BALANCING HOME AND EMPLOYMENT - STRESS REPORTED BY SOCIAL-SERVICES STAFF

The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how stress from th e combined responsibilities of home and employment varies according to the family circumstances and employment characteristics of women and men. For women, family responsibilities are associated with shorter ho urs of employment and lower occupational achievement, whereas for men, marriage is a career asset. Yet the reason for women's underachieveme nt is disputed: some researchers claim that women's part-time work in low-paid, low-status jobs represent women's voluntary choice. Others a rgue that women's employment options are constrained by their domestic responsibilities; and that reducing hours of work and modifying caree r aspirations may represent one way of balancing home and employment s o as to minimise stress. Data are used from the National Institute of Social Work (NISW) Workforce Survey of over 1000 women and men in four broad types of work in the social service departments of five English local authorities. Information is available on staff's perception of stress from combining paid and unpaid roles. We examine whether there are gender differences in reported stress among those who have structu rally similar domestic circumstances; whether gender differences in st ress can be explained in terms of occupational segregation and hours o f employment; and whether the lower stress reported by part-time emplo yees is independent of family responsibilities and type of occupation. A key concern is to assess whether part-time employment enables women with family responsibilities to avoid high levels of stress. There wa s increased stress on those staff with dependent children or with info rmal caring commitments. Men reported higher stress than women, irresp ective of family circumstances, but the difference disappeared once ac count was taken of type of work and hours. Family responsibilities and employment characteristics had independent effects on stress levels. Type of work, in terms of level of responsibility, had more influence on stress than hours worked. Among full-time non-manual staff, women w ith family responsibilities experienced more stress than equivalent me n, suggesting that women's occupational advancement is achieved at gre ater cost in terms of stress than men's.