Abstract
Women’s participation in paid employment has become a common scenario even in non-western developing countries. For example in Malaysia, the trend is growing although the traditional gender role remains strong in Malaysian society. Even though working, women are still expected to assume major responsibilities at home. Thus, as opposed to men, women in this society face the challenge to satisfactorily balance work and family. This study was carried out to explore how Malaysian women perceive the meaning of a balanced work-family life. Sampling women teachers, the interview findings revealed that work-family balance was mainly perceived in terms of an individual’s ‘ability to fulfill role obligation’ appropriately in both the work and family domains. A few participants also viewed balance in the context of role satisfaction and role interference. Overall, the results support the assumption in the literature that perceptions of work-family experience are not universal, rather, the construct of work-family balance is culture-specific. Keywords: Work-family interface, cross-culture, role demands.
Highlights
The study of a balanced work-family life has received unprecedented interest from scholars primarily due to the global trend of increased labour force participation by women, coupled with the prevalence of dual-career earners and single-parent families (Aryee, Srinivas &Hwee, 2005; Hansen, 1991)
This paper aims to examine how non-western people perceive the meaning of a balanced work-family life, with specific focus on the Malaysian society
The results of this study revealed that Malaysian women teachers predominantly view work-family balance (WFB) as “being able to perform or fulfill role obligation in work and family domains” appropriately
Summary
The study of a balanced work-family life has received unprecedented interest from scholars primarily due to the global trend of increased labour force participation by women, coupled with the prevalence of dual-career earners and single-parent families This trend has created a situation where individuals, mainly women, to juggle work and family, posing a challenge to successfully manage these multiple roles. Women’s participation in the labour force has become a common scenario in non-western developing countries. For these women, being employed poses a new challenge in their lives as the gender role ideologies remain more traditional in these societies (Westman, 2005). The traditional gender role is still prevalent across the Malaysian society (Noor, 1999)
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