UCLA

The study explored the challenges of work-life balance for women over the life course. Past research documents that childcare responsibilities impact women’s labor force participation, thereby affecting women’s ability to pursue careers and reach the upper limits of their earning potential. Factors of compensating differentials—schedule flexibility, necessity of overtime work, substitutability—were also identified as a contributing factor limiting women’s earnings over their lifetime stemming from adjustments to work to accommodate family. Levels of work-family conflict and enrichment—as a function of parenting preference and compensating differentials—were analyzed to explore (1) why the trajectory of women’s careers stall despite having parity with men at the start of their careers and (2) what contemporary factors might contribute to challenges for women to balance work and family. Online survey data were collected using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were married mothers of young childreniii working 35 hours or more (n = 242). Regression analyses suggest that mothers with higher preference for indirect parenting experienced higher levels of enrichment and mothers whose jobs had lower levels of compensating differentials (e.g., inflexible schedules) experienced higher levels of time-based conflict (in the work-family interface).