The Effect of Gender Role Orientation on Work Interference with Family (WIF) and Family Interference with Work (FIW) among Married Female Nurses in Shiraz-Iran

Abstract

The present study highlights the significance of gender role orientation as one of the most important individual factors on WIF and FIW. Furthermore, this paper also examines the effects of some of the essential personal backgrounds such as age, job experience and duration of marriage on WIF and FIW. This study consists of 198 married female nurses in Shiraz-Iran. The findings revealed that married female nurses who adopt more egalitarian gender role attitude are associated with higher WIF. Unlike previous studies, the finding also indicates that respondents who adopt a more egalitarian gender role attitude experienced higher FIW, which may be explained by the specific cultural context in Iran. This study also established that female nurses with older age, more years of job experience, and longer duration of marriage, perceived lower level of WIF and FIW. Implications are discussed and recommendations are made regarding future researches in this area.

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The Effect of Gender Role Orientation on Work Interference with
Family (WIF) and Family Interference with Work (FIW) among
Married Female Nurses in Shiraz-Iran
Hajar Namayandeh
Faculty of Human Ecology, University Putra Malaysia
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 60-1-7284-9205 E-mail: h_nemayandeh@yahoo.com
Siti Nor Yaacob
Faculty of Human Ecology,University Putra Malaysia
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 60-1-2284-1844 E-mail: sitinor@putra.upm.edu.my
Rumaya Juhari
Faculty of Human Ecology, University Putra Malaysia
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 60-1-9219-4429 E-mail: rumaya@putra.upm.edu.my
Abstract
The present study highlights the significance of gender role orientation as one of the most important individual
factors on WIF and FIW. Furthermore, this paper also examines the effects of some of the essential personal
backgrounds such as age, job experience and duration of marriage on WIF and FIW. This study consists of 198
married female nurses in Shiraz-Iran. The findings revealed that married female nurses who adopt more
egalitarian gender role attitude are associated with higher WIF. Unlike previous studies, the finding also
indicates that respondents who adopt a more egalitarian gender role attitude experienced higher FIW, which may
be explained by the specific cultural context in Iran. This study also established that female nurses with older age,
more years of job experience, and longer duration of marriage, perceived lower level of WIF and FIW.
Implications are discussed and recommendations are made regarding future researches in this area.
Keywords: Gender role orientation, Work interference with family (WIF), Family interference with work (FIW)
1. Introduction
For a long time it was the men who worked to make money while women took care of the household
responsibilities and accomplished the tasks of raising the children (Abbott, Wallace, & Tyler, 2005).However the
scenario has changed. Women’s participation in the workforce have increased all around the world (Davidson &
Burke, 2004). Davidson and Burke further noted that this increase has significantly effects families. Women’s
involvement in paid work contributed to the rise of dual-earner family and has become the norm in many
societies. These changes may impose some significant impact on women in implementing their roles at work
place and in the family.
Similar to western countries, Iranian society is also experiencing its socio-demographic changes in the workforce
(Karimi & Nouri, 2009). Over the years following the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, more and more women
continue to pursue formal education and to involve themselves in paid work (O'Shea, 1999).In reviewing
women's employment, the existing evidence showed that from 1956 to 1986, 9% of Iranian women were
employed (Iran: Statistics,1994).While in 2004, the Statistical Bureau of Iran (2004) documented that 79.5% of
women were employed. The increase in the number of women in the formal employment sector may be related

