WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR WOMEN IN ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS IN JORDANIAN UNIVERSITIES: CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

This research aimed to study the challenges facing female administrative staff at Jordanian universities in achieving work-life balance, what strategies they adopt, and assess the impact of institutional and cultural factors on their experiences. The target of the research was a sample of 200 female staff in mid to senior-level administrative positions in public and private universities in Jordan. A mixed methods design was utilized to collect an image of the phenomenon from both the quantitative and qualitative perspectives.A structured 30-item questionnaire was obtained from the respondents to gather quantitative data in three domains: work-life balance issues, coping mechanisms, and perceived organizational support. Cronbach's alpha values were greater than 0.80 for all domains, and content validity in the questionnaire was determined by expert review. Further, 15 participants were interviewed semi-structured to learn about their lived experiences. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, t-tests, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were used to examine quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data.The findings showed that women faced several barriers to work-life balance, with the most frequent being feeling overwhelmed by work (M = 4.37, SD = 0.69). Conflicting work professional responsibilities and family responsibilities (M = 4.23, SD = 0.76) followed closely by this. Planning and setting priorities were the most used coping mechanisms (M = 4.42, SD = 0.66), and seeking help from the family (M = 4.04, SD = 0.78). However, institutional support was perceived to be weak to moderate, and flexibility in working hours was achieved with a mean of 2.95 (SD = 1.02). The participants had a mean score of 4.39 (SD = 0.67) in perceiving domestic responsibilities weighed more on women rather than men, which had a strong influence from cultural beliefs. The results of the regression analysis show that institutional support was negatively predicting work-life conflict (β = –0.34; p <.01) and cultural pressures were positively predicting emotional strain (β = 0.42; p <.01). Qualitatively, emotional burden, societal role expectations, and institutional inadequacy were the themes of higher order that corroborated the findings from the quantitative results. It concludes that although women use proactive approaches to balance work and their private lives, Jordanian universities heavily require changes in culture and vast institutional changes to enable women to use proactive approaches to balance work and their private lives.