Predictors of Work-life Balance for Women Entrepreneurs in the North- East Region of Romania Dan Dumitru Ionescu, PhD Candidate Alina Măriuca Ionescu, PhD Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi 4th Edition of International Symposium “Advancing socio-economic research” VIRTUAL EDITION 15th-16th of May 2015

Aim  to investigate the factors that influence the work-life balance of female entrepreneurs in the North-East Region of Romania 2

Structure  A short discussion about the particularities of work- life relationship at women entrepreneurs  Methodological issues  Results  Concluding remarks

Work-life balance is „… about people having a measure of control over when, where and how they work. It is achieved when an individual's right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society” (Pocock, 2005)

Based on societal norms  Men  may concentrate on career  they are not expected to participate in household and child care  breadwinners

According to societal norms  Women  must focus on family care  must take a big part of responsibilities related to household, cooking and upbringing and education of children  their participation in family life is often seen as more important than work  their involvement at the workplace „must not” affect family life

Work-life disturbance  is the result of a conflict situation between job demands and personal life duties

Female entrepreneurs: Work demands  Time requirements (number of working hours)  Requirements related to an imposed schedule  the degree to which the type of business and its management organization require a less flexible schedule  Demands resulting from meeting company’s needs  financial support and business management  Responsibilities to employees  Emotional requirements  need to succeed professionally, need to prove their value as entrepreneurs, need to establish themselves as successful business women

Female entrepreneurs: Personal life demands  Parental demands  parental status, no. of children, children’s age, share of child care, time dedicated to childcare  Demands that appear in relation with marital status  Household responsibilities  share of house work, time given to household duties  Caretaking of the elderly or other dependents  no. of dependents, time given to caretaking of dependents

 Free time demands  Requirements concerning carrying out complementary activities to work  to continue studies  to develop a talent/hobby  Emotional requirements  need to have attention of family members  need of affection and support of the close ones Female entrepreneurs: Personal life demands

Female entrepreneurs Factors that help to improve work-life balance  In the workplace  autonomy  flexibility  In personal life  family and other close people support

Methodological issues  Sample  50 women entrepreneurs active in the North-East Region of Romania  Variables referring to:  perceptions of own work-life balance  home life  work situation  factors of social nature  factors of psychological nature

Methodological issues: Work-life balance  perceptions of own work-life balance  Work-life balance was measured by a score given by respondents on a scale from 0 to 10 (0 – totally misbalanced, 10 – perfect balance) to balance between their professional life (work) and personal life (family, home, free time, etc.)

Methodological issues: Predictors of work-life balance  home life  marital status; no. of children; no. of dependants; no. of hours spent on household activities  work situation  no. of employees; no. of hours spent at work  factors of social nature  different conflict situations that may appear between demands at home and at work  factors of psychological nature  inner feelings that appear as a result of different conflicts between work and personal life demands

Methodological issues Methods:  Descriptive statistics  Analysis of correlation  Pearson coefficient  Analysis of correspondences  Correspondences maps  χ 2 statistic

Predictors of work-life balance  There could not be identified a relationship between variables describing woman entrepreneur’s home condition or work condition and her work-life balance  A higher concentration of scores of 8, 9 and 10 could be noted among women entrepreneurs with no children or having only one child in their care  All Pearson correlation coefficients have values in the interval (-0.2; 0) => inverse and weak relationships between the considered factors and work-life balance

There could not be identified a relationship Between:  the frequency by which women entrepreneur fail to fulfil their social obligations due to work  the frequency by which household activities of woman entrepreneur are interrupted by work- related phone calls  the frequency of appearance of the feeling of being torn between work and personal life demands  the frequency of appearance of the feeling of worrying of a woman entrepreneur related to work issues when she is at home  and work-life balance score

There is a relationship:  between the degree to which working hours of a woman entrepreneur match family and social commitments  between the frequency with which it occurs to feel the tension at home related to the amount of time spent at work  and work-life balance score

Concluding remarks  Particularly for entrepreneurs, there are additional factors that intervene in the relationship between work and life:  they need a higher working time than that of employees,  bear the responsibility of those they employed,  but also experience positive effects such as independence, autonomy, and flexibility. 19

Concluding remarks  In the specific case of women entrepreneurs, an important aspect of work-life relationship is the work- family conflict, more pronounced than for men entrepreneurs, because of the roles assumed by most of women that are deeply rooted in social consciousness, i.e. assuming major responsibilities on childcare and housework.  The results show that it is not so much the amount of household duties and care putting a pressure on women entrepreneurs that produces disequilibrium of their work- life balance but the conflicts perceived by them between the demands of the two dimensions of their lives (professional and personal life) 20

Thank you!