Walking The Tightrope: A Narrative Review of Work-Family Conflict and Balance Among Working Women

Working women adopt multiple roles such as that of an employee or entrepreneur, a wife, mother and daughter-in-law. Due to their role responsibilities they encounter multiple challenges in balancing work and family life. This can result in outcomes such as fatigue, stress and poor health. A narrative review was therefore conducted to examine in-depth, specific factors that challenged and facilitated work-family integration for working women in the Indian context. Through a multidisciplinary approach, studies from various disciplines were selected. These disciplines included sociology, economics, management, psychology, public health and commerce. The review identified various challenging and facilitating factors which were work-related, family-related and related to one’s personal or psychological characteristics. The review also identified themes relating to the nature of work-family integration among women in the Indian context. The themes are discussed in the context of previous studies and theories in the literature. The study bears important implications for future research in women’s work and family integration.