Balancing Work and Family: Promoting Equitable Responsibilities to Support Organizational Performance
- Jonathan H. Westover, PhD
- 23 hours ago
- 6 min read
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Abstract: Despite women's increasing participation in the workforce, research consistently shows they continue to bear disproportionate responsibility for caregiving and emotional labor within families compared to men. This persistent imbalance creates significant challenges for women's career advancement and for organizations seeking to retain female talent. The article examines how this gendered division of domestic labor negatively impacts both individual employees and organizational outcomes, providing evidence that women spend substantially more time on childcare and housework than men, even when both partners work full-time. These disparities contribute to motherhood wage penalties, reduced career opportunities, and higher attrition rates for women in the workplace. The article concludes by offering practical recommendations for organizations to promote more equitable sharing of family responsibilities across genders, including flexible work arrangements, comprehensive family leave policies, manager training, and addressing implicit biases—strategies that can simultaneously improve work-life integration for employees and enhance organizational performance.
Existing research indicates that women continue to assume greater responsibilities for caregiving and emotional support within the family compared to men, even as more women take on full-time roles in the workforce. This imbalance poses challenges both for women's careers and for organizations seeking to retain female talent. By promoting more equitable sharing of domestic responsibilities between all genders, organizations can both support their employees' work-life integration and enhance their own performance outcomes.
Today we will explore the research findings on gender differences in work and family balance, examine the impacts on organizations and employees, and offer practical recommendations to promote fairer distribution of caregiving duties across genders.
Research on Gender Differences in Work and Family Balance
A wealth of studies have documented that women continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of family responsibilities compared to men, even when both partners work full-time. For example:
National survey data shows that employed mothers spend an average of 13 hours per week on childcare and housework, compared to only 8 hours for employed fathers (Parker and Wang, 2013).
A meta-analysis of time-diary studies across 16 countries found that domestic chores were twice as likely to be performed by women as by men, even when both partners work similar hours (Kan et al., 2011).
Qualitative research interviews have found that many working mothers feel the need to be "always on call" to juggle childcare and other family needs on top of their paid work, while fathers do not always share this sense of responsibility (Damaske et al., 2014).
This unequal distribution of caregiving duties holds even when factors like income, education, and number of children are controlled for (Sayer et al., 2009). The research suggests this imbalance stems from entrenched gender norms that socialize women into the primary caregiver role from an early age.
Impacts on Organizations and Employees
This inequitable division of labor at home has ramifications both for employees and their employers. For women workers specifically:
Imbalanced family responsibilities contribute to the persistent "motherhood wage penalty," where employed mothers earn 4-7% less than childless women, even after controlling for other factors (Budig and England, 2001).
The difficulty of integrating work and extensive family duties pushes many highly-trained working mothers to scale back careers, shift to more flexible jobs with lower earnings, or leave the workforce altogether (Stone, 2007).
For organizations, the unequal distribution of family labor:
Negatively impacts female employee retention, as women disproportionately reduce hours or exit the workforce due to caregiving pressures (Heisz, 2019).
Incurs replacement costs when experienced female talent is lost. Retaining and training new staff requires substantial investment from employers (Allen et al., 2010).
Has implications for organizational diversity, as reducing attrition of female employees is key to advancing gender balance in leadership (Groysberg and Abrahams, 2014).
Clearly, promoting equitable sharing of responsibilities at home stands to benefit both individual employees and organizational performance outcomes. Employers have a stake in supporting work-life balance for all genders.
Recommendations for Organizations
Based on this evidence, organizations can take proactive steps to foster fairer divisions of labor between partners and promote work-life integration for employees of all genders. Some recommendations include:
Offer Flexible Work Arrangements for All
Flexible schedules, teleworking options, and job shares can help both mothers and fathers balance responsibilities at home in an equitable way. Clearly communicating that flexible policies apply to all genders can discourage stigma.
Provide Paid Family Leave for All Caregiving Needs
Paid parental leave benefits should be inclusive of all types of caregiving, such as caring for children or elderly parents. This normalizes the idea that caregiving is shared by all.
