The relationships of national gender equality and organizational support with work-family balance: A study of European managers

Abstract

Most prior research about employees’ work-family balance has examined relationships to organizational characteristics or individual characteristics, but ignored the larger national context in which these relationships occur. We developed a model suggesting that the degree of national gender equality is an important contextual variable that is positively related to organizational work-family supports (i.e. supportive work-family culture and flexible work arrangements), which are in turn related to individual managers’ balance of their work and family responsibilities. We tested the model using survey responses from 505 managers and professionals from 20 European countries and United Nations’ Gender Development Index scores of national gender equality for their countries, and found some support for the predicted relationships. These results highlight the importance of considering the larger context, and especially a nation’s standing in terms of its gender equality, for understanding work-family balance.