Preferences Regarding Reconciliation of Family and Professional Life Versus Reality

An increasing amount of research suggests that a substantial proportion of men, and of women in particular, experience conflict between work and family roles. How these roles are combined and priorities as to how they should be combined to improve the quality of family and working life have not been fully explored, especially not within an international framework. In the present contribution, the differences between actual and desired working hours arrangements among both men and women in selected PPAS countries are studied and compared with their current and preferred additional numbers of children. Additionally, current and preferred working hours arrangements are analysed by individuals’ socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics. The results indicate that both actual and preferred employment is influenced by respondents’ actual and additionally expected numbers of children, however differently for men and women. The gender, age and education of the respondents have been proven to be significant determinants of actual and preferred working arrangements, whereas the respondents’ attitudinal characteristics did not reveal a uniform picture of influence among countries.