Work-Family Conflict and Attitudes towards Marriage and Childbearing: A Study among Employed Women in Sanandaj City, Iran

Considering the importance of the compatibility of job roles with long-term family commitments, this study investigated the relationship between work-family conflict and marriage-childbearing attitudes of employed women. The theoretical framework is based on role conflict, gender inequality, social support, and economic resources theories. The study according to the type and method of data collection, is quantitative. The field of study is Sanandaj and the sample includes 338 employed never-married and married women aged 15-49 who were selected by multistage cluster and simple sampling. The results showed that never-married women who experience higher work-family conflict consider an older age suitable for marriage. Also, the higher experience of work-family conflict among married women is associated with the attitude of having fewer children. The findings of multivariate analysis showed that among never-married women, 23.5% of the changes in attitude towards marriage age were explained by employment status and work-family conflict; and among married women, 42.5% of the changes in attitude towards the ideal number of children were explained by work-family conflict and age. Placing women in safe job positions and resolving work-family conflicts by adopting family support policies to realize the ideals of marriage-childbearing are the policy recommendations of this study.