Experiences of working women in India under family-friendly policies: straight from the horse’s mouth

Abstract

ABSTRACT Achieving work-life balance is one of the major challenges faced by women around the world. This study adopts a qualitative approach to examine professional women’s perspectives on their work situations and family-friendly policies, taking India as an example. The goal is to explore and explain some of the major issues confronting Indian working women when they try to balance their work and family life. As women are the traditional homemakers in Indian society, they often struggle to find such balance and this challenge is one of the key reasons why they quit their jobs. A better understanding of the factors hindering the utilization of family-friendly policies in India might help encourage more Indian women to enter the workforce. This research found that professional women bear more family responsibilities than their male partners and experience work-family and family-work interference, resulting in strain when attempting to achieve work-life balance. It was also discovered that there is a dearth of employer and co-worker support for the use and implementation of family-friendly policies. The results of this study have practical implications for how women can better benefit from family-friendly policies and shoulder their dual roles.