The Costs of Thinking About Work and Family: Mental Labor, Work–Family Spillover, and Gender Inequality Among Parents in Dual‐Earner Families

Offer, Shira

doi:10.1111/socf.12126

Cited by 74 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 63 publications

(178 reference statements)

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“…The issue of gender differences has always been an important aspect in the analyses of work-life balance in general, and spillover investigations in particular (Keene and Reynolds, 2005;Offer, 2014;Powell and Greenhaus, 2010). The present findings, however, might offer new contributions to the academic discussion on the topic, as they clearly point to structural biases of the labor market.…”

Section: G S Wf ⊥mentioning

confidence: 65%

Work-to-family spillover: Gender differences in Hungary

Radó¹,

Nagy²,

Király³

2016

DEE

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It is crucial to understand the role that labor market positions might play in creating gender differences in work-life balance. One theoretical approach to understanding this relationship is the spillover theory. The spillover theory argues that an individual's life domains are integrated; meaning that well-being can be transmitted between life domains. Based on data collected in Hungary in 2014, this paper shows that work-to-family spillover does not affect both genders the same way. The effect of work on family life tends to be more negative for women than for men. Two explanations have been formulated in order to understand this gender inequality. According to the findings of the analysis, gender is conditionally independent of spillover if financial status and flexibility of work are also incorporated into the analysis. This means that the relative disadvantage for women in terms of spillover can be attributed to their lower financial status and their relatively low access to flexible jobs. In other words, the gender inequalities in work-to-family spillover are deeply affected by individual labor market positions. The observation of the labor market's effect on work-life balance is especially important in Hungary since Hungary has one 1 This paper has been prepared as part of a Hungarian Scientific Research Fund project Dilemmas and strategies in reconciling family and work (OTKA K104707); Márta Radó has also been supported by the joint Research Excellence Award of the Hungarian National Bank and Corvinus University of Budapest. Literature searching in databases and the registration of records in a spreadsheet, as well as downloading and saving the full text articles were done by a group of committed undergraduate students, namely Dávid Ádám, Yvette Lovas and Bence Pálóczi. The authors of this paper are extremely grateful for their help and effort.Márta radó -Beáta Nagy -gáBor Király 40 of the least flexible labor arrangements in Europe. A marginal log-linear model, which is a method for categorical multivariate analysis, has been applied in this analysis.

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Section: G S Wf ⊥mentioning

confidence: 65%

Work-to-family spillover: Gender differences in Hungary

Radó¹,

Nagy²,

Király³

2016

DEE

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“…Moreover, it is highly interesting that similar spillover effects can affect men and women differently. As formerly described, for example, although both parents think about their families approximately as often while at work, these thoughts are more likely be charged with negative emotions in the case of mothers (Offer, 2014). Moreover, investigation of the intersect between sex (males/females) and gender (degree masculinity/femininity) leads to interesting findings, such as the fact that positive spillover is more likely to occur among those highly skilled and educated professionals who scored higher on femininity (Powell et al 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…As the literature review has highlighted, the genders are affected differently due to their different positions in the labor market, organizational positions and family responsibilities (which still appear to be significantly unbalanced). Since family responsibilities are still mainly considered the domain of women, as primary caretakers (Triana, 2011), studies also show that women are more affected by spillover effects (Stevens et al 2006;Offer, 2014;Keene, 2005). Moreover, it is highly interesting that similar spillover effects can affect men and women differently.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Offer (2014) studied gender differences in parents' mental labor (understood as planning, organization and management of everyday activities) and the emotional stress accompanying these mental activities. By applying an experience sampling method (n mothers =402; n fathers =291), the researcher examined how often parents in dual-earner (middle-class) families think about job-related issues.…”

Section: Spillover and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spillover: the empirical utilisation of the concept. An empirical review of the social scientific corpus between 2004-2014

Király

Nagy

Géring

et al. 2015

CJSSP

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In recent decades, spillover has become a highly influential concept which has led to the initiation of new theoretical and methodological approaches that are designed to understand how people attempt to reconcile their work and private lives. The very notion of spillover presupposes that these spheres are connected, since the people who move between them bring certain 'less visible' content with them such as cognitive or affective mental constructs, skills, behaviors, etc. This paper attempts to create fresh insight into the different areas, themes and methodologies related to how spillover has been addressed over the last ten years. Four main categories are discussed based on the 76 academic articles that were selected: (1) general spillover research, (2) job flexibility and spillover, (3) individual coping strategies, and (4) the spillover effect on the different genders. The final section of the paper provides a tentative synthesis of the main conclusions and findings from the examined papers.Keywords spillover, work-life balance, flexibility, gender differences, coping strategy, empirical review 1 Gábor Király (corresponding author) is associate professor at the Budapest Business School and senior lecturer at the Corvinus University of Budapest, e-mail: kiraly.gabor@pszfb.bgf. hu, gabor.kiraly@uni-corvinus.hu, Beáta Nagy is professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Zsuzsanna Géring is research fellow at the Budapest Business School, Márta Radó is Ph.D. student, Yvette Lovas and Bence Pálóczi are undergraduate students at the Corvinus University of Budapest. This review was prepared as part of a Hungarian Scientific Research Fund project (OTKA K104707). The title of the project: Dilemmas and strategies in reconciling family and work. We would like to express our gratitude to Dávid Ádám who contributed to building the database we utilised in this review. Moreover, special thanks to our fellow members in the 'OTKA' research group for the dedication and energy they provided and keep doing so throughout the project. Last but not least, the authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors for their valuable comments and remarks on the previous versions of this paper. Responsibility for any errors in the resulting work remains our own. 94

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“…Men and childless women can presumably embody the "ideal worker" who demonstrates constant devotion to work and prioritizes work above personal responsibilities (Devault 2008;Hochschild 1997;Jacobs and Gerson 2004;Kelly et al 2010). Because women continue to bear the brunt of childcare responsibilities at home, they often struggle most with the ideal worker norm (Blair-Loy and Cech 2017;Gerson 2010;Jacobs and Gerson 2004;Offer 2014). Furthermore, stereotypes about mothers depict them as less competent and committed than non-mothers (Budig and England 2001;Correll, Benard, and Paik 2007;England 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Misery Has Company: The Shared Emotional Consequences of Everwork Among Women and Men

Wynn

2018

Sociological Forum

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Everwork—defined as a combination of overwork, face time, constant availability, and unpredictability—is becoming an increasingly common form of work, especially among highly skilled service workers. While such an environment would seem to disadvantage mothers in particular, I find that employees of all genders and parental statuses suffer in such intensive work environments. Through 50 in‐depth interviews with management consultants, I examine how employees reconcile their personal lives with the realities of everwork. I characterize young childless men and women as “quit intenders,” mothers as “tightrope walkers,” and fathers as “reluctant sacrificers.” This article offers new insight into the tensions employees face between their parenthood ideals and everwork expectations, the strategies they engage in to manage those tensions, and the emotional impacts they experience as a result. Because employees use career–life strategies that accommodate rather than challenge the fundamental nature of everwork, everwork environments may persist despite the negative consequences.

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The Costs of Thinking About Work and Family: Mental Labor, Work–Family Spillover, and Gender Inequality Among Parents in Dual‐Earner Families

Cited by 74 publications

References 63 publications

Work-to-family spillover: Gender differences in Hungary

Work-to-family spillover: Gender differences in Hungary

Spillover: the empirical utilisation of the concept. An empirical review of the social scientific corpus between 2004-2014

Misery Has Company: The Shared Emotional Consequences of Everwork Among Women and Men

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