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This paper aims to explore how couples reflect gender role–related attitudes in their family formation process and whether these processes could be described through the lens of ambivalence. Using qualitative methods, semi-structured interviews with Estonian married and cohabiting couples were conducted (all together 24 interviewees). Analysis revealed themes of ambivalence toward gender roles among married and cohabiting couples. The present study could be classified as exploratory in identifying ambivalence, with open-ended and emergent analysis.

It is known that Estonians have adopted Western values and their family behavior resembles that of Nordic countries. However, our interviews showed that on the level of the individual, gender role–related attitudes in relationships have remained traditional. The reason for this might lie in the rapid change of values that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Western lifestyle was seen as an ideal, and copied in behavior before the actual family or gender role values could undergo the transformation needed to support egalitarian family values.

Our study reveals that the societal context of a rapid change in values and norms might create confusion and ambivalence in attitudes. Therefore, a high proportion of cohabiting couples might not be the product of egalitarian gender role–related attitudes but a product of ambivalent couple relations where the couple has not discussed thoroughly the vision and expectations they have for each other and their relationship.

This qualitative study explores college students’ gender schemas. Sandra Bem’s pioneering work on sex roles and gender schemata are highlighted.

Over 600 college students at a diverse southeastern university were asked to describe the advantages and disadvantages to men’s and women’s gender. Although the question was framed broadly, students devoted significant attention to issues surrounding work and family, highlighting the importance of these roles to their understanding of gender. Over 6,800 responses were coded in The Ethnograph software.

The results showed a gendered schema among these students, with gendered views of work and family, in which men are associated with work and women largely with family. Some racial patterns are also discussed.

This chapter ends with a discussion on how the gender schemas expressed support and maintained a separation of work and family.

This study explores the interplay between macro- and micro-level predictors of psychological well-being related to work and family. We use nations as the context and investigate how country-level gender equalities and gender norms affect individual well-being and its relationship to micro-level predictors.

Social role explanations suggest that women’s vulnerability in mental health is due to socially assigned gender roles and gendered socialization. We utilize multi-level modeling and data from the International Social Survey Programme 2002, to examine how the societal level gender climate impacts the effects of gender roles on psychological well-being for married and employed men and women in 33 countries.

Gender differences in mental health remain, but larger differences are observed in less egalitarian countries regarding gender. Also, caring roles are negatively associated with women’s psychological well-being to a greater degree than men’s, and the negative impacts are stronger in more egalitarian countries. Furthermore, men show lower well-being regarding work responsibility, but the gender effects are weaker in more egalitarian countries.

Our psychological well-being is affected not only by the actual role behaviors but also by how we each perceive these roles.

This study provides a broader picture of the relationship between gender and psychological well-being related to work and family. It also illustrates complex relationships between macro-level gender climate and individual-level psychological well-being and how structural differences may impact individual outcomes.

The importance of succession in family business is well documented and there is general agreement that successful succession represents a key factor in the success or otherwise of individual businesses owned and run by families. The importance of gender in family business succession is a much more recent topic, where initial work has focussed very much on the increasing tendency for women to take on the family business as a successor. Far less research, however, considers the scenario where a female leader passes on the business, whether that takes the form of family succession, a new leader from out with the family or indeed business sale. This dearth of research is not entirely surprising: whilst female leaders in a family business context are not new, their numbers have been relatively small and often mediated through the lens of co-preneurship with a male partner. As women increasingly succeed to and found family businesses however, the gender dimension within family business succession develops and the research response forms the basis for this chapter.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the part that gender roles play in fathers’ work-family experiences. The authors compared two models (gender role as a correlate and as a moderator) and hypothesized that gender role beliefs play an important factor related to fathers’ experiences of work-family conflict.

Participants completed an online survey that consisted of questions related to work and family experiences. The final sample consisted of 264 employed, married fathers.

Results showed a relationship between traditional gender role beliefs and number of hours spent at work and at home. Additionally, number of work hours was related to time-based work-to-family conflict, but not strain-based work-to-family conflict. The results supported the expectation that work hours mediate the relationship between a father's traditional gender role beliefs and time-based work-to-family conflict.

Limitations of this study include the use cross-sectional and self-report data. Future research might want to expand the theoretical model to be more inclusive of fathers of more diverse demographic backgrounds, and assess the model with a longitudinal design.

A key theoretical implication gleaned from the study is that work-family researchers should include the socially constructed variable of gender roles in their work-family research. Findings provide support for the contention that organizations need to ensure that mothers’ and fathers’ unique needs are being met through family-friendly programs. The authors provide suggestions for specific workplace strategies.

This is one of the first studies that focussed on fathers’ experiences of the work-family interface. The results clarify that traditional gender role beliefs give rise to fathers’ gendered behaviors and ultimately work-family conflict.

This study aims to fulfill the need to explore positive side of work–family interface, especially in emerging economies like India. The authors assessed the relationships of individual (family role salience), organizational (work–family culture) and social (community support) antecedents to work-to-family enrichment. They also examined whether gender moderated the relationship between the three antecedents and work-to-family enrichment.

