Society is broadly divided into two groups, male and female, and each group has a different context in which the members function and attach different meanings to various things. Cultural practices vary and so do the role expectations from different genders. For example, expectations in many cultures indicate that men are, by nature, more aggressive than women. Although some issues at work are thought to be either of women or of men, the longstanding interest to look into the work-life concerns of female and male managers remains strong among researchers, academicians and HR professionals. A contemporary area that attracts attention is work-life balance.
Looking at work-life balance, Komarovsky (1982) stated that combining paid work along with family responsibilities became a viable option for a majority of women in the USA in the 1970s. This held true for women especially those from low-income, farm and minority backgrounds.
Bharat (2003) stated that demographic changes in organizational profiles are evident by increasing the number of women in the workplace and generation of dual career families, leading to increasingly diverse workforce and a greater need for employees to balance their work and family life. Holter (2007) suggested that the process of change with respect to gender relations usually begins at home and gets transferred to the workplace.
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