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WORK LIFE BALANCE: ISSUES FACED BY WORKING WOMEN

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 Journal of Research, Extension and Development, Vol. 5, No. 12, August 2017, ISSN: 2319-1899

WORK LIFE BALANCE: ISSUES FACED BY WORKING WOMEN

Prof. K. Manimekalai*, S. Geetha and Dr. S. Poulpunitha

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ABSTRACT
The role of working women has changed throughout the world due to economic conditions and
social demands. This has resulted in a scenario in which working women have tremendous pressure to
develop a career as robust as their male counterparts while sustaining active engagement in personal life.
The ever-increasing work pressure is taking a toll on the working women leaving them with less time for
themselves. In today’s world, the concept “work-life balance” is considered to be one of the major issues that
play a vital role in organizational success. However, work-life balance is seen differently in different society.
A female employee faces more difficulties to balance between work and life than a male employee, this study
focuses on women working in different sectors. The study shows that the reasons for which female employees
are facing trouble to maintain a work-life balance are mostly because of long working hours, job rigidity,
work overload, responsibilities related to child care, discrimination and biasness at work place , lack of
supervisory support, dominant managerial style and scarce family support.
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INTRODUCTION
The need for balancing work-family of working women is very important. In
olden days men were considered as breadwinners and women were considered as home
makers, but today everything has changed .Both men and women have equal
responsibility in work and family. In order to balance work and family, women have to
plan their career effectively. Work-life balance is the term used to describe practices in
achieving a balance between the demands of employee‟s family and work lives. The
demands and pressures of work make difficult to stretch time for balancing work-life
activities. Women taking up work life balance challenges have an impact on women's
advancement. The good work-family balances includes the priorities fixed by working
women, awareness of current working position and environment, update latest
technology, fix schedule such a manner that sufficient time to spend with family,
monitoring self performance and improve the area when and where required.
Work-Family Balance
Work-family balance is an art of managing both the work and family domain
effectively. Work-family balance suggests that work should not hinder other things
which are important in people‟s lives, such as quality time with their family, leisure time
or recreational activities, personal development, etc. Balancing these two roles equally
will not result in work-life balance, nor will the setting aside of an equal number of
hours for each role lead to work-family balance. The balance which seems appropriate
today may seem inappropriate tomorrow. The ideal balance in a person‟s life may vary
across the different phases of one‟s life, i.e. before marriage, after marriage, with
children, when starting a career or after retirement. In sum, there is no one-size fits all or
picture-perfect work-family balance. Moreover, in recent decades, the work pressure has
been intensifying for both men and women. Different factors associated with work have
resulted in excessive stress and strain among workers. As a result, there is a work
domination of family life created by work demands, which in turn results in work-
family imbalance. In order to be successful in both the roles, women try to organise and
balance their work and family domains, for which a great deal of adjustment and

Head*, Dept. of Women‟s Studies, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu

