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Multiple Role Conflict Faced By Women

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 Women at Work
A Holistic Outlook

Editors
Dr. Arun Kumar
Ms. Nikita Srivastava

GLOBAL VISION PUBLISHING HOUSE

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Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook

First Edition, 2023

ISBN: 978-93-90423-18-7

[Responsibility for the facts stated, opinions expressed,

conclusions reached and plagiarism, if any, in this title is
entirely that of the Contributors. The Editors and Publisher
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reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced in any
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PRINTED IN INDIA
Published by Dr. N.K. Singh for Global Vision Publishing House,
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Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook 355

30
MULTIPLE ROLE CONFLICTS
FACED BY WOMEN
Hemant Kumar, Gobind, & Rakesh Kumar Behmani

Multiple role conflict of women has become a topic of discussion

in this period of modernization and globalization. Women belonging
to any class or community all over the world have made progress.
They have set themselves free, became more autonomous, and can
express themselves. In the current scenario, women are facing more
challenging roles in everyday life, whether it’s in the family, in the
workplace, or in any other part of their life. All these new roles are
in addition to their old and conventional roles. Now they are treated
equally to men and reached more powerful positions. They will handle
their responsibilities very effectively. Despite all these things women
will encounter situations in which they have to choose one between
two or more conditions at the same time. Talking about the Indian
context society always stops a woman from coming into the public
domain in comparison to men. Women employees in the workplace
are not taken seriously by their male colleagues and society as well
(Nieva & Gutek 1981). Indian society and culture always require
women to fulfill their responsibilities and duties in-home before
committing their professional duties. If a woman has a career, it will
be very challenging for her because of her responsibilities to her
family and multiple roles (Valdez & Gutek 1987). Roles are generally
a set of ideal standards of behavior and expectations of others from
an individual. Roles are given according to the position of an
356 Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook

individual in society. In Indian culture and society, women are usually

described as talkative, dependent, emotional, and elegant. It is
opposite to the modern image of a woman. Day by day the
participation of women in employment and other fields is increasing
rapidly which results in restrictions in their traditional roles. If a
women want to continue her career in any field outside her home
she has to go through various conflicting situations. Normally when
a woman tries to balance the various roles in her daily life there are
chances to rise a conflicting situation because of the interference of
one domain of life over the other. Role conflict is described as the
consecutive happening of two or more incidents of pressure in such
a way that if we fulfill one of them it will make it difficult to make
the fulfillment of the other one (Kahn et al., 1964). There are fewer
chances of role conflicts in a simple and homogeneous culture for
both men and women as compared to a complex and heterogeneous
culture. Females have to work hard with a strict and punctual daily
routine which requires a better level of physical and mental abilities
to deal effectively with crucial circumstances. Usually when there is
a conflicting situation between work and family for women, family
normally surpasses work but there are some women who choose their
profession over the family because of their strong devotion to their
job and to make their financial condition better.
Types of Role Conflict
(1) Inter- Role Conflict: It occurs when a person encounters
two or more responsibilities that are contradictory which
results in the person struggling. One of the most common
examples of inter-role conflict is the conflict between work
and family. One of the major reasons that people face inter-
role conflict due to lack of time and scheduling. Gender plays
a vital role in the inter-role conflict. Women spent their free
time on domestic responsibilities which is an important factor
in inter-role conflicts in women (Gilbert, 1988; Wiersma &
Van Den Berg, 1991). Apart from this personality and
individual differences also influence inter-role conflict (Eby
et al., 2005). Married working women face more inter-role
conflict in comparison to married women who are full-time
housewives (Hall & Gordon 1973).
Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook 357

