Skip to main content

Work-Life Conflict and Social Inequality in Western Europe

Social Indicators Research volume 93, pages 489–508 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent debates on time-use suggest that there is an inverse relationship between time poverty and income poverty (Aguiar and Hurst in Q J Econ C(3):969–1006, 2007), with Hammermesh and Lee (Rev Econ Stat 89(2):374–383, 2007) suggesting much time poverty is ‘yuppie kvetch’ or ‘complaining’. Gershuny (Soc Res Int Q Soc Sci 72(2):287–314, 2005) argues that busyness is the ‘badge of honour’: being busy is now a positive, privileged position and it is high status people who work long hours and feel busy. Is this also true of work-life conflict? This paper explores the relationship between work-life tension and social inequality, as measured by social class, drawing on evidence from the European Social Survey. To what extent is work-life conflict a problem of the (comparatively) rich and privileged professional/managerial classes, and is this true across European countries? The countries selected offer a range of institutional and policy configurations to maximise variation. Using regression modelling of an index of subjective work-life conflict, we find that in all the countries under study, work-life conflict is higher among professionals than non-professionals. Part of this is explained by the fact that professionals work longer hours and experience more work pressure than other social classes, though the effect remains even after accounting for these factors. While levels of work-life conflict vary across the countries studied, country variation in class differences is modest. We consider other explanations of why professionals report higher work-life conflict and the implications of our findings for debates on social inequality.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Notes

  1. Since the late 1980s the Irish path has somewhat diverged from the British model: note the corporatist-style solidaristic agreements between the social partners and government (O’Connell et al., 2003).

  2. For details on the data, see http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org. Tests were conducted on the results with an index which uses all four questions and also an index which uses three questions but excludes missing cases on any of the items. Results are reported in the results section.

  3. The Cronbach’s alpha for individual countries varies from 0.63 for France to 0.74 for Ireland.

  4. See White et al. (2003) for an alternative measure using principal components analysis.

  5. Note that work pressure, like work-life conflict, is a subjective indicator. We may be slightly overestimating the effect of work pressure if we are picking up an unmeasured underlying anxiety, however the extent of this is not possible to quantify with this data.

  6. When we replicate the analysis using an alternative 4-item index which includes the question ‘How often do you find that your partner or family gets fed up with the pressure of your job’, we find no difference in the pattern of class effects.

  7. The only difference being the exclusion of the housework stress variable as there were some problems with missing cases, particularly for Spain. The sample size is now greater than in Table 3.

  8. We also estimated these models on a sample of couples only. The findings are almost identical to those reported, with three exceptions. In Denmark, Spain and Ireland the difference between professionals and non-professionals is less for couples than for all employees.

  9. We check whether estimating separate country models instead of a pooled model with interaction terms has any impact on our findings. Patterns of country variation are very similar indeed. The only difference of note is the findings for Ireland. In Ireland, the effect of having children has a greater positive impact on work-life conflict in the separate country model, and the difference between professionals and non-professionals is lower, once we properly account for the presence of children.

References

  • Abrahamson, P. (2007). Reconciliation of work and family life in Europe: A case study of Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 9(2), 193–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aguiar, M., & Hurst, E. (2007). Measuring trends in leisure: The allocation of time over five decades. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 969–1006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A. B. (1998). Poverty in Europe. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. (1965). A theory of the allocation of time. Economic Journal, 75, 493–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi, S., Robinson, J., & Milkie, M. (2006). Changing rhythms of American family life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bittman, M. (2004). Parenting and employment: What time-use surveys show. In N. Folbre & M. Bittman (Eds.), Family time. The Social Organization of Care. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cousins, C., & Tang, N. (2004). Working time and work and family conflict in The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. Work, Employment & Society, 18(3), 531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crompton, R., Lewis, S., & Lyonette, C. (2007). Women, men, work and family in Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Crompton, R., & Lyonette, C. (2006). Work-life ‘balance’ in Europe. Acta Sociologica, 49(4), 379–393.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M. (2000). The gender division of welfare: The impact of the British and German welfare states. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dex, S., & Bond, S. (2005). ‘Measuring work-life balance and its covariates’. Work, Employment and Society, 19(3), 627–637.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, R., & Goldthorpe, J. (1993). The constant flux: A study of class mobility in industrial societies. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Oxford: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). Social foundations of postindustrial economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fagan, C. (2003). Working-time preferences and work-life balance in the EU: Some policy considerations for enhancing the quality of life. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fagnani, J., & Letablier, M. (2004). Work and family life balance: The impact of the 35-hour laws in France. Work, Employment & Society, 18(3), 551–572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fine-Davis, M., Fagnani, J., Giovannnini, L., & Clarke, H. (2002). Fathers and mothers: Dilemmas of the work-life balance. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallie, D., & Paugam, S. (2000). Welfare regimes and the experience of unemployment in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gershuny, J. (2005). Busyness as the badge of honor for the new superordinate working class. Social Research: An International Quarterly of Social Sciences, 72(2), 287–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gershuny, J. (2000). Changing times. Work and leisure in post-industrial society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldthorpe, J. (2000). Social class and the differentiation of employment contracts. In J. H. Goldthorpe (Ed.), On sociology: Numbers, narratives and the integration of research and theory (pp. 206–229). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodin, R. E., Headey, B., Muffels, R., & Dirven, H. J. (1999). The real worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gornick, J. C., & Meyers, M. K. (2003). Families that work—Policies for reconciling parenthood and employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenhaus, J., Collins, K., & Shaw, L. (2003). The relation between work-family balance and quality of life. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63(3), 510–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenhaus, J. H. and Singh, R. (2003) Work-family linkages, a Sloan work and family encyclopedia entry. http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/encyclopedia_entry.php?id=263&area=All.

