Attitudes towards work and family roles and their implications for career growth of women

Abstract

In this paper the authors attempted to understand attitudes towards work and family roles of professional men and women in India. Propositions based on the adult development theories of men and women, regarding reward value derived from and commitment made to the occupational, parental, marital and homemaker roles over the life cycle, were tested. Results indicated that there was no change with age, in attitudes towards the occupational and homemaker roles. Instead, attitudes towards these roles differed according to respondent s sex. Attitudes towards the marital and parental roles varied across the life cycle, though not in keeping with propositions based on the adult development theories of men and women. There was no reversal in attitudes towards work and family roles of men and women after mid-life. Rather, some reversal in attitudes appeared to occur between the marital and parental roles, over the life span of both men and women. Results are reviewed within the Indian context and their implications for the career development of women are discussed.