The intersection of gender and work-family guilt

Abstract

Guilt arising from attempting to balance work and family has been a frequent topic of interest in the media and the organizational behavior literature. Despite this, until recently, research on work-family guilt (WFG) was limited. This chapter reviews the qualitative and quantitative empirical evidence pertaining to the intersection of gender and WFG. It begins by defining WFG and discussing issues of measurement, including measurement equivalence for gender. The antecedents and outcomes of WFG are discussed, as are inter-relationships between work-to-family guilt, family-to-work guilt and work-family conflict and facilitation. Subsequently, the chapter reviews how WFG and its antecedents and consequences in the work and family domains relate to various aspects of gender. These include differences due to biological gender (i.e., whether someone is a man or a woman), gender-role orientation (i.e., instrumental/expressive personality characteristics), gender-role attitudes (i.e., traditional/egalitarian), gender-role values, and gender-role behaviors. The chapter also examines the role of culture as a moderating variable, and concludes with a critique of the literature and a discussion of implications for theory, research and practice.