  • Hall, P. A., & Soskice, D. (Eds.) (2001). Varieties of capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammermesh, D. S., & Lee, J. (2007). Stressed out on four continents: Time crunch or yuppie kvetch? Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(2), 374–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J. A., & Gerson, K. (2004). The time divide: Work, family and gender inequality. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jowell, R., Roberts, C., Fitzgerald, R., & Eva, G. (2007). Measuring attitudes cross-nationally. Lessons from the European social survey. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, J. (1992). Gender and the development of welfare regimes. Journal of European Social Policy, 3, 159–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacInnes, J. (2006). Work-life balance in Europe: A response to the baby bust or reward for the baby boomers? European Societies, 8(2), 223–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGinnity, F., & McManus, P. (2007). Paying the price for reconciling work and family life: Comparing the wage penalty for mother's part-time work in Britain, Germany and the United States. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis on ‘Work-Family Reconciliation Policies in High-Employment Economies: Policy Designs and their Consequences’, edited by Janet Gornick. Vol. 9, No. 2.

  • OECD. (2001). Balancing work and family life: Helping parents into paid employment. In OECD (Ed.), OECD employment outlook (pp. 129–166). Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell, P. J., McGinnity, F., & Russell, H. (2003). Working time flexibility in Ireland. In J. O’Reilly (Ed.), Regulating working time transitions in Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Reilly, J. (2003). Introduction. In J. O’Reilly (Ed.), Regulating working time transitions in Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paugam, S. (1998). Poverty and social exclusion. A sociological view. In Y. Meny & M. Rhodes (Eds.), The future of European welfare. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plantenga, J., & Remery, C. (2005). Reconciliation of work and private life: A comparative review of thirty European countries. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, European Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, J. P., & Godbey, G. (1997). Time for life: The surprising ways Americans use their time. USA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scherer, S., & Steiber, N. (2007). Work and family conflict? the impact of work demands on family life. In D. Gallie (Ed.), Employment regimes and the quality of working life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, B., & Waite, L. (2005). Being together, working apart: Dual-earner families and work-life balance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schor, J. (1991). The overworked American: The unexpected decline of leisure. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shavit, Y., & Müller, W. (1998). In Y. Shavit & W. Müller (Eds.), From school to work. A comparative study of qualification and occupations in thirteen countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strandh, M., & Nordenmark, N. (2006). The interference of paid work with household demands in different social policy contexts: perceived work-household conflict in Sweden, the UK, The Netherlands, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The British Journal of Sociology., 57(4), 597–617.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor-Gooby, P. (2008). The new welfare state settlement in Europe. European Societies, 10(1), 3–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomlinson, J. (2007). Employment regulation, welfare and gender regimes: A comparative analysis of women’s working-time patterns and work-life balance in the UK and the US. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(3), 401–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Lippe, T., Jager, A., & Kops, Y. (2006). Combination pressure: The paid work-family balance of men and women in European countries. Acta Sociologica, 49(3), 303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, M., Hill, S., McGovern, P., Mills, C., & Smeaton, D. (2003). ‘High-performance’ management practices, working hours and work-life balance. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41(2), 175–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This paper was produced as part of the economic change, quality of life and social cohesion (EQUALSOC) network of excellence, funded by the European Commission (DG Research) as part of the sixth framework programme. See editors’ introduction for further details. The authors wish to thank all the project participants for their helpful input, and in particular, Vanessa Gash, for her comments on an early draft. Thanks also to Helen Russell, for sharing her programmes for manipulating ESS data. This paper received constructive comments when presented at the RC28 Spring Meeting in Florence, May 2008: the authors are also grateful to the referees of Social Indicators Research for their helpful comments and criticisms. Special thanks to Chris Whelan for his insightful comments, and his engagement as editor of the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economic and Social Research Institute, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Frances McGinnity & Emma Calvert

Authors
  1. Frances McGinnity
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Emma Calvert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frances McGinnity.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 4 and 5.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

McGinnity, F., Calvert, E. Work-Life Conflict and Social Inequality in Western Europe. Soc Indic Res 93, 489–508 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9433-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9433-2

Keywords

  • Work-life conflict
  • Work-life balance
  • Social class
  • European social survey
  • Comparative research