assignments and international commuting assignments, where the family may
not physically relocate, the additional stressors of the individual living away
from home have been seen to exacerbate work–family conflict (CReME, 2000;
Fenwick; Peltonen, Suutari, 2001).
Research into the problems facing dual-career expatriates indicates that
this is equally problematic for men. However, Adler (1984c) and Harris’ (1999)
research shows that potential dual-career couple restrictions are seen to be a
key entry barrier for women wishing to gain international assignments. This
may in part result from traditional socio-cultural norms that identify the domi-
nant gender-role profile of women as homemakers (Lewis and Cooper, 1988;
Sandqvist, 1992). From this perspective, it is argued that women will experi-
ence greater stress than men when faced with work-related pressures, including
mobility requirements, due to the degree of incompatibility between role pres-
sures from work and family domains (Gupta and Jenkins, 1985; Sekaran, 1986;
Wiersma, 1994). In addition, it has been argued that male spouses face addi-
tional role transition obstacles in terms of adjusting to the role of secondary
breadwinner (Paddock and Schwartz, 1986) or homemaker, if they cannot find
work in the foreign location. Additional socio-cultural barriers include the like-
lihood of the male spouse finding himself the lone man in a group of wives and
the unavailability or inappropriateness of traditional volunteer activities which
wives undertake in foreign locations, thus limiting the extent of productive
activities for males (Punnett et al., 1992).
A key additional variable in looking at work–life balance in the context
of international working is the adjustment process of the individual and
his/her family. The adjustment process has been studied in both domestic and
international contexts and is a multi-faceted phenomenon. In international
scenarios, adjustment is seen to be a factor of both anticipatory adjustment and
in-country adjustment (Black et al., 1991). Accurate expectations of the assign-
ment as a result of previous international experience and/or training, together
with appropriate selection mechanisms, are antecedents to successful anticipa-
tory adjustment.
Host nationals’ attitudesA major limiting factor to international management participation for women
has traditionally been managers’ perceptions of whether women can undertake
assignments abroad. In a survey of 60 major North American MNCs, more than
50% expressed reluctance to select female managers for foreign assignments.
One of the major reasons given was that foreigners are prejudiced against
female managers (Adler, 1984a).
Subsequent research by Adler (1987) amongst US women expatriates work-
ing in South-East Asian countries challenges the validity of this assumption by
finding a very high rate of success amongst women international managers,
Women’s Role in International Management 369