The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Paid Worker Role and Health 453

Women are more likely to have flexible jobs,

to work part time, or not to be paid workers

compared to men. This makes it easier for

women than men to prioritize family.

Effects of Family Roles on the Paid Worker Role

Features of family roles can influence the

quality of the paid worker role. Family stress

and conflict are associated with lower job

satisfaction, and family support is associ-

ated with higher job satisfaction among both

women and men (Ford et al., 2007). Fam-

ily roles can enhance the paid worker role—

especially when the quality of family roles is

high (Pedersen et al., 2009). People who have

spouses who help with child care and people

who have good relationships with their chil-

dren seem to be able to benefit more from

the paid worker role (Gareis & Barnett, 2002;

Pederson et al., 2009). Thus family roles can

buffer as well as exacerbate strains at work for

women and men.

Difficulties in Combining Roles

Combining the paid worker role with fam-

ily roles is a newer challenge for women than

it is for men. To understand how work and

family roles are combined, one needs to ex-

amine what the individual roles have meant

to women and men historically (Simon,

1995). The paid worker role has been more

closely intertwined with family roles for men

than women. Historically, a man’s family role

has been to provide economic support, an

obligation he can fulfill through paid employ-

ment. However, a woman’s family role has

been to take care of the home and children,

functions not served by paid employment.

The paid worker role for women does not

sports activities that take place during the

day than are men. However, when fathers

show up, they are praised. When mothers are

absent, people are concerned.

There are features of the paid worker

role that seem to have specific consequences

for family roles. More hours worked out-

side the home and greater job pressures are

associated with greater work–family con-

flict (Galinsky et al., 2009)—but more so for

women (Pedersen et al., 2009). Job flexibility

is associated with higher quality family roles

for women but not men (Pedersen et al.,

2009). There are also aspects of family roles

that may influence work spillover. When

both wives and husbands work full time and

have children, greater inequity in the division

of labor leads to greater work–family conflict

for women (Edwards, 2006).

Features of the paid worker role can

also benefit family roles. For example, a sup-

portive job is associated with greater family

satisfaction for both women and men (Ford

et al., 2007). The paid worker role also buffers

one from the distress associated with care-

giving roles at home. One study showed that

caregivers’ health declined more if they were

not employed than if they were employed

(Pavalko & Woodbury, 2000). Employment

may provide one with a needed respite from

caregiving, which in the end could enable

one to be a more effective caregiver.

Thus, it appears that the paid worker

role can have negative and positive effects on

family roles. Stressors in one’s job can cause

or exacerbate strains in the family. How-

ever, the paid worker role can also buffer one

against family stressors. When work conflicts

with family, work may be more likely to win

out for men, and family may be more likely to

win out for women. In that sense, work con-

flicts with family more for men than women.

M12_HELG0185_04_SE_C12.indd 453 6/21/11 9:16 AM