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

Abstract

Gender stereotypes prescribe mothers, but not fathers, to prioritize their family over their work. Therefore, internalization of gender stereotypes may predict higher guilt among mothers than fathers in situations in which they prioritize their work over their family. Study 1 (135 mothers and 116 fathers) indeed revealed that the stronger fathers' implicit gender stereotypes (measured with a gender-career implicit association task) the less guilt fathers reported in a fictitious work-interfering-with-family situation. Although mothers on average reported higher guilt than fathers, this effect was not moderated by their implicit gender stereotypes. Study 2 (daily diary study among 105 mothers), however, did reveal evidence for the moderating effect of implicit gender stereotypes on working mothers' guilt. The stronger mothers' implicit gender stereotypes the more work-family conflict and guilt they reported on days that they worked long hours.These results show that implicit gender stereotypes shape how parents feel about their work-family choices.

Changing gender role attitudes and the changing gender gap in labour force participation

“…For females, a one unit increase along the reverse-coded 7-point Likert scale sees a 5.1% reduction in the likelihood of being employed full-time and a 4.4% increase in the likelihood of being employed part-time. This is consistent with the 'mother's guilt' effect observed in Aarntzen et al (2023). As with Aarntzen et al, the effect is stronger for women than men.…”

“…Those less supportive of long-day care arrangements were, for example, significantly more likely to preference part-time work with this effect significantly stronger for females than males. It suggests that in the absence of a shift in gender role attitudes at a societal and individual level (Aarntzen et al 2023), an affordable, accessible and high quality ECEC system may only deliver a marginal change in the working time arrangements of men and women. If this occurs women will continue to be significantly disadvantaged in Australia.…”

Gender‐ethnicity intersectional variation in work–family dynamics: Family interference with work, guilt, and job satisfaction

“…Second, our study advances empirical understanding of identity‐sensitive and intersectionality‐based explanations of the work–family interface (Frevert et al, 2015; Özbilgin et al, 2011). As outlined earlier, while some prior studies have explored gender variation in the relationship between WIF and family‐related guilt (Aarntzen et al, 2023; Borelli et al, 2017), gender variation in the relationship between FIW and job‐related guilt has not been examined. Our finding that FIW has more severe implications for job‐related guilt (and job satisfaction through guilt) for women than for men thus offers an important and novel contribution to the WFC literature.…”

“…Given these competing arguments, it is perhaps unsurprising that empirical research on the impact of WFC on job and family satisfaction (two of the most frequently studied outcomes of the work–family interface) has yielded inconsistent or non‐significant differences by gender (e.g., Cloninger et al, 2015; Grandey et al, 2005; Kinnunen & Mauno, 1998; Yoo, 2022). Regarding the impact of WFC on guilt, while some prior research has shown that women experience greater family‐related guilt than men as a result of WIF (e.g., Aarntzen et al, 2023; Borelli et al, 2017), there is to our knowledge no empirical research on gender variation in the relationship between FIW and job‐related guilt.…”

“…Regarding the impact of WFC on guilt, while some prior research has shown that women experience greater family-related guilt than men as a result of WIF (e.g., Aarntzen et al, 2023;Borelli et al, 2017), there is to our knowledge no empirical research on gender variation in the relationship between FIW and job-related guilt.…”