Women and part-time employment: easing or squeezing time pressure?

This article investigates satisfaction with time pressure for men and women with different hours of paid employment using data from the 2006 ‘Negotiating the Life Course’ project. In Australia, part-time employment is a common strategy adopted by women with dependent children to reconcile paid work and family responsibilities. However, women employed part-time are not a homogeneous group. This study differentiates between women employed for minimal part-time, half-time and reduced full-time hours, as well as women employed full-time and not in the labour force, to investigate differences in perceived time pressure. Three dimensions of time pressure are examined: overall time pressure, time pressure at home and time pressure at work. We find gender differences in time pressure at home and differences among women in overall and work time pressure. We conclude that being employed part-time does not alleviate time pressure for all women.