Time strain among employed and self-employed women and men in Sweden

Abstract

Dual-earner families are common in Sweden, and most women are involved in the labour market. It has been shown that employees and self-employed individuals perceive their working conditions differently: self-employed individuals are more likely to experience an imbalance between work and family, higher job demands, and the feeling that they must be ''always on.'' Thus, there may also be a difference between employees and self-employed individuals in terms of perceived time strain. Previous studies have identified differences in time-use patterns among men and women who are employed and self-employed. This study uses time-use data to examine potential gender differences among men and women who are self-employed and those who are employees with regard to time strain effects related to time spent on paid and unpaid work in Sweden. The results show that self-employed individuals, particularly self-employed women, report the highest levels of time strain. For self-employed women, an increase in the time spent on paid work reduces perceived time strain levels, whereas the opposite is true for employees and self-employed men. It is primarily individual and family factors, and not time use, that are related to time strain. The results provide evidence that gender differences in time strain are greater among self-employed individuals than among employees.

Self-employment’s vulnerability to socioeconomic and working conditions: results from the Korean Working Condition Survey (2006-2014)

“…4 , 5 Since self-employed persons are responsible for absolutely everything related to their own businesses, they become liable to exploitation at the workplace: they are more likely to work longer hours and to face difficulties in harmonizing their work and family life than waged employees. 5 , 8 , 23 The findings of the present investigation corroborate this outcome. Compared to employed workers, self-employed persons in both small businesses and in middle to large enterprises worked longer weekday hours and also worked more often on the weekends.…”

Balancing Work and Life When Self-Employed: The Role of Business Characteristics, Time Demands, and Gender Contexts

“…A decade later, Fahlén (2014) presented evidence that women report higher levels of LIW than men do. Having greater responsibility for housework and family and child care and experiencing stress and time strain related to unpaid work seem to be risk factors for experiencing LIW (Byron 2005;Hagqvist et al 2015). These are tasks women have more responsibility for and spend more time on than men, which can be one reason why women report higher levels of LIW.…”

“…Generally, self-employed individuals are defined as workers who work independently from an employer and who pursue gainful activity on their own account, with or without employees. In comparison to employees, self-employed individuals seem to experience more conflicting demands between work and private life than regular employees (Nordenmark et al 2012;Bunk et al 2012) and greater time strains (Hagqvist et al 2015). However, there is a lack of consensus, as other research has found that employees report higher levels of conflict than self-employed individuals (Beutell 2007).…”

Balancing Work and Life When Self-Employed: The Role of Business Characteristics, Time Demands and Gender Contexts

“…Having a greater responsibility for housework, family and child care and experiencing stress and time strain related to unpaid work seem to be risk factors to experience LIW (Byron 2005;Hagqvist, Toivanen, and Vinberg 2015). These are tasks women have more responsible of, and spend more time on than men, which can be one reason explaining why women report higher levels of LIW.…”