Lives of female expatriates: work-life balance concerns
Purpose
to analyze female expatriates’ work-life conflicts and enrichments which take place during the international assignment
Liisa Makela, Vesa Suutari Helene Mayerhofer (2011)
To expand our understanding of the experiences of female expatriates from the perspective of the WLB.
Outcomes
Four Metaphor
Findings
Females have experiences of conflicts but also enrichment during international assignments.
The effect of the personal life on the working life and vice versa are important for females.
Four metaphors (airport, seesaw, stage and harbor) as main headings to represent female expatriates’ experiences in balancing work and their personal value.
Interface of work and private life (International work and WLB, female expatriates and the WLB.
Airport
The situation when the working life negatively affects the personal life.
Seesaw
The situation when the personal life creates conflicts for the working life.
Stage
The positive sides of the interferences, the first relating to the direction of work to personal life.
Harbor
Vice versa to stage
Female expatriates face the same work-related challenges as their male counterparts in the work place.
It has been found that personal relationships may suffer because of the demands of balancing career and home life in the international career context
Female expatriates experience a positive spillover between/along the interface of their work and private lives.
Women who had a spouse and children with them abroad and who were often very much taking care of the family affairs.