hernandez Bark et al., 2014; March et al., 2016).…”