A Change in Work-Family/Life or a Return to Traditional Normative Patterns in Spain? Systematic Review

Abstract

Family policies to reduce conflict in work-life balance and promote gender equality advanced significantly at the legislative level in Spain in the first decades of the twenty-first century. These advances include the 2007 Law for Equality between Men and Women and the extension of paternity leave to 16 weeks in 2020. However, advances in care work and at the professional level have been limited. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified existing imbalances in family-work responsibilities in general and the ICT gender gap in particular. In crisis situations, women adopt the role of caregivers more easily than men, and women with fewer educational, economic, and job resources are more likely to assume this role, contributing to increasing gender inequalities at work and in the family. COVID-19 has exposed these imbalances, highlighting the need for new narratives and laws that encourage gender equality. Post-COVID-19 scenarios thus present an opportunity for reflection and progress on Spanish family policy. From this perspective, the paradigm of work-family conflict, although interesting, must be examined and resignified. This article proposes to critically resignify the paradigm of work-family conflict based on the new narrative generated by COVID-19. The present analysis suggests a resignification that should involve changing the expectations and practices around work-family balance, based on family diversity, job insecurity, the technological revolution, and new masculinities. It is proposed a prior reflection to clarify definition of the indicators and indexes that enable operationalization of the concept of work-family reconciliation. It is expected that these measures will help to facilitate practical application of reconciliation in areas such as public or/and private organizations, while also enabling international comparative analysis.

Associations of Work-Family Conflict with Family-Specific, Work-Specific, and Well-Being-Related Variables in a Sample of Polish and Ukrainian Adults during the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The research found the interaction between culture and gender, with greater WIF and FIW, reported in countries with more traditional than egalitarian gender role beliefs [ 15 ]. The systematic review [ 16 ] suggests changing the expectations and practices around work-family balance due to current cultural changes in the technological revolution, job insecurity, family diversity, and new masculinities. Therefore, more research on work-family balance is required from a cross-cultural and gender comparative perspective.…”

“…The imbalance between family and work responsibilities has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, as suggested by a recent systematic review [ 16 ]. One of the most sensitive groups for high WFC and FWC was parents of minor children [ 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…Women with fewer educational, economic, and professional resources were more likely to play the role of caregivers, contributing to gender inequalities at work and in the family, as suggested by the literature [ 16 ]. Compared to men, women were more responsible for childcare, schooling, and household tasks, working primarily from home and reducing their work hours [ 19 , 23 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].…”

“…Based on previous literature [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], we assume that changes in lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic were stressful events that contributed to the work-family imbalance, leading to high WFC and FWC [ 16 ]. We will examine the differences in WFC, FWC, well-being dimensions, and time pressure across countries, genders, relationship status, parenthood experience, caring for children under 12, and type of work (stationary vs. remote).…”

“…We will examine the differences in WFC, FWC, well-being dimensions, and time pressure across countries, genders, relationship status, parenthood experience, caring for children under 12, and type of work (stationary vs. remote). We hypothesize that higher CWF and worse well-being will be presented in Poland than in Ukraine regarding the individualism-collectivism dimension [ 12 , 13 ], among teleworkers [ 20 , 21 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], women [ 16 , 19 , 23 , 24 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], coupled individuals, and those having children [ 16 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Inter-group differences in time pressure will be explored for the first time in this study.…”