Ph.D Research Scholar, Dept. of Women‟s Studies, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu
Assistant Professor, Centre for Women‟s Studies, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu
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accommodation is required. For the last two decades, work-family issues have become a
growing concern among researchers due to significant changes in the work force, such as
the entry of an increasing number of women into the labor market as well as the
existence of dual-earner, and single-parent families (Aryee et al, 2005; Hansen, 1991;
Barnett, 1998; Edward & Rothbard, 2000).
LITERATURE REVIEW
“Work Life Balance (WLB) of Women professionals in India such as role conflict,
lack of recognition, organizational politics, gender discrimination, elderly and child care
issues, quality of health, problems in time management and lack of proper social
support” Vijaya Mani (2013). “Educational institutions should address the Work Life
Balance related issues among their staff, specifically women and take a holistic approach
to design and implement the policies to support the teaching staff to manage their WLB”
Santhana Lakshmi et al, (2013). “Indian women are overtaking their male counterparts in
the employment growth rate, says an industry report. As the Indian economy heads
towards a double digit growth, women have surpassed men in terms of employment
growth rate with a 3.35 percent rise in employment between 1998 and 2004 as against a
fall of about 8 percent in the case of men, according to a study by the Associated
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) - Women Employment Growth
Rate and Gender Budgeting” IANS (2007).
“Women as a new class of leaders can play a very transformative role in the
society. There is a transformation in the way the educated and the professional women
of today are bridging up and supporting their families ,as they are now equal bread
earners and also work out of home like men .They are now at par with the men in
professional skills and even financial returns” Kiran Bedi (2008). “Today , globalization
offers great opportunities to women in all levels of industry and at the same time they
also face several challenges in their work life .The working women have to contend with
and overcome the social and mental barriers such as lack of proper education , lack of
exposure to global business , social stigma and psychological inhibition” G.Jagadeesan
(2008).
FAMILY RELATED ISSUES
Studies have also highlighted social conditioning right from childhood days as
being responsible for the secondary status of women in Indian society, as a result of
which it becomes difficult for them to break the norms of traditional roles despite being
educated or earning substantially. Secondly, the prevalence of male attitudes known as
male chauvinism is also responsible for the secondary status being accorded to women.
In addition, patrifocal family which gave importance to men‟s interests was also
regarded as deeply affecting women‟s access to achievements in education and
employment (Hiremath, 2005; Mukhopadhyay & Semour, 1999). Studies have examined
the modifications in marriage systems, inheritance and succession practices due to
changes in the structure and functions of the family in India. Gender discrimination and
occupational segregation are still prevalent in Indian society. Women‟s achievements are
comparatively lower and they are seen in the lower ranks of the job hierarchy despite
making recognisable advances in education and career. In addition, women are often
paid less for the same jobs. These factors indicate the prevalence of gender differentiated
family roles which eventually perpetuates sexual division of labor (Thomas, 2007)
Another study conducted in India collected the views of women in dual-earner
families on work-life balance variables and the type of support that they required from
their employers. The study revealed that policies formulated by organisations that
promoted flexible work arrangements had positive relationships with work-life balance
as perceived by working women. Women employees considered time flexibility as one
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of the important factors that helps in balancing their work and family life. Their
perception was affected by factors such as the ability to interrupt office work in order to
attend to family matters and then return to work, provisions to partially work from
home, the ability to make a convenient work schedule arrangement, to avail leave when
required, child-care provisions along with elder-care facilities etc. The majority of
respondents said that they expected their organisations to support them and allow them
to attend courses or training programmes which would enable them to upgrade their
knowledge and skills. The study also revealed that getting support from the organisation
is very crucial in finding opportunities of employment as well as in achieving a desirable
work-life balance. There was a perceptible indication that women give more importance
to their family lives as respondents indicated that they would rather spend more time in
fulfilling family responsibilities than fulfilling work demands. Respondents, however,
also mentioned that they would work equally hard in order to manage their work and
family life (Seshadri & Kar, 2012).
A study of IT professionals revealed that the emotional intelligence of IT
professionals was positively related to personal life interference with work, work-
personal life enhancement and overall work-life balance. Emotionally intelligent people
are considered to be better focused, well-organised, they pursue their goals consistently,
and barely lose their temper. Thus, the study indicated that emotionally intelligent
people have the ability to adjust to all conditions as well as increase their productivity,
thereby creating a better work-life balance (Kaur & Walia, 2010). On the other hand, a
study conducted in the IT sector in Chennai and Coimbatore revealed that women
professionals were experiencing high organizational role stress. There was a significant
difference in the inter-role distance (i.e. conflict between organisational and familial roles
with special reference to dual career families), and in the case of married and unmarried
females. Inter-role conflict was expected to be less when at least one family member
remained at home to look after the family. Since married women responded to a bigger
set of significant others (i.e. conflicting expectations and demands by different role
senders) they were more likely to experience role expectation conflicts as compared to
unmarried women. Married women also complained of higher stress because of role
overload, implying that too much is expected from the role they can cope with. Also, the
most potent stressor that was identified is resource inadequacy, which means the
absence of resources required for better role performance (Kavitha et al, 2012).
WORK RELATED ISSUES
In order to achieve top positions in executive jobs, women across the globe have
to face obstacles and barriers. According to the International Labor Organization‟s
Report, 2001 titled “Breaking Through The Glass Ceiling: Women in Management”,
women in the United States had made more progress as compared to women in other
countries, despite the fact that they held only a small percentage of executive positions.
The changing roles of women in business and government in more than 70 countries,
steps to improve opportunities for women by highlighting the obstacles faced by them in
their career development, and promoting gender equality, were some of the issues that
were examined in the report. The report concluded that women in these countries were
experiencing glass walls in addition to glass ceiling, where women were denied training
and mid-level positions which could have helped them to reach top-level jobs. The
