Publisher's Synopsis
Traditionally, Work-Life Balance is a business imperative directly impacting productivity and business performance, and is the goal of almost every modern day professional to maintain an overall sense of harmony in life. The boundaries between work and home-life are increasingly indistinct as they find themselves more connected to the office and often handling work-related responsibilities at home. Globalisation and technologys impacts on the work environment have forced them to find a way to integrate their work and personal responsibilities, casting out the notions of work-life balance in order to build better work-life integration practices. Female participation in the global workforce has grown dramatically over the past number of decades, with the trend specifically reported for countries such as the USA, and Ireland. This increased female labour force participation, particularly for women in childbearing years, has been accompanied by increasing challenges in managing time, roles and responsibilities. The challenge for working mothers is how to facilitate the sharing of roles in a more fair and equitable way to relieve them of the double burden of employment and domestic duties. Women in Management: A Framework for Sustainable Work-Life Integration aims to explore how professional women perceive themselves in relation to their work and family roles, how they experience these roles, how they merge their work, family and individual self, and what meaning they make of this integration. It raises important issues for the management of professional working mothers and the implications of the study for individuals and organisations are set out. Women's continued progress depends on recognising the intractable nature of these negative attitudes and continually seeking ways to ensure that these attitudes do not derail their success. The need to maintain and expand legal efforts is discussed.
