It Was Not the Best Option: Family-Role Overload and Regret about Sacrificing Work for the Family

Abstract

We aimed to analyze whether women with higher family-role overload regret sacrificing their professional work to fulfill family responsibilities better after analyzing the costs of making the work sacrifice. In Study 1, participants (n = 218 women and men) self-reported their family-role overload, rated the costs of sacrificing their work for their family, and rated the extent to which they experienced regret about this sacrifice. In Study 2, participants (n = 285 women) reported their gender role ideology and responded to the same measures as in Study 1. In Study 3, participants (n = 180 women) reported their ideology and their partner’s perceived gender role ideology and completed the same procedure as in Study 1. The main findings showed that women (but not men) with higher family-role overload perceived more costs of sacrificing their work for the family, which were associated with greater regret about making the sacrifice. Additionally, women who perceived a traditional ideology in their partner reported more family-role overload, which was associated with greater costs of making the work sacrifice, which in turn was related to greater experienced regret. These findings indicate that although women make these sacrifices based on societal expectations in accordance with their gender role, they could not have obtained the results they could have expected and consequently could regret risking their professional progress for the family. In addition, they suggest that partner involvement is also necessary to overcome this invisible gender inequality.