Gender Difference in Work Life Balance among College Teachers

INTRODUCTION

Teaching profession is considered to be the noblest profession compared to any other profession. A teacher is considered to be the second parent, and parents are considered to be first teachers. A teacher‘s role is very important in moulding the student‘s personality. As Ever Garrison quotes ―A Teachers is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge and wisdom in the pupils‖, which make us think how important a teaching profession is and how important a teacher is. For a teacher to give best in his/her career there must be well balanced family and professional life which is otherwise termed as work life balance. In today‘s situation work life balance is a mandate for every class of employee. Work life balance is a great need for a teacher to raise his/her productivity level as a teachers, stability and job satisfaction, which may motivate the teacher to be more committed to their institution. The concept work life balance has been studied widely in diverse professional sectors, including teaching professional (Lindquist, Misra & O‘Meara, 2012; Quinn & Litzler, 2009). Positive work-life balance is commonly depicted among professionals as involving achievement, enjoyment, and satisfaction with the amount and quality of time spent on each commitment; living in congruence with personal values (Beeny et al., 2005; Jyothi & Jyothi, 2012). Kuther (2003) in his study found that when an individual does not have good work life balance, diminished effectiveness and personal detriment can occur, in one if not all three areas of focus: career, family, and personal interest, which is also associated with high turnover rate (Strayhorn, 2009). Grube, Cedarholm, Jones, and Dunn (2005) in their study among graduate students and young professionals indicated that young people make personal sacrifices for career achievement which is long run leads to lead to professional burnout, subsequently contributing to the poor retention rates among entry-level professionals. Many researchers are of the opinion that there are gender differences in coping with family issues. Studies by (Hyman and Summers 2004) indicates that women employees continue to face difficulties in balancing these two forces. Study by Jenkins (2000) made an attempt to explain that issues pertaining to child rearing and caring needs more time and energy and may have to balance multiple roles etc which can have negative impact on health and family relationships. Researchers are also of opinion that work based support to women is positively associated with job satisfaction, organisational commitment and career accomplishment (Marcinkus et al. 2007). The concept of work from home is viewed to be more flexible and independent, but the same this is not applicable to teaching profession as the physical presence of a teacher is very much needed in classroom teaching. Unfortunately these teachers are not free even at home as their profession requires them to work in their non working hours also such as preparing for the class, correction of assignment and internal papers etc.

There is gender difference is perception of varied role in professional and personal life. Men are satisfied with their personal accomplishment at work even at the cost of ignoring family. Whereas women consider both family life and work life to be equal and feels that both are the sources of her satisfaction. When work does not permit women to take care of their family, they feel unhappy, disappointed and frustrated. They draw tight boundaries between work and family and they do not like one crossing the other (Burke 2002). Researchers have indicated that the perception of work life balance is observed to be different across genders (Connell 2005; Smithson and Stokoe 2005; Duxbury and Higgins 1991). Since work-life balance is important as it may impact both personal life as well professional life the present study is initiated. The main aim of present study is to know the gender difference in work life balance among the college teachers.

1. To Study the work life balance of the teaching professionals. 2. To Study the gender difference in work life balance of the teaching professionals.

HYPOTHESES:

H1:- There is no significant differs on work life balance index among male and female college teachers.

Sample selected for the current research consisted of 90 male and 90 female college teachers aged between 30 to 60 years of age from various colleges of Bengaluru city.

Tools Used 1. Information schedule: to obtain information about participating subjects pertaining to age, gender, present health, economic status, marital status, length of service, type

If it is not true gets the score of - 0, If it is little true gets the score of - 1, If it is somewhat true gets the score of - 2, If it is fairly true gets the score of - 3 If it is definitely true gets the score of – 4, Test items with starred items (*) are scored in reverse order wherein (0 becomes 4. 4 become 0, 1 becomes 3, 3 becomes 1, and 2 remains 2), each row needs to be added and then multiplied by 4.17 and the total score range from 0 to 100 which fetch the work life balance index. Procedure The Information schedule and Work Life Balance scale were administered on a sample of 180 teaching professionals of various colleges of Bengaluru city. The researcher explained the natures of questionnaires, clarified the doubts of the subjects and before administering the test confidentiality of the results was assured with the subjects. The collected data was tabulated and analyzed with the help of SPSS software using appropriate statistical techniques and hypotheses were verified. The analysis of data has been presented under following tables:

Independent sample t test, accordingly the mean score of Male teachers are 76.67 with the SD being 10.61, the mean scores of Female teachers are 77.98 with the SD being 13.93. The ‗t‘ value obtained for Male and Female participants on work life balance index is (t= -.710; P=.479) found to be not significant indicating that there is no significant differences between Male and Female teachers in their Work Life Balance Index.

Figure 1 shows the Graphical representation of mean scores of work life balance index. As per the mean scores female teachers are little higher in work life balance index and can be able to maintain both work, family and their personal life compared to male, however there is no statistically significant gender difference is observed among the selected sample.

