Work and Family Roles: Indian Career Women in India and the West

This study examines Indian career women's work and family roles, sources of stress, ways of coping, and well-being in the light of cultural expectations in India and the West. A number of different instruments were included to measure job satisfaction, mental health, job stressors, coping behavior, demographic characteristics, domestic responsibility and satisfaction. Data were collected, using two earner stressor questionnaires (a coping behavior questionnaire and a mental health and job satisfaction questionnaire), from 100 career women in India and 60 in the US (New York) and England. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 career women in India and 15 women in England. The results showed that women in India had more somatic symptoms than those in the West, who expressed their anxiety directly rather than suppressing it. Fewer women in India than in the West reported that they shared responsibilities for domestic work and child care with their spouses. Major work-family pressures are similar for women in both groups: overload, time pressures, constant fatigue, work interfering with relations with children, and guilt and anxiety over children while at work. Lifestyle differences between women in India and the West nevertheless exist and may impinge in various ways on women's experiences of work and family. Although this study has led to many interesting findings, the results are still inconclusive and should be treated with caution. Due to the small size of the sample, this study needs further broadening, as it should incorporate the experiences of non-Western women, including those living at the junction of two cultures.