Working part‐time: achieving a successful ‘work‐life’ balance?¹

Abstract

The role of part-time employment in the balancing of women's employment and family lives has generated an immense literature. Using data on women working part-time and full-time in different level occupations in the British Household Panel Survey, this paper argues that it is now vital to move these balancing debates on from their location within work-family rhetoric and to re-position the study of women's working time in broader work-life discussions. Work-family debates tend to neglect a number of key domains that women balance in their lives, in addition to family and employment, including their financial security and their leisure. The paper shows that examining the financial situations and the leisure lives of female part-timers in lower level jobs reveals a less positive picture of their 'life balancing' than is portrayed in much work-family literature. Instead, they emerged as the least financially secure employees and, linked to this, less satisfied with their social lives too. It is concluded that since the work-life system is multi- and not just two-dimensional, it is important to examine how all life domains interrelate with each other. In this way, we would be in a better position to begin to assess all the benefits and disadvantages associated with working part-time and with other work-life balancing strategies.

Women's patterns of everyday occupations and alcohol consumption

“…happiness and affection) in working mothers' evaluations of their everyday lives (13). Finally, mothers reported lower levels of satisfaction with leisure and social lives but higher levels of satisfaction with life as a whole (16).…”

“…Caring for young children has previously been shown as being associated with a lower risk for AUD (11). Other studies, both within and outside the field of alcohol research, have reported more complex associations concerning a motherhood role and outcomes in health, life satisfaction or problematic drinking (7,13,16). Having a motherhood role, combined with other social roles, influenced heavy drinking differently across countries (7).…”

“…In a study on work-life balance in women's lives, it was concluded that the work-life system was multi-and not twodimensional; thus, it should be of interest to examine how all life domains, in addition to family and employment, interrelate (16). The author proposed that from a life balance perspective, including financial security and leisure activities are just as important as examining the work and family domains.…”

Wives’ Part-time Employment and Marital Stability in Great Britain, West Germany and the United States

“…In contrast, poor quality employment with low wages or irregular work hours disrupts family schedules and might increase marital instability. Warren (2004) found British women working part-time reported more leisure time but greater financial strains than women pursuing full-time careers.…”

A női munkavállalás hatása a napi időfelhasználásra

“…A 4-6 órás munkavégzés kedvezőtlen hatásai közül a leggyakrabban említik, hogy egyrészt sérül a nemek közötti egyenlőség a karrierépítési és továbbképzési lehetőségek korlátozottságából adódóan (például a vezetői pozíciók jellemzően teljes munkaidős állások, továbbá a részállású munkavállalókra kevésbé stabilan épít a munkaadó), másrészt fenntartja és legitimizálja a nőkre háruló kettős leterheltséget, továbbá az alacsonyabb fizetés szűkösebb lehetőségeket biztosít a megtakarításra, valamint a DOI: 10.14267/phd.2015028 18 rövidebb munkaidő a nyugdíjszerzésre való képességet szintén csökkenti (Hakim 2006;Tilly 1992;Warren 2004). A szakértők másik csoportja (Crompton 2002;Hochschild 2001; O'Reilly-Böthfeld 2002) a (női) munkavállalás előnyeit emeli ki a részmunkaidős állásokkal kapcsolatban, miszerint a felelősségteljes és önálló munkahelyi feladatok kedvezően hatnak a személyiségre, amely pozitív hatása az otthoni/munkahelyen kívüli környezetben is érvényesül.…”