Investigating the moderating influences of gender upon role salience and work‐family conflict

The existence of gender differences in the experience of work‐family concflict has been subject to recent debate. Contemporary research generally suggests that men and women experience work‐family conflict at comparative levels. However the majority of this research investigates direct relationships only, published investigations of the moderating influence of gender are scarce. The importance or salience of a role to an individual is also theorised to influence role perceptions, including conflict. However, role salience is commonly ignored in work‐family conflict research. The current research addresses these oversights by investigating the direct and indirect relationships between gender, work‐family conflict, role demands, and role salience. A total of 130 university students rated their perceptions of their university (work) and family roles. No significant direct relationships between gender and bi‐directional work‐family conflict were produced. However, gender significantly moderated the relationship between role salience and conflict; with females experiencing more conflict as their level of family role salience increased. The opposite results were produced for the male respondents. The implications of these findings for work‐family conflict research are discussed.