• No significant gender difference was identified among college teachers. The present study aimed at studying the gender difference among college teachers in work life balance index. From the above results it was evident that male and female had demonstrated high work life balance and there is no significant difference in the mean scores on total work life balance index indicating there is no difference in the perception of work life balance among college teachers. Traditionally work life balance was been studied pertaining to women folk, but at present the complete scenario has been shifted (Evans, Carney, & Wilkinson, 2013), the probable reasons for the same is the rise of dual-career families which require shifts in parental, household, and partnership responsibilities (Higgins, Duxbury, & Lyons, 2010). Researcher are of opinion that men urges to find balance and become more involved in personal life and commitments which they consider to be a great priority (Aumann, Galinsky, & Matos, 2011; conversation among women. But men also need to juggle between professional life and social pressure, financial demands, personal values and responsibilities (Aumann et al., 2011; Evans et al., 2013) which make us think that men also struggling hard to maintaining balance between professional life and personal life which talks about maintaining equilibrium in work life balance. The empirical evidences suggests that a positive, family-friendly, supportive organizational culture is associated with higher work performance and satisfaction among both men and women and maintaining work life balance (Turrentine, 2005). The more the employee finds work life balance, the more they find satisfaction, personal well being and improvement in quality of work (Baturke, 2010). Thus there were lot many researches which supported the present study as well contradicted the present study. With the present study we can conclude that both men and women are equal in their perception of work life balance and maintaining equilibrium is equally important in their life.

• In concluding, the present research showed that concept of work life balance needs to be understood among both men and women. • Both men and women are equal in their perception of work life balance. • The current research provides the insight to carry the further investigation in work life balance in terms of age wise comparison as well comparing varied occupation.

Aumann, K., Galinsky, E., & Matos, K. (2011). Families and Work Institute national study of the changing workforce: The new male mystique. Retrieved from http://familiesandwork.org/site/research/reports/newmalemystique.pdf Beeny, C., Guthrie, V. L., Rhodes, G. S., & Terrell, P. S. (2005). Personal and professional balance among senior student affairs officers: Gender differences in approaches and expectations. The College Student Affairs Journal, 24(2), pp. 137-151. Burke, R. J. (2002). Organizational values, job experiences and satisfaction among managerial and professional women and men: Advantage men? Women in Management Review 17 (5): pp. 5–6.

40 (3): pp. 369–383. Duxbury, L. E., and C. A. Higgins (1991). Gender differences in work family conflict. Journal of Applied Psychology 76 (1): pp. 60–73. Duckworth, J. D., & Buzzanell, P M. (2009). Constructing work-life balance and fatherhood: Men's framing of the meanings of both work and family. Communication Studies, 60(5), pp. 558-573. Evans, A. M., Carney, J. S., & Wilkinson, M. (2013). Work-life balance for men: Counseling implications. Journal of Counseling and Development, 91(4), pp. 436-441. Grube, S. A., Cedarholm, K., Jones, C., & Dunn, M. (2005). Master's student life: The balance between student and professional. The College Student Affairs Journal, 24(2), pp. 152-161. Hayman, J., & Rasmussen, E. (2013). Gender, caring, part time employment and work/life balance. Employment Relations Record, 13(1), pp. 45-58. Higgins, C. A., Duxbury, L. E., & Lyons, S. T. (2010). Coping with overload and stress: Men and women in dual-earner families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(4), pp. 847-859. Hyman, J., C. Baldry, D. Scholarios, and D. Bunze. 2003. Work-life imbalance in the new service sector economy. British Journal of Industrial Relations 41 (2): pp. 41–55. Hyman, J., and J. Summers. 2004. Lacking balance. Personal Review 33(4): pp. 418–429. Jenkins, M. P. 2000. Work and family in the 1990s. Journal of Marriage and Family 62 (4): pp. 981–989. Jyothi, S. V., & Jyothi, P. (2012). Assessing work-life balance: From emotional intelligence and role efficacy of career women. Advances in Management, 5(6), pp. 35-43. Kuther, L. (2003) Teaching the teacher: Ethical issues in graduate student teaching. College Student Journal, 37(2), pp. 219-224. Lindquist, J. H., Misra, J., & O‘Meara, K. (2012). Parental leave usage by fathers and mothers at an American university. Fathering, 10, pp. 337-363. outcomes of midlife women. Women in Management Review 22 (2): pp. 86–111. McClellan, M. (2005).When you die, your inbox will be full. The College Student Affairs Journal, 24(2), pp. 207-211. Quinn, K., & Litzler, E. (2009). Turning away from academic careers: What does work-family have to do with it? Journal about Women in Higher Education, 2(1), pp. 66-90. Smithson, J., and E. H. Stokoe. 2005. Discourses of work-life balance: Negotiating ‗genderblind‘ terms in organizations. Gender, Work and Organization 12 (2): pp. 147–168. Strayhorn, T.L. (2009). Staff peer relationships and the socialization process of new professionals: A quantitative investigation. The College Student Affairs Journal, 28(1), pp. 38-60. Turrentine, C. (2005). "Just the way it is" in student affairs - But not the way it has to be. The College Student Affairs Journal, 24(2), pp. 212-215. Valcour, M., and L. W. Hunter. 2005. Technology, organizations, and work-life integration. In Work and life integration: Organizational, cultural and individual perspectives, ed. E. E. Kossek and S. J. Lambert, pp. 61–84. Mahwah, n j: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Bangalore University, Bengaluru