Rational Versus Gender Role Explanations for Work-Family Conflict

Two conflicting frameworks for understanding work-family conflict are proposed. According to the rational view, conflict is related linearly to the total amount of time spent in paid and family work. According to the gender role perspective, gender role expectations mute the relationship between hours expended and perceived work-family conflict, and gender interacts with number of hours worked and work-family conflict. Two measures of work-family conflict were used to assess, respectively, work interference with family and family interference with work. Two separate samples of employed people with families were used: a systematically selected sample of psychologists and a volunteer sample of managers. The results generally support (a) the usefulness of separate indicators of work-family conflict and (b) aspects of both the rational view and the gender role view.