Work-family challenges and their impact on career decisions: A study of Indian women professionals

Abstract

A broad review of existing literature on barriers to women’s career advancement suggests that one of the most important reasons inhibiting women’s rise to the top positions in management is the work-life conflict that women professionals experience because of their strong commitment to family responsibilities. The primary objective of this study is to understand the impact of family responsibilities on the career decisions of women professionals and also to find out the type of work-life support they would require from their employers to balance their work and life in a better manner. The study is conducted with 121 women professionals working in government services, public sector, private sector, and in NGOs across different levels. The perception of women professionals regarding the barriers against their career advancement is studied. The impact of demographic factors like managerial level, marital status, and family structure on all the above-mentioned issues are also analysed. Following are some of the major findings of the study: • Apart from other factors, ‘commitment to family responsibility’ and ‘lack of gender-sensitive policies by the employer’ are considered as important barriers which affect the career advancement of women professionals to senior positions. Senior and middle level professionals believe more strongly than the junior level women professionals that commitment to family responsibility hinders women professionals’ advancement. • Family responsibility considerably affects the career decisions of women professionals. It is generally expected that the female spouse should take care of the family responsibility. Women professionals agree that children’s responsibility hinders their ability to advance. They think that they are not able to utilize their full potential and at times they have to make career trade-offs because of the family responsibilities. They also believe that putting career ahead of family leads to social disapproval and rejection and at the middle level of their career, the pressure for conforming to the societal norms could be more. • The research reveals the expectations of the women professionals in terms of the support that organizations can provide to help them in achieving better work-life balance and advance in their career. A significant percentage of respondents have shown their strong preference for provisions like flexible working hours, childcare facilitates and emergency care for children and elders, support for non-work commitment, wellness, and personal development programmes. Half of the women professionals agree that “flexibility in work location” (working from home/telecommuting) can be taken up as an additional support provision. The requirement for all these work-life provisions are felt more at the middle and junior level rather than at the senior level.