Not surprisingly, women report more conflict between work and family roles. Women who work outside the home actually put in more hours of work at home. Women do more of the childcare and housework than their husbands do, whether the woman works full-time or not. Women are much more likely to leave the workforce entirely when their children are young. They’re also more likely to stay home with a sick child or to be the one to rearrange their work schedule to go to a meeting at the child’s school. They’re more likely to feel overworked and stressed-out.
For most men, including men who are highly successful in their careers, family is far more important than work for their overall life satisfaction. The roles of husband and father are central to a man’s mental and physical health. So it’s not surprising that men carry emotional distress from the family into the workplace, even though they don’t experience the same degree of role conflict or overload as women do. In one study of working men and women, men more often than women reported that an argument at home was followed by higher rates of argument with coworkers or supervisors at work the next day.
The same study reported that when the man came home overly tired from work, the wives did more of the work at home. The reverse pattern occurred less often: the husband did not do more of the work at home after his wife had had an especially hard day at work.
Explainhowwomen and men experience conflict between their work and family roles.