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more with an increase in the number of highly educated women and the need to enhance family economy due to
high cost of living (Karimi & Nouri, 2009) rather than a change in the traditional way of thought. This is because
the majority of Iranians is Muslims and still practiced traditional Islamic values that prescribe a sharp sexual
division of labor. Men are primarily breadwinners and women are the homemaker and child caretakers. In the
same line, Rastegarkhaled (2004) emphasized that Iranian women who already have their traditional function as
housewives, have to do additional responsibilities as an employee out of the home. In addition, Karimi and Nouri
(2009) also supported this notion when expressed that most of Iranian women are solely responsible for domestic
tasks, and at the same time have to bear pressures from both home and work responsibilities.
Nurses, like other female employees are faced with the demands of work and home responsibilities as their main
daily tasks. According to Ministry of Health, nurses in Iran are mainly women. As of 2009, it was reported that
79.5% of Iranian nurses are female (ISNA, 2009). Female nurses that work in a critical situation in hospitals
encounter higher conflict in their lives due to long hours of work per week, working overtime, high workloads,
time pressures, death and life situation of the patients, and stressful and demanding responsibilities
(Adibhajbagheri, Mehnosh & Fazlallah, 2004).
Working outside and inside the house formed two central domains in women’s life, and each domain contains its
own duties. According to Pleck (1977), work and family are two fundamental and interdependent systems for
dual-career life that inconsistency in any one system may consequently influence the other one as well. These
bidirectional influences of work and family can lead to two types of conflict, namely, work interference with
family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW).
Extensive researches have been carried out to investigate the WIF and FIW issues (e.g. Greenhaus, & Beutell,
1985; Bacharach, Bamberger, & Conley, 1991; Gignac, 1996; Anderson, Coffey, & Byerly, 2002;Voydanoff ,
2005;Richey-Strickland, 2006; Yildirim & Aycan, 2008;Namasivayam & Zhao, 2007; Karatepe & Bekteshi,
2008; Livingston,&Judge, 2008). Nevertheless, based on Karimi (2008) most of these studies were conducted in
Western countries and only a few in a Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran (e.g. Karimi, 2008). In addition, the
outcomes of the investigations in developed countries are not necessarily applicable to the developing countries
due to the influence of cultural beliefs (Aryee, 1992; Grzywacz et al., 2007). For instance, individuals from more
collectivistic cultures may experience fewer conflicts between work and family compare to those from
individualistic cultures (Grzywacz et al., 2007). Thus to illuminate this issue, it seems that more researches in
this area are needed particularly in Middle Eastern countries with different cultural backgrounds. Overall, the
present study intends to examine selected variables, which might disclose correlates of WIF and FIW among
married female nurses.
2. Gender Role Theory
Gender roles are shared cultural expectations which are performed by individuals based on their
socially-identified gender (Eagly & Karau, 1991; Kidder, 2002). Gender role theory suggests that ‘‘individuals
internalize cultural expectations about their gender because social pressures external to the individual favor
behavior consistent with their prescribed gender role” (Kidder, 2002, p. 630). People, normally apply such
expectations to characterize themselves and others; therefore, such factors lead individuals toward their own
individual and more general social identities. These categorizations play essential part on individuals’ lives and
relationships (Donaghue & Fallon, 2003;Williams, Consalvo, Caplan, & Yee, 2009). Gender role theory
proposes that women are encouraged to maintain relationships and be social and caring; hence society generally
avoids them to perform activities defined as masculine (Williams, Consalvo, Caplan, & Yee, 2009).
Gender role theory would be enhanced by the definition of the construct of gender role orientation (Lucke, 1998).
Gender role orientation is explained as a form of compliance with these expectations, or the degree to which one
identifies with the traditional conceptions (i.e., expectations) of his or her gender role (Livingston & Judge,
2008).The work and family domains have been traditionally described along gender lines. Thus it is important
and even critical to examine gender role attitude and its impact on WIF and FIW. Two points of view related to
gender role attitudes are traditional gender role orientation and egalitarian gender role orientation (MaCarthy,
1999).Traditional individuals prefer men to identify with the work sphere and women with the home sphere,
while those with egalitarian individuals believe that men and women should be equally acknowledge for their
participations both in work and home (Hochschild, 1989).
3. Gender Role Orientation and (WIF) and (FIW)
In this study, gender role orientation refers to the beliefs individuals hold about normal roles of men and women
in meeting family and work responsibilities (Harris & Firestone, 1998).A few researchers have confirmed the
correlation between gender role orientation with both WIF and FIW. According to an investigation by Kim and

