Religious Affiliation and Work-Family Conflict Among Women and Men

Religion is an important part of life for many women and men. Research on religion and work-family issues, however, remains limited. To better understand how religion influences work-family experiences, we use data from the General Social Survey to examine subjective experiences of work-family conflict across three religious groups and the nonreligious. Specifically, we examine how conservative Protestants, Catholics/Orthodox Christians, mainline Protestants, and the nonreligious differ in their perceptions of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict. We find that conservative Protestant women, but not men, report less work-to-family conflict and less family-to-work conflict than their peers in other religious groups even after controlling for religious service attendance, specific job features, and sociodemographic characteristics. Catholic/Orthodox men report less family-to-work and conflict than conservative Protestant men. We suggest that researchers examine religion more closely to determine if the experiences of conservative Protestant women and Catholic/Orthodox men hold useful lessons for others.