THE CONSEQUENCES OF CARING - EXPLORING THE LINKS BETWEEN WOMENS JOB AND FAMILY EMOTION WORK

Sociologists of emotion have examined the ways that workers are requir ed to manage their emotions on the job, while studies of family emotio n work reveal the effort involved in providing emotional support at ho me. Analyzing data collected from married or cohabiting women hospital workers, we examine the relations between women's job and family emot ion work and the effects of both on women's job-related well-being. Co nsistent with ''scarcity'' views of women's emotional energy, we find that performance of family emotion work has negative consequences for women's job-related well-being. Consistent with ''expansion'' perspect ives, however, women who perform some emotional labor on the job are m ore likely than other women to perform family emotion work Our finding s support a view that incorporates elements of both scarcity and expan sion perspectives. We conclude that the job-related well-being of wome n hospital workers is less influenced by performance of emotional labo r at work than it is by women's and their partners' involvement in fam ily emotion work.