The purpose of this study was to examine association between the comprehensive work and family conflict variables (work-family conflict ; WFC, behavior to cope with WFC) and sex, sex-role attitudes and gender types.
The responses to an anonymous questionnaire survey of full-time dual-career couples having preschool children contained 102 males and 125 females were analyzed. First, females showed higher WFC (time conflict, choice conflict, family→work conflict), and coping behavior (flexible work role assignment, work role reduction, family role reduction) at a higher frequency than males. Second, egalitarian sex-role attitudes showed lower work→family conflict and coping behavior at a higher frequency. And subjects were classified into an androgynous, masculinity, femininity, or undifferentiated type. The WFC and coping behavior had differences by these gender types. Especially, in psychological androgyny, which is characterized by high masculinity and high femininity, higher frequency coping behavior of WFC occurred than in other gender types. This paper showed that sex, sex-role attitudes and gender types had a significant impact on work and family conflict variables.