Women's Gender Role Attitudes, Career Salience, and Paid Work Family Conflict

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC), career salience, and gender role attitudes in a sample (n=147) of women staff and faculty at universities and colleges. Participants were recruited via e-mails and completed measures of WFC (Work Family Conflict Scale), career salience (Career Salience Scale), and gender role attitudes (Attitudes Toward Women Scale). Career salience was found to be a significant predictor of WFC, with greater salience being associated with greater WFC. Gender role attitudes were found to be a significant predictor of WFC, although contrary to prediction more non-traditional gender role attitudes were associated with higher scores on WFC. Also contrary to prediction, gender role attitudes were not a moderator in the relationship between career salience and WFC. Additionally, there were not significant relationships between WFC and number of children, WFC and having children under the age of 6, WFC and number of weekly hours worked, and WFC and partner/living status.