(2) Intra-Role Conflict: Intra-role conflict is the incompatibility

of an individual with the role he/she has been playing. In
this, there is only one role for a person and he\she does not
able to fulfill that role. Intra-role conflict is also known as
person-role conflict. This type of role conflict generally
occurs when the requirements of a role are not according to
the values and attitudes of an individual. In this type of
conflict, the role sender demands such role behavior which
the occupier believes immoral. It is considered to be the most
difficult type of role conflict to analyze because it is internal
to an individual.
(3) Intra-sender Role Conflict: This type of role conflict
usually occurs when a single person gave contradictory roles
to a role occupant. Intra-sender role conflict is mainly used
for cultivating a sense of vagueness in a role occupant. For
example, the manager of a company may ask his employee
to do such a task which is not possible without the violation
of the rules and which is unethical but still, the manager tries
to enforce the employee to perform that particular task.
(4) Intersender Role Conflict: A person experiences inter-
sender role conflict when role behavior given by one role
sender is incompatible with the role demand by another role
sender. For example, a soldier in the army receives some
orders from his commanding officer, these orders may be
inconsistent and not according to the needs and expectations
of the other soldiers who are under that particular soldier.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Women who prefer to combine both marriage and their
profession will encounter difficulty adjusting the time and resources
between both responsibilities (Kapur 1974). Various roles need a
different amount of time, women majorly face conflicting situations
due to the shortage of time in various roles (Dahlstrom 1967).
Whereas working hours are an important factor of role conflict in
women (Keith and Schafer 1980). Non-working married women also
suffer from stress as they deal with more demanding situations inside
their houses (Pearlin 1975). One of the major reasons for role conflict
in working women is the degree of limit to which her family roles
358 Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook

are driven in her working roles (Pleck 1977). Every woman has her
desires and aims these things along with the time factor play an
important role in role conflicts (Sinha 1981). If a woman is doing a
job, it will surely create conflicting situations for her because of the
two-sided roles and inability to handle the burden (Paterson 1978).
It is very difficult for women to share their house-related work and
look after the children with their husbands, this is because of the
stiffness of their conventional roles in society (Ho,1987).
Apart from this woman who works harder and gets on their
household responsibilities, has more chances of suffering from severe
depression in comparison to working woman (Um and Dancy, 1999).
Women who are doing their home duties and responsibilities and
women who are doing their job outside their home, both of these
usually face conflicts between completing their role demands (Holhan
& Gilbert, 1979). The expectations from multiple roles can lead to a
sense of work overload because these roles need more time, energy,
and commitment (Katz & Kahn, 1978). Studies suggest that due to
the conflict between work and family the employees feel less control
and a higher sense of burnout (Amstad et al.,2011). Both men and
women who deal with both work and family roles at the same time
could reduce their mental health (Merton,1957; Goode,1960).
Whereas some researchers find the opposite results according to them
the men and women who combine their professional and family roles
have a high level of well-being in comparison to those who play only
one role at a time (Barnett, 1994; Thoits, 1986, 1983).
Working women show a high level of independence, self-
confidence, and high self-esteem as well. All these characteristics are
very important for the successful management of various role
demands (Beane, 1976; Spence & Helmreich 1978). Females who
select their profession in the non-traditional field may encounter more
role conflicting situations instead of the females working in a
traditional field (Bridges, 1987). The role conflict between work and
family can result in a low level of job satisfaction and marital
satisfaction as well in males and females it can lead to an increased
level of physical symptoms (Coverman, 1989). If we talk about the
age factor and role conflict of women the findings said that older
age women whether they are employed or unemployed will keep
Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook 359

themselves enrolled in most of the activities which are related to their

household roles (Rallings & Nye, 1979; Szinovacz, 1980; Vanek,
1983).
Women are working in both public and private sectors apart from
this, a woman successfully runs their own business as well.
Researches indicate that women entrepreneurs have faced more
conflicts regarding work and family because of long working hours
and inflexibility in their working schedule (Stoner et al., 1990). The
status of work done by women also decides the impact of role conflict
in women. Those women who are doing a job of low status will go
through more conflicts between work and family rather than the
women who are working a high-status job (Nevill & Damico, 1978).
The role of life partner also plays a major part in women’s life. How
well-woman manage her home role pressures and role conflict will
also depend on whether her husband is career-oriented or not (Beutell
& Greenhaus, 1982). If an individual is involved in multiple roles,
then the results of this involvement may be different according to
their gender. It is considered to be good for men’s mental health if
they do different roles together, whereas if women do multiple roles
at a time, it will adversely affect their mental health and lead them to
role overload and role conflict (Gove & Tudor, 1973). Another reason
for facing role conflict between work and family is because of the
work done in shifts. Working in shifts can cause a high level of role
conflict (Staines & Pleck, 1983). Females do their multiple roles
together whereas males like to do this in a sequence (Hall,1972), but
some studies are exactly opposite to this, according to them the males
are in a salient stand about their priorities regarding their roles and
females are expected to do their home and work roles equally which
leads females to a high level of work role conflict in comparison of
males (Gutek, Nakamura & Nieva, 1981).
EFFECTS OF ROLE CONFLICT
This could be varied from person to person. Conflicts in roles
may lead to depression, anxiety, stress, burnout, and other
physiological symptoms as well. It can cause negativity in one’s
attitude towards the job and inaccurate work behavior. All these things
can result in job dissatisfaction. The sudden burst of anger and
360 Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook

emotions also leads to role conflicts and cause faulty decision-making.