predominance of male values and gender roles was considered as another factor that
prevented women from reaching top jobs. The main hindrance faced by women, in
recruitment and promotion to management positions, was the dominance of male values
followed by family obligations
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There have been several studies conducted on IT professionals in India in recent years.
One such study showed that there is a direct proportional relationship between work-life
balance and working hours. The findings revealed that women who worked longer
hours were bound to experience more conflict as compared to those female employees
who worked for a relatively lesser number of hours. Thus, it was seen that there was a
wide gap in the work-life conflict between women who worked for eight hours, and
women who worked for ten hours per day (Aishwarya & Ramasundaram, 2011).
A study conducted from a Narrative Life Story Framework found that women
who had a strong belief in faith connected the element of work with their faith. They
believed that their purpose of life is work which is created by God. Hence, they
considered their work as being significantly meaningful. For them, values are an
inseparable part of coping strategies and the personal and professional lives are highly
valued by them. The study also revealed that the hardships and experiences faced by
women were affected by their cultural identity and cultural background. Moreover,
these women were also able to understand their work and personal life in a much better
way through the help of faith. Women also admitted that there was a positive effect of
having multiple roles in both work and family life. One of the most important factors for
achieving a healthy work-life balance was flexibility, which is also indicated by several
studies in work-life balance. In order to achieve flexibility, women have a longing for
their own business as they thought that in order to achieve a better work-life balance, a
flexible schedule at work was necessary. A sense of being self-dependent in all areas of
work was another factor which gave them a feeling of elation. It was concluded that the
most important factor in achieving work life balance or choosing a career field was faith,
which in turn also played a very important role in relationships for women. Faith was
also a factor which helped them in deciding where they would prefer spending their
time, and moreover the adaptive style (i.e. how they coped with change) was also
affected by faith (Krymis, 2011).
Work–Family Conflict: Work–life balance is the maintenance of a balance
between responsibilities at work and at home. Work and family have increasingly
become antagonist spheres, equally greedy of energy and time and responsible for
work–family conflict. These conflicts are intensified by the “cultural contradictions of
motherhood”, as women are increasingly encouraged to seek self-fulfilment in
demanding careers; they also face intensified pressures to sacrifice themselves for their
children by providing “intensive parenting”, highly involved childrearing and
development. Additional problems faced by employed women are those associated with
finding adequate, affordable access to child and elderly care.
Family–Work Conflict: Family–work conflict (FWC) is also a type of inter-role
conflict in which family and work responsibilities are not compatible. Family–work
conflict is more likely to exert its negative influences in the home domain, resulting in
lower life satisfaction and greater internal conflict within the family unit. However,
Family–work conflict is related to attitudes about the job or workplace. Family–work
conflict basically results from an individual trying to meet an overabundance of
conflicting demands from the different domains in which women are operating.
Work-Family Balance: Atypical jobs sometimes represent an alternative to
traditional employment. Part- time work, for example, has been identified as a means of
helping balance work and family life. It is, however, worth noting that many employees
do not choose to work part-time. As observed earlier, part-time workers are more likely
to be women, but a little probing reveals that they do not work part-time by choice. For
parents trying to reconcile family life and professional life, atypical work can represent
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another piece in the family organization puzzle. The search for day-care, in a context
where the number of places is largely deficient, is particularly challenging and is among
the concerns of parents for whom this is a daily reality. In addition, the entire routine of
family members must be organized around the parents‟ work schedule, school hours,
errands, doctor appointments etc.
Lack of Time: The difficulty of balancing work and family life also results in a
higher degree of stress related among other things, to the feeling of not having enough
time. This is particularly true for parents and single mothers, aged 25 to 44 years old,
who hold full-time jobs.
Work Stress: Stress at work, the stress of raising children, the stresses that come
with aging parents -- any of these situations could provide a moderately high amount of
stress. When women are faced with multiple roles, all of which carry heavy demands,
they face levels of stress that are high enough to contribute to health problems, missed
work, and a diminished capacity to take on more. Women are multi-taskers by nature
and enfold tasks within tasks. The common causes of work place stress of women are:
Unreasonable demands for performance
Lack of interpersonal communication between the employer and the employees
Lack of interpersonal relationships among the employees
The fear of losing one's job
Long working hours
Less time to spend with the family
Harder to balance work and home demands
Treated inferiorly to the male colleagues
Treating women‟s job inferior
Child Care: Shiva (2013) explained the working women having small children
are forced to leave their child in day care or in the hands of maid. This creates more
tension for them and less concentration on their work and also not able to give proper
care for them at times. Lan Day (2006) stated in his study that the policies centred on
extending parental leave and child care provision promotes a greater flexibility in
employment.
Family Related Issues: The issues faced by employees related to family which
would be complains and issues related to their roles as parents, as a spouse and other
roles in the family like daughter/ son or a daughter/ son-in-law etc.
Parenting issues: The challenges they face as parents to maintain their work-life-
balance. Some of the very common challenges faced by the employees in this current
study are getting children ready to school before work, leaving and picking up children
from school, not able to be patient after work to listen to “stories” that their children
want to share with them about their school, teachers and friends. Some also report that
balancing is challenging when they have to be there to meet their children‟s teachers or
attend to their academic needs.
Marital issues: They face in maintaining work life balance in the role they play
as a spouse, be it a husband or a wife. Spending time with and giving time to one‟s
spouse becomes very important. The few common issues that were that a few men
reported their working wives not being satisfied how much ever they helped in the
household. Many employees reported that their spouses schedule such as the inter
country calls they take at nights makes it a challenge for them in terms of having dinner
together and spending quality time with each other. Many employees reported that
either they or their.
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 Journal of Research, Extension and Development, Vol. 5, No. 12, August 2017, ISSN: 2319-1899

