Work‐family conflict of women entrepreneurs in Singapore

Abstract

As long as the society continues to emphasise a woman’s basic role as that of mothering, working women will face role struggles. As married working women, many women entrepreneurs have to assume multiple roles in the family in addition to their careers. They must bear major responsibility for household chores and childcare. These responsibilities give rise to work‐family conflict, which becomes an obstacle in managing their business. This research studied the work‐family conflict among married Singapore women entrepreneurs. The work‐family conflict was divided into three parts: job‐spouse conflict, job‐parent conflict and job‐homemaker conflict. The data for this study came from 102 married Singapore women entrepreneurs who responded to a self‐administered questionnaire. From the discussion of the findings, several implications arose. There is a need for greater spouse support, flexible work schedule, and full‐day school in order to alleviate work‐family conflict. Maintenance of good marital relations are important in reducing spouse conflict and increasing well being in women entrepreneurs.