Women In Management Review

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to focus on understanding the work-life conflict of never-married women without children.

Design/methodology/approach – This study uses survey data from two full-service health care organizations and a financial services organization. Quantitative methodologies were used to address the study's research questions and hypotheses.

Findings – The findings show that never-married women without children do experience conflict, specifically work-to-life conflict, and often at similar levels to that experienced by other groups of working women. The findings also suggest that work-life benefits typically provided by organizations are frequently regarded as less important and used less often by never-married women without children than by other working women.

Research limitations/implications – Future research should increase the sample of never-married women without children, explore the sources of support these women use in juggling life roles, and incorporate comparative analysis across age and occupation groups as well as with never-married childless men.

Practical implications – The research finds that not all employees value or utilize the benefits frequently offered by organizations. Human resource departments cannot assume a “one size fits all” approach to benefit administration but must recognize the unique sources of work-life conflict for an array of employees and develop appropriate strategies to mitigate such conflict.

Originality/value – This study contributes to the work-life literature by focusing on a vastly understudied group of employees whose growing presence in the workforce necessitates further exploration. This research advocates expanding the definition of work-life as traditionally defined in the organizational behavior literature, allowing scholars to think more broadly about life roles other than spouse and parent that may have implications for conflict.