Gender, Work–Life Balance and Quality of Life

The past 15 years have seen dramatic changes in women’s lives, with much greater numbers in paid work, often combining this work with childcare and other responsibilities. Undoubtedly, having jobs has improved women’s lives in many ways, raising their living standards and giving them greater economic independence. However, there may be a downside to these gains: women’s quality of life may be under pressure and they may be subject to new forms of gender inequality. If more work for women outside the home is not accompanied by a fairer share-out of work within the home, women can end up with a double burden of paid and unpaid work. If adequate childcare and other family supports are not provided, family life can come under stress and conflicts can arise between the demands of work and home. This chapter examines the extent to which the increasing involvement of women in paid work has created new tensions for families and assesses whether these new conflicts cancel out the advantages for women of increased employment opportunities.

The first section of this chapter explores recent trends in labour market behaviour among both women and men. It outlines changes in the level of employment, and the quality of employment in terms of pay, job characteristics and occupational segregation by gender. Such changes are placed in the context of parallel trends in gender role attitudes. The second section examines the time allocation of men and women within households to paid work, unpaid work and leisure. The third section examines the consequences of labour market changes and the gender division of labour for quality of life among women and men. Quality of life is assessed in relation to two main dimensions: work–life tensions and life satisfaction. We explore whether these dimensions are affected by different working arrangements (e.g. dual v. single earner) and differing degrees of involvement of women in paid employment.