In such a condition a person feels a lack of control over his working
situation. This will reduce his motivation level and commitment to
the particular work assigned to him in that role. Due to all these things
the individual feels frustrated and intended to step down from the
given responsibilities and his role. Researches indicate that role
demands are a major factor in burnout (Lee and Ashforth, 1996;
Peeters et al.,2005). A person who has a high level of work-family
conflict has been noticed with more depressive symptoms (Zhang et
al., 2017).
Role conflict has been associated with some dysfunctional
consequences like job dissatisfaction and psychological strain (Rizzo
et al.,1970; Schaubroeck et al.,1989). Job stress and burnout are
increasing rapidly in the workplace and job stress has major
significance for both the employees and the organization. Thus, it
will become more important to find such methods which will be
helpful to minimize the negative effects of job stress. According to
prior research, workload and role conflicts have a direct relation with
job stress in women. It simply means that if workload and role
conflicts in females are higher it will negatively affect their level of
performance in the workplace. Role conflict can be the root cause of
physical and mental fatigue. All these things will affect the work
productivity of the females whether they are working or non-working
(homemakers). Role conflicts can make their life unbalanced. If a
person has two or more roles of equal importance and he tried to get
on them simultaneously it becomes quite difficult to handle both roles
and it leads to distress. The degree of distress caused by interference
of two or more roles can be different and it depends on the level of
importance of the various roles.
MANAGEMENT OF ROLE CONFLICT
The person can maintain their role conflicts by maintaining
mutual support with each other. Another way of dealing with a
conflicting situation is to give up the conflicting role temporarily and
distance themselves from that particular role or situation this process
is known as compartmentalization. Role conflicts can be tackled with
the help of a hierarchy of obligations. When individuals interact with
each other they feel that some particular obligations took priority over
Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook 361

others. If a person wants to avoid role conflicts he needs to identify

and manage his roles and determine the right activities for his role.
It would be very helpful if we set the boundaries of our roles and set
them according to priority, doing so will help us to manage our time
and situations and we deal will the conflicting situations in a better
way. As a role player, one should know his strengths and weakness.
Being aware of your role and the reason that what the purpose of
your role is will make things clearer and help to avoid ambiguity in
role-playing. Another way to handle role conflicts is to change the
perceptions, attitudes, and expectations of other people towards our
roles in various conditions. We have to learn to deal with such
conflicts through a positive mindset and attitude. The role sender
should avoid placing unadoptable responsibilities and demands on
the role occupier. If the individual is in a dilemma with the level of
importance of his roles, then he may try to negotiate between both
the roles.
If we talk about working women, they may use the following
strategies to resolve their role conflicts:
1. By telling the family members about her working conditions.
2. By convincing the family that she is working for the sake of
the well-being and prosperity of the members of the family.
3. By ensuring that she will fulfill all the expectations of her
family.
CONCLUSION
We finally conclude that if the women have to settle down all
their role conflicts it will majorly depend upon how well they can
adopt the conditions and responsibilities of their family and work
palace as well. Women need special attention because they have to
perform multiple roles and have more responsibilities at their home
and workplace as well. More work should be done on emotional
regulation and stress management skills in women employees, it
would be helpful for them to handle conflicting situations at work
and family. One thing which we can surely say about role conflict in
females is that it has always a negative impact on life satisfaction,
job satisfaction, and marital satisfaction as well. Women are an
integral part of our society without them the family is incomplete.
362 Women at Work : A Holistic Outlook

So, it is the responsibility of the family and society as well to provide

them with a positive environment at home and in their working place
so that they can feel free and relaxed to perform their roles. More
research needed to be done in this field in the upcoming time to
explore more about various aspects of role conflicts faced by women.
It will help to provide a strong base to build new points and give a
new direction to this field. All this will definitely prove beneficial
for women.
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