Work-family conflict and well-being across Europe : The role of gender context

This study analysed whether gender context is important to differences in therelationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and well-being across Europe. Wehypothesised that in countries that support equality in work life and where norms supportwomen’s employment, the relationship between WFC and low well-being is weaker than incountries with less support for gender equality. Cohabiting men and women aged18–65 years from 25 European countries were selected from the European Social Survey.A multilevel analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between well-being andWFC, and two measurements were used to represent gender context: gender equality inwork life and norms regarding women’s employment. Contrary to the hypothesis, theresults showed that the negative relationship was stronger in countries with high levels ofgender equality in work life and support for women’s employment than in countries with arelatively low level of gender equality in work life and support for traditional genderrelations. The context in which gender is constructed may be important when studying therelationship between WFC and well-being. In addition, emphasis should be placed onpolicies that equalise both the labour market and the work performed at home