Women don’t actually struggle with work-family balance any more than men do

It’s a time-worn cliche – the hassled, tired-out ‘supermum’, desperately struggling to balance the demands of work with her family.

But men actually suffer just as much, according to new research – in terms of both work interfering with family, and family interfering with work.

The study found that men and women reported similar levels of work-family conflict – and that this applied regardless of the levels of gender equality in their countries.

The researchers reviewed data from 350 previous studies involving 250,000 participants around the world.

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Anti-Semitic incidents in Britain hit an all-time high ‘We essentially found very little evidence of differences between women and men as far as the level of work-family conflict they report,’said lead author Dr Kirsten Shockley of the University of Georgia.

‘This is quite contrary to the common public perception.

‘The way this issue is presented in the media frames the way we think about it, and it creates a perpetual cycle.

‘Women hear that other women are struggling with this issue, so they expect they will experience greater work-family conflict.

‘There also is some socialization for it being OK for women to talk more about it than men.’