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Ling (2001) a more egalitarian believe about gender role would help reduce family demand on married women
entrepreneur in Singapore. In another study, Livingston and Judge (2008) examined the emotional responses to
work–family conflict in relation to gender role orientation among men and women employees. The respondents
of the study were 196, in which 124 (63%) were women and 72 (37%) were men from a wide variety of jobs
from central Florida. The results showed that individuals who practiced more traditional gender roles
experienced a stronger relationship with FIW; while individuals who adopted more egalitarian gender roles
experienced a stronger positive relationship between (WIF). In another study, Ahmad (1999) examined the
relationship between husbands’ gender role orientation and wives’ work-family conflict among 125 pairs of
nurses and their husbands in dual-earner families. This study found a significant negative relationship between
husbands’ gender role orientation and wives’ work-family conflict. The result indicates that women whose
husbands hold more egalitarian orientation tend to experience less work-family conflict.
Somech and Drach-Zahavy (2007) examined strategies for coping with work-family conflict (W-FC) and the
distinctive contribution of gender role ideology. The respondents of the study were 266 employed parents
working in industrial, health care, education, and financial organizations in Israel. Somech and Drach-Zahavy
suggested that the effectiveness of coping styles (i.e., good enough at home, good enough at work, and
delegation at work) in reducing W-FC is related to socialization and gender role attitudes. In other words, gender
role attitude might influence the extent to which the preferred coping strategy is successful in reducing W-FC.
The results of the study by Somech and Drach-Zahavy showed those traditional women who believe that their
main role in life is to be mothers and wives, any coping strategy that allows them to meet their roles expectations
might be effective to lessen W-FC. Traditional women who use coping techniques that contradict their values
and beliefs (such as delegating some family duties to others) will experience greater W-FC. Similarly, women
who try to cope with the conflict by investing extra efforts at work may experience more W-FC.
The study by Somech and Drach-Zahavy (2007) also indicated that for nontraditional women, W-FC can be
effectively handled by lowering the performance of family responsibilities or delegating some of the family
activities to others. However, reducing the work performance leads to a higher level of W-FC among
nontraditional women. The more time one spends on roles associated with one domain, the less time is available
for other roles. Thus, working women might balance the demands from two domains by lowering their
performance at home or at work depending on their gender role attitude (Somech, & Drach-Zahavy, 2007).
As mentioned earlier, the study about WIF and FIW and gender role orientation is scarce especially in contexts
other than the advanced country. Livingston and Judge (2008) also put forth that the previous work-family
conflict research has not investigated gender role orientation specifically. The present paper intends to
investigate the association between gender role orientation with WIF and FIW among nurses in Shiraz-Iran.
4. Methodology
The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between personal background, such as age, job
experience, duration of marriage, and (WIF) and (FIW), among married female nurses in Shiraz-Iran. This study
also, attempts to examine the relationships between gender role attitude and (WIF) and (FIW).The population of
the study consists of 647 married female nurses in 13 public hospitals in Shiraz. There were four criteria
established for the selection of the population of this research; firstly, married female nurses who work for public
hospital; secondly, the married female nurses who live together with their husbands; thirdly, married female
nurses who have a minimum of 6 months job experience and have at least one child.
The method of data collection used was self-administered questionnaire and the study is correlation in nature.
The respondents were selected by using simple random sampling technique. Initially, the identified and eligible
sample size was n = 323 and approximately 198 questionnaires were returned. Pilot study was conducted before
the actual data collection to assess the adequacy of the questionnaire. In the present study, the Cronbach’s Alpha
for all measures used are mostly more than 0.70 indicating that the instruments are reliable to be used.
5. Measures
5.1 Work Interference with Family and Family Interference with Work
Work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW) scale developed by Netemeyer,
Bolesand McMurrian (1996) which consisted of 10 items was used to measure WIF and FIW. Responses were
obtained using a seven point Likert type scale where 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree. A sample item
from this scale is “The amount of time that my job takes up makes it difficult to fulfill family responsibilities”.
The scale score range from 7 to 35 with high score indicating a high level of perceived WIF and FIW. The
Cronbach’s Alpha estimate in the present study for WIF scale is .88 and for FIW is .95.

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5.2 Gender Role Orientation
A measure developed by Larsen and Long (1988) was used to assess gender role orientation. One item was
dropped from this scale because it was deemed to have sexual nature (women should have as much sexual
freedom as men). Thus, this study utilized only 19 items concerning traditional/egalitarian sex-roles. Responses
to the items are on a 5-point likert scale from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree. The scale score range
from 19 to 95 in which high score represents an egalitarian or contemporary gender role attitude and a low score
represents a traditional gender role attitude. The reliability Cronbach’s Alpha estimate for the scale in this study
is .76.
6. Results of the Study
Table 1 presents descriptive data which includes mean, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores and
categories of scores for all variables of the study. The respondents’ age ranged from 23 to 59 years old
(mean=36.50, standard deviation=7.15). Most of the participants (56.1%) are below 36.50 years old. More than
half of the respondents (56.1%) have been married for less than 11.68 years. Moreover, more than half of the
respondents (56.6%) have less than 12.49 years job experience.
The first question examined the relationship between age, job experience, duration of marriage and (WIF) and
(FIW). The finding from Pearson Correlation analyses showed that there were significant negative relationships
between the respondents’ age and WIF (r = - .219, p?.01) and FIW (r = -.144, p?.05). Likewise, the findings also
suggested that there were notable negative relationship between the respondents’ job experience and WIF (r =
-.218, p?.01) and FIW (r = -.170, p?.05). Furthermore, there were significant negative relationships between the
respondents’ duration of marriage with WIF (r = -.215, p?.01) and FIW (r = -.180, p?.05). The findings imply
that respondents with older age, more years of job experience and longer duration of marriage perceived lower
level of WIF and FIW.
The second question examined the extent of relationships between gender role orientation and WIF and FIW.
The results demonstrated that there was a significant positive relationship between the respondents’ gender role
orientation with WIF (r = .145, p?.05). It means that respondents who adopt more egalitarian gender role attitude
tend to experience higher work interference with family. The results also showed that there was a significant
positive relationships between gender role orientation and FIW (r= .144, p?.05). The finding indicates that
respondents who adopt a more egalitarian gender role attitude also experienced higher family interference with
work.
7. Discussion and Implications
This study aims to determine the influence of age, job experience, duration of marriage, and gender role attitude
on WIF and FIW among married female nurses in public hospitals in Shiraz-Iran. The current study established
that the respondents with older age experienced lower level of WIF and FIW. The results are consistent with
findings of past studies by Voydanoff (2005), Karatepe and Baddar (2006), Lambert, Hogan, Camp, and Ventura
(2006) and Yang et al. (2000) which have successfully recognized that respondents with older age perceived
lower level of WIF and FIW. The results also show that the respondents with more job experience perceived
lower level of WIF and FIW. The findings of this study are also in line with the previous research carried out by
Cinamon and Rich (2005) which revealed that teachers with less job experience demonstrated a significantly
higher level of family-work conflict and work-family conflict. In contrast, Zhao and Qu (2009) demonstrated no
significant relationships between work experience and work-family conflict and family-work conflict. Moreover,
the results prove that female nurses who have been married for longer duration demonstrated lower WIF and
FIW. These results are consistent with the rational view that the working women, with increasing age, gaining
more years of job experience and additionally after passing of a few years of marriage, are more stable and able
to develop strategies to prevent their family life from interfering with their work and also develop strategies to
prevent their work from interfering with their family life.
The result of the study also shows that more egalitarian gender role attitude is associated with an increase in WIF.
This direction of relationship is consistent with finding of past study by Livingston and Judge (2008) which
emphasized that individuals who espoused more egalitarian gender roles, experienced a stronger work
interference with family.
The finding also indicates that nurses with more egalitarian gender role attitude, reported higher FIW. This is
inconsistent with the finding by Livingston and Judge (2008) that particularly indicated that individuals who
adopt more traditional gender roles experienced a stronger family interference with work. The relationships
between gender role attitude with WIF and FIW may depend on the cultural values and practices of the working

