Working Long Hours and Its Impact on Family Life: Experiences of Women Professionals and Managers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Worldwide studies of professional and managerial dual-earner couples in specific professions have indicated that with the double burdens of work and family, working long hours limit women’s career aspirations. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 40 respondents, this article examines how long working hours in the banking and health sectors impact professional and managerial mothers’ family life and health, and how the latter perceive motherhood roles. Though there was evidence of negative effects of long hours especially on childcare and children’s cognitive development, while rationalising their decision on combining motherhood and paid work, mothers interviewed valued their full-time employment.