Data were collected on a questionnaire scale from 487 employees.

It has been found that family role salience, supportive work-family culture and community support were directly related to work-to-family enrichment. Gender did not influence the relationship between work-family culture and work-to-family enrichment. However, relationships between family role salience and work-to-family enrichment, and between community support and work-to-family enrichment, were stronger in case of the male employees. The evolving nature of gender and integration of work-family-community domain provide insights into managers and policymakers about the importance of family and community in the organizations.

The study builds a business case for facilitating a positive work-family culture in India for both male and female employees. The results point to the transitioning socio-cultural scenario of India, which advocates more similarities than differences in modern gender role expectations and identity. The current study emphasizes that while formulating policy, managers and policymakers should keep in mind evolving preferences of both the genders.

The research provides a holistic view of how individual-, organizational- and social-level factors may affect employees’ work–family enrichment in India. It also highlights the changing role of gender. Theoretical and practical limitations are also discussed.

Difficulties in defining stepfamily roles remain an important issue for its members. A potentially important factor in defining roles in the family is the identification with a particular gender type and how it relates to one's expectations about one's place in the family system. The purpose of this paper is to explore how gender typing processes inform our understanding of the stepmother role construction process, and its link with stepfamily adjustment.

Semi‐structured interview data from six androgynous and six feminine stepmothers were selected based on gender type identification.

Results from this analysis were analyzed using a phenomenological approach, and are presented with the intent to explore how gender typing processes inform our understanding of the stepmother role construction process, and its link with stepfamily adjustment.

Gender typing has not been studied in the context of stepmother families, even though research on stepmothers’ adjustment has highlighted the ambiguous nature of their role in the stepfamily. Additionally, while qualitative inquiry continues to represent the favoured paradigm in the emerging area of stepmother research, studies of this type remain limited in scope.

This paper explores masculinity ideologies which influence family perspectives, and therefore, instigate mental distress among Black and White men between the ages of 18–30.

Using a grounded theory approach, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the social construction of masculinity and investigate the ways in which gender ideologies influence family gender roles.

Black men’s gender ideology was influenced by racial identity and stressed a communal and collaborative identity which can be seen by the reliance on religion and maintaining family financial stability. White employed a pragmatic, individual perspective that emphasized individual behavior in a changing society. They embraced evolving discourses necessary to cope with changing family structure and refocused attention from family of origin conflict.

Though this is a qualitative study, it does provide a starting point for further research on how the family roles of Black and White men affect their mental health.

Few studies have employed a racial comparison research design to investigate mental distress associated with gender ideologies. The paper suggests that moving forward will require, as Black men suggested, adopting a critical racial sociology of gender that emphasizes processes and social structure. Analyzing manhood acts through the lens of social marginality, identity work to claim membership in the male group, and the identification of characteristics to maintain male privileges vis-à-vis women may prove to be useful. Focusing on process allows an exploration of social forces that influence masculinity, gendered household ideologies, and mental health.

This paper aims to examine the role of the spouse, specifically the husband, for the woman manager's career by focusing on the gender role construction between spouses, and the relationship of these roles to the woman's career.

The topic was investigated within a Finnish context by analyzing the narratives of 29 female managers. A common feature among the women was their managerial position and extensive work experience. All the women had or had had one or more spouses in the course of their careers, and all but one were mothers, mostly of teenage or adult children.

A typology distinguishing five types of spouses was constructed: determining, supporting, instrumental, flexible, and counterproductive. The results suggest that fluidity in gender roles between spouses is associated with the woman manager's sense of success and satisfaction in her career compared with more conventional gender role construction. It seems that traditional gender roles between spouses can be one reason for women's difficulties in attaining (top) managerial positions in Finland.

The study contributes to the prior literature concerning the work‐family relationship by extending research into an area so far overlooked: namely, the role of the spouse in relation to the woman manager's career. The study calls into question the straightforward and unequivocal view of the family – so typical in discussions about work‐family issues – by showing the many different meanings that women managers attach to one of the family members.

Drawing on the role theory and work–family border theory, this study aims to examine the relationship between work/family demands and sui generis forms of work–family conflict and further investigates the gender role ideology as a moderator of the relationship between work/family demands and work–family conflict.

The data were garnered with a self-reported questionnaire from randomly selected 569 employees working in the banking sector. As a caveat, nonresponse bias, common method variance and the reliability and validity of the measure were examined.

The results revealed that work demand and family demand were strongly related to both time- and strain-based work–family conflict; however, the relationship was not established with behavioural-based conflict. Notably, the findings affirmed the existence of a neglected form of psychological-based work–family conflict as the pièce de résistance and established a strong connection with its precursor. The dogma of gender role ideology, as a moderator, was indubitably confirmed and strengthened the positive relationship between family demand and family-to-work conflict.

The present study emphasises the importance of work/family demands and gender role ideology on work–family conflict. Consequently, it behoves human resource managers, strategists and practitioners to frame the organisational arrangements to alleviate the work–family conflict.

The present study fills a hiatus by establishing the relationship between work/family demand and work–family conflict with its cultural beliefs in the context of a collectivist culture.