Train Managers on Equitable Flexible Use
Ensure managers understand the importance of supporting work-life balance for employees of all genders and discourage assumptions that caregiving is "women's work." Track granting of flexible arrangements by gender.
Educate Employees on Equitable Divisions at Home
Offer workshop seminars, reading materials, or discussion groups on research findings and changing social norms around equitable sharing of family duties between partners. Encourage male allies.
Track and Address Implicit Biases
Assess hiring, evaluations, promotions and attrition rates by gender; address unconscious biases that may disadvantage women due to imbalance at home through speaker series or training programs.
Family-Friendly Benefits that Encourage Partnership
Offer enhanced parental leave, backup childcare benefits, eldercare resources or reimbursement for housework services to encourage all partners to value and participate in family responsibilities.
Leading by Example with Equitable Partnerships
Senior leaders and managers can model equitable division of parental duties through transparent communication, participating in organizational initiatives, and including family responsibilities in discussions of career paths.
Specific Industry Examples
Some companies that have successfully implemented policies to promote equitable sharing of domestic duties include:
Microsoft offers five "matching weeks" of additional paid leave for non-birth partners, subsidized backup childcare, and tools to track gender balance in flextime/leave use. They have expanded their parental leave policies globally as best practices evolve (Gangitano, 2018).
Accenture offers new parents up to 12 weeks fully paid leave that can be taken anytime within the first year by any caregiving employee; they also provide subsidized child/eldercare, onsite centers, and confidential advisory services on family challenges (Accenture, 2021).
Unilever conducts implicit bias and stereotype workshops for managers to address assumptions, track the use of flexible arrangements and promotions by gender, and reports annually on progress toward gender-equal policies worldwide (Unilever, 2021).
Conclusion
Achieving true gender equality in the workplace requires addressing persistent imbalances in how responsibilities are distributed at home between partners. By implementing policies and initiatives to promote equitable sharing of caregiving duties, organizations can support work-life balance and retention of all talented employees. Empowering both women and men to value family responsibilities equally also stands to shift limiting social norms. Together, employers and employees can make progress toward gender parity by normalizing the idea that caregiving is a shared role benefiting all.
References
Accenture. (2021, February 23). Our global parental leave policy.
Allen, T. D., Herst, D. E. L., Bruck, C. S., & Sutton, M. (2000). Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: A review and agenda for future research. Journal of occupational health psychology, 5(2), 278.
Budig, M. J., & England, P. (2001). The wage penalty for motherhood. American sociological review, 204-225.
Damaske, S., Bratter, J. L., & Frech, A. (2017). Single mother families and employment, race, and poverty in changing economic times. Social Science Research, 62, 120-133.
Gangitano, A. (2018, September 25). How Microsoft changed its paid parental leave policy to boost gender equity. The Hill.
Groysberg, B., & Abrahams, R. (2014). Manage your work, manage your life. Harvard business review, 92(3), 58-66.
Heisz, A. (2019). The motherhood penalty in Canada: Age, educational attainment and direct/indirect effects. Canadian Studies in Population, 45(3-4), 75-96.
Kan, M. Y., Sullivan, O., & Gershuny, J. (2011). Gender convergence in domestic work: Discerning the effects of interactional and institutional barriers from large-scale data. Sociology, 45(2), 234-251.
Parker, K., & Wang, W. (2013, March 14). Modern parenthood: Roles of moms and dads converge as they balance work and family. Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project.
Sayer, L. C., England, P., Bittman, M., & Bianchi, S. M. (2009). How long is the second (plus first) shift? Gender differences in paid, unpaid, and total work time in Australia and the United States. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 40(4), 523-545.
Stone, P. (2007). Opting out?: Why women really quit careers and head home. University of California Press.
Unilever. (2021). Promoting fairness and inclusion.
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2025). Balancing Work and Family: Promoting Equitable Responsibilities to Support Organizational Performance. Human Capital Leadership Review, 19(4). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.19.4.2
