Anticipated Work-Family Conflict in the Case of Female Management Students-An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

Enrolment of women in the higher education in India has risen significantly after globalisation. As per UGC annual report, women enrolment in the higher education stood at 41.5% of the total enrolment in 2010–2011. It is obvious, a major chunk of this statistics is gearing up for the work force participation. In addition to this, media has paid an increasing attention towards the work-family conflict in case of working women and mostly working mothers. Here we want to explore the motivation and readiness of women career aspirants for their future work-family challenge. We have surveyed (n = 100) female management students, who intended to work, through questionnaires. Seeing the age and experience of the participants, we have kept both close and open-ended questions. The data has been analysed using content analysis. We found a significant influence of mass media information on the work family plan of these female management students. The knowledge of real world work family challenge was very poor in this sample and mostly revolved around ‘time ’as the basic constrain behind all problems. The readiness for future work family challenge could not get judged clearly in this study. This result will be very helpful in designing a chapter or an elective in the management education to generate a proactive behaviour in the career aspirants. This study has been done in a specific geographical location. Cultural influence cannot be ignored in this context. This study might result different in other regions and could trace other influential factors.