Prioritizing Work or Family? Investigating Women’s and Men’s Work-Family Decisions

Abstract

Despite societal change, women and men still differ in the extent to which they prioritize work and family. Women more often reduce work hours or adjust careers to prioritize family needs, whereas men more often work overtime or decline family responsibilities to advance their careers. This study tested two possible explanations, that women and men differ in (1) how they perceive the costs and benefits of prioritizing work versus family; and (2) how they weigh these costs and benefits when deciding which domain to prioritize. We presented 625 employed participants (309 women, 316 men) with six scenarios involving work-family trade-offs. Analyses confirmed that women were more willing than men to prioritize family over work and less willing to prioritize work over family, even though both women and men were generally more willing to prioritize family. Women’s greater willingness to prioritize family was partially explained by higher perceived family benefits, and men’s greater willingness to prioritize work by lower perceived family costs. Women (compared to men) placed more weight on family benefits and less weight on career costs when considering prioritizing family over work. These findings reveal how gendered perceptions and weighting shape decision-making about work and family, which can inform policies and programs to promote more equitable career and caregiving outcomes.