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women. For example in Iran society, working women may have egalitarian attitude, but the traditional structure
of believes about domestic responsibilities hardly changed. Therefore, no matter what gender role attitude held
by women will not lessen their pressures from both family and work demands. Based on these findings, it can be
concluded that gender role attitudes of other family members such as the husband could also typically affect the
nurses perceived level of WIF and FIW. This conclusion is in line with Ahmad (1999) which noted that
husbands' attitudes towards gender roles related to sharing or non-sharing of household labor is one of the
important factors for female nurses.
Future research should investigate the effects of gender role orientation among spouses, and family members, in
dual-earner families. The lack of flexibility of outlooks in such strict families which usually have traditional
attitudes might lead to conflict between work and family; since these rigid families are mostly unable to adapt to
change. Families are recommended to change traditional structure of beliefs and practice more egalitarian gender
role attitudes. Undoubtedly, if family members adopt a more egalitarian gender role attitudes and share household
responsibilities, married working women might be able to effectively balance their roles in both the work and
family domains. Thus, married working women may lead a better and more successful life as a wife, mother and
worker.
8. Conclusion and Recommendations for Future Study
In conclusion, considering the available evidences, it can be established that both WIF and FIW among married
female nurses in this study are influenced by age, job experience, duration of marriage and gender role
orientation. Largely, the findings were supported by relevant literature and also were consistent with the
literature of previous researches in developed countries.
There are several recommendations and limitations that have been identified throughout this study which may
direct future studies. Primarily, having a low response rate and relying on one city for data collection limit the
generalizability of the findings. Also, findings cannot be attributed to nurses of private hospitals. Accordingly,
the results are not generalizable to the entire nurse population in Iran. In addition, this study was conducted only
on female nurses. Assessing the variables of the model across gender would contribute to the generalizability of
the results. This study also needs to be replicated with a more heterogeneous population such as other ethnic
groups, religions, occupational variations and different cultural values. More studies of this nature should be
conducted especially among women in Middle Eastern countries. Finally, as this study used a self-report
measure (questionnaire), future researches may be strengthened by using combined methods of data collection.
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Table 1. Distribution and means and standard deviations of variables
Variables N % Min

34.00
Max Mean SD
Gender role attitude
1. Traditional attitude (19-44.33)

86.00 60.78 10.27

81 40.9

2.Egalitarian attitude (69.67-95)
117

59.1


Work family conflict (W-FC)
1.Low level of WFC (5-15)

8.00 35.00 24.36 6.51
24 12.1

2.Moderate level of WFC (16-25)
85 42.9

3.High level of WFC (26-35)
89 44.9

Family work conflict(F-WC)
1. Low FWC (5-15)

5.00 35.00 17.45 7.89
95 48.0

2.Moderate FWC (16-25)
64 32.3

3.High FWC (26-35)
39

19.7



Note: N= frequency; %= percent, S.D = Standard deviation; Min. = Minimum; Max = Maximum