Work-to-family spillover: Gender differences in Hungary

Abstract

1 It is crucial to understand the role that labor market positions might play in creating gender differences in work-life balance. One theoretical approach to understanding this relationship is the spillover theory. The spillover theory argues that an individual's life domains are integrated; meaning that well-being can be transmitted between life domains. Based on data collected in Hungary in 2014, this paper shows that work-to-family spillover does not affect both genders the same way. The effect of work on family life tends to be more negative for women than for men. Two explanations have been formulated in order to understand this gender inequality. According to the findings of the analysis, gender is conditionally independent of spillover if financial status and flexibility of work are also incorporated into the analysis. This means that the relative disadvantage for women in terms of spillover can be attributed to their lower financial status and their relatively low access to flexible jobs. In other words, the gender inequalities in work-to-family spillover are deeply affected by individual labor market positions. The observation of the labor market's effect on work-life balance is especially important in Hungary since Hungary has one 1 This paper has been prepared as part of a Hungarian Scientific Research Fund project Dilemmas and strategies in reconciling family and work (OTKA K104707); Márta Radó has also been supported by the joint Research Excellence Award of the Hungarian National Bank and Corvinus University of Budapest. Literature searching in databases and the registration of records in a spreadsheet, as well as downloading and saving the full text articles were done by a group of committed undergraduate students, namely Dávid Ádám, Yvette Lovas and Bence Pálóczi. The authors of this paper are extremely grateful for their help and effort.