4th Edition of International Symposium Advancing socio-economic research

VIRTUAL EDITION

15th-16th of May 2015

Predictors of Work-life Balance for

Women Entrepreneurs in the NorthEast Region of Romania

Dan Dumitru Ionescu, PhD Candidate

Alina Mriuca Ionescu, PhD
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi

Aim

to

investigate the factors that influence

the work-life balance of female
entrepreneurs in the North-East Region of
Romania

Structure
A short

discussion about the particularities of worklife relationship at women entrepreneurs

Methodological

issues

Results
Concluding

remarks

Work-life balance
is about people having a measure of control
over when, where and how they work. It is
achieved when an individual's right to a fulfilled
life inside and outside paid work is accepted and
respected as the norm to the mutual benefit of the
individual, business and society
(Pocock, 2005)

Based on societal norms

Men
may

concentrate on career

they

are not expected to participate in

household and child care

breadwinners

According to societal norms

Women
must

focus on family care

must

take a big part of responsibilities related

to household, cooking and upbringing and
education of children

their

participation in family life is often seen as

more important than work

their

involvement at the workplace must not

affect family life

Work-life disturbance

is the result of a conflict situation

between job demands and personal life
duties

Female entrepreneurs:
Work demands

Time requirements (number of working hours)

Requirements related to an imposed schedule

the degree to which the type of business and its management

organization require a less flexible schedule

Demands resulting from meeting companys needs

financial support and business management

Responsibilities to employees

Emotional requirements

need to succeed professionally, need to prove their value as

entrepreneurs, need to establish themselves as successful
business women

Female entrepreneurs:
Personal life demands

Parental demands

parental status, no. of children, childrens age, share of

child care, time dedicated to childcare

Demands that appear in relation with marital

status

Household responsibilities

share of house work, time given to household duties

Caretaking of the elderly or other dependents

no. of dependents, time given to caretaking of dependents

Female entrepreneurs:
Personal life demands

Free time demands

Requirements concerning carrying out

complementary activities to work

to continue studies

to develop a talent/hobby

Emotional requirements

need to have attention of family members

need of affection and support of the close ones

Female entrepreneurs
Factors that help to improve work-life balance

In

the workplace

autonomy
flexibility

In

personal life

family

and other close people

support

Methodological issues
Sample
50

women entrepreneurs active in the

North-East Region of Romania

Variables referring to:

perceptions
home
work

of own work-life balance

life
situation

factors

of social nature

factors

of psychological nature

Methodological issues:
Work-life balance

perceptions of own work-life balance

Work-life balance was measured by a score given by

respondents on a scale from 0 to 10 (0 totally
misbalanced, 10 perfect balance) to balance
between their professional life (work) and personal
life (family, home, free time, etc.)

Methodological issues:
Predictors of work-life balance

home life

work situation

no. of employees; no. of hours spent at work

factors of social nature

marital status; no. of children; no. of dependants; no.

of hours spent on household activities

different conflict situations that may appear between

demands at home and at work

factors of psychological nature

inner feelings that appear as a result of different

conflicts between work and personal life demands

Methodological issues
Methods:
Descriptive
Analysis

statistics

of correlation

Pearson coefficient

Analysis

of correspondences

Correspondences maps

2 statistic

Predictors of work-life balance

There could not be identified a relationship between

variables describing woman entrepreneurs home
condition or work condition and her work-life balance

A higher concentration of scores of 8, 9 and 10 could be

noted among women entrepreneurs with no children or
having only one child in their care

All Pearson correlation coefficients have values in the

interval (-0.2; 0) => inverse and weak relationships
between the considered factors and work-life balance

There could not be identified a relationship

Between:
the

frequency by which women entrepreneur fail to

fulfil their social obligations due to work
the

frequency by which household activities of

woman entrepreneur are interrupted by workrelated phone calls
the

frequency of appearance of the feeling of being

torn between work and personal life demands
the

frequency of appearance of the feeling of

worrying of a woman entrepreneur related to work
issues when she is at home
and

work-life balance score

There is a relationship:
between

the degree to which working hours of a

woman entrepreneur match family and social
commitments
between

the frequency with which it occurs to feel

the tension at home related to the amount of time
spent at work
and

work-life balance score

Concluding remarks

Particularly for entrepreneurs, there are additional

factors that intervene in the relationship between
work and life:
they

need a higher working time than that of

employees,

bear

the responsibility of those they employed,

but

also experience positive effects such as

independence, autonomy, and flexibility.

19

Concluding remarks

In the specific case of women entrepreneurs, an

important aspect of work-life relationship is the workfamily conflict, more pronounced than for men
entrepreneurs, because of the roles assumed by most of
women that are deeply rooted in social consciousness, i.e.
assuming major responsibilities on childcare and
housework.

The results show that it is not so much the amount of

household duties and care putting a pressure on women
entrepreneurs that produces disequilibrium of their worklife balance but the conflicts perceived by them between
the demands of the two dimensions of their lives
(professional and personal life)
20

Thank you!