Work and life balance experiences of female professional staff members in higher education: A qualitative case study
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The majority of non-instructional staff employees working in higher education are women and the majority of post-baccalaureate enrollment is composed of female students. These women have multiple life roles that include employee, wife, mother, daughter, and student. With female employees being the largest population on a higher education institution campus and who use the majority of work and life balance policies, it would be assumed that their work and life balance is important to higher education administrators. Unfortunately, the work and life balance of female professional staff is rarely an area of importance for administrators or in the research. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of female professional staff members, who are also student affairs employees and graduate students, of their challenges with balancing work and life. This qualitative study utilized a collective case study methodology and was guided by three research questions. The study was framed by a conceptual framework based on the research literature that indicates that there is a lack of institutional support policies that allow female professional staff in higher education to participate in their multiple life roles. The participants were three female staff members from a large, public research university in the Southwestern region of the U.S., who balance multiple life roles. Data was collected through the lens of the researcher, semi-structured interviews, observations, and reflective journaling. The data collected was analyzed using the open coding method. Trustworthiness of the study was addressed throughout the research process. The findings of this study suggest that work and life roles are connected and that the amount of support received from the study institution, impacts the employee’s ability to balance work and life, whether this support is through institutional policies and/or supportive leadership. The participants noted several challenges they perceived and have experienced in balancing work and life. These include the nature of positions with student affairs divisions, which entail at times working outside of normal work hours, the cultural and social norms of society that perceive the ideal worker is one that has limited outside obligations, and that the addition of graduate school to already busy lives can be difficult. In addition, the participants identified that they perceived the study institution was supportive of work and life balance of their employees through things such as tuition assistance, family and maternity leave, and insurance. Areas in which the participants perceived the study institution could improve their support for work and life balance of its employees included providing more flexibility in work schedules, development of supervisors’ knowledge of how to support their employees’ work and life balance challenges, offering an onsite day care facility that is affordable for all employees, and graduate student support systems for nontraditional students who have different needs than traditional college students. The participants also perceive that higher education administration should be more knowledgeable of and interested in the struggles female employees face in regards to their work and life balance, due to their multiple roles. The results of this study produced several implications that higher education practitioners should be mindful of. The lack of support for work and life balance from supervisors and the institution as a whole could lead to female professional staff specifically, and women in general, choosing to leave the institution for other employment opportunities that are more supportive of work and life balance. The challenges associated with completing a graduate degree with many other competing work and life obligations could deter women from pursuing higher education or completing their graduate degrees once enrolled. Also, if higher education institutions, through their administrators, do not do more to help support the work and life balance of all employees through the support of existing policies and the creation of new ones, in addition to establishing support programs for work and life balance, the institution and its employees may suffer. Since work and life roles are interconnected and the actions in one role can affect other roles, the recommendations for higher education institutions include creating and sustaining policies that help with work and life balance for its employees. In addition, higher education institutions need to determine what they perceive work and life balance means, and they need to commit to supporting work and life balance of employees through the cultural norms of the institution.