Dual Responsibility: The major problems for working wives rise out of the dual
responsibilities of the working women, house work and the office work. Even though
the employment of women is accepted, most of her in- laws and majority of the
husbands have not accepted the changing life pattern. They are not prepared to share the
responsibilities of the household and looking after children. These duties are still
considered to be exclusively of the wives.
ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONS IN WORK-LIFE ISSUES
Organizations across cultures are known to implement various work-life balance
practices which are beneficial in reducing work-life issues as well as enabling employees
to be more effective at work and in the performance of various roles. Organizations are
increasingly pressurised to design various kinds of practices which will facilitate the
efforts of employees to fulfil their personal and professional commitments. Several
work-life balance initiatives have been taken up by organizations to assist employees to
balance their work and family responsibilities efficiently, There are a variety of family-
friendly policies such as flexible working hours, part-time work, job-sharing,
compressed work weeks, telecommuting, parental leave, and on-site child-care facility
(Lazar et al, 2010). In addition, organisations may also provide a range of benefits with
regard to health and well-being of employees such as extended health insurance for the
employees and dependents, personal days, access to programs and services in order to
encourage fitness as well as mental and physical health.
However, organizations are likely to have their own motives behind
implementing various work-life practices. First, in order to increase work life balance
practices of female employees and make use of their capacities; secondly, to keep
employees motivated and performing well; thirdly, to make the organisation more
attractive to employees, and lastly, to have a better corporate social responsibility (Lazar
et al, 2010). Factors which affect employees‟ attitudes and perceptions through the
introduction of work-life balance practices include job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, turnover intention and job stress. However, job performance, absenteeism
costs, customer satisfaction and organisational productivity are in turn affected by these
factors (Lazar et al, 2010). One of the barriers in achieving work-life balance is that
employees often remain unaware of their work-life entitlements following the
implementation of work-life balance practices, which was highlighted through a
research conducted among organisations in U.K (Kodz et al, 1998).
SUGGESTION
Policies and laws can‟t change the scenario or diminish the issues that are
suffered by women at workplace and house, the mindset and the level of acceptance of
people requires to be altered. To face these challenges tactfully and overcome them
successfully, women need to be self confident and aware of their rights. Allowing
women to work out of home in different sectors doesn‟t only signify that our society
gives equal treatment to men and women, but also it shows that the problems at work
which are the result of gender discrimination to some extent can be easily managed and
solved. When we will be able to give a better and conducive workplace to the women
employees, we can say proudly that women and men are treated equally in society.
There are several laws and polices made to ensure women‟s safety at workplace but due
to the deficiency of awareness and proper implementation none of them helpful when it
comes to protection of women from harassment, gender biasness, gender inequality in
the workplace and home.

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CONCLUSION
Women in different professions are caught in a dilemma with expectations and
ideologies of traditional societies at home, and demands conforming to the modern code
of conduct at the workplace. Thus, they are observed as struggling with their personal
and professional lives in order to achieve a balance between these two domains. As a
result of the prevalence of gendered work structure, women are not able to achieve
equality despite being educated and employed. In addition, domestic responsibilities
still remain a primary role of women, irrespective of their employment status. Women
are not able to question or challenge gender role assumptions, even when they are
highly educated. Moreover, women utilise their education, keeping their family‟s
interests in mind. In order to ensure that work-family balance and to challenge gender
relations, the prevailing social system which relegates women to that of inferior group
both at home and at work should be changed.

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