Gender, social roles, and emotion : a qualitative study

The structure of an relationships within the American family have changed dramatically since the advent of the industrial revolution. Traditional role expectations of women as wives and mothers and men as husbands and fathers shift as the structure of the family alters. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the impact of changing family structure and role expectations on emotions. Interviews were conducted with twenty-two dual-income couples who had at least one child under six years old to ascertain how women and men feel simultaneously performing the roles of spouse, parent, and worker. Some literature suggests that men and women feel differently about balancing work and family. Women's and men's emotional experiences were compared to explore whether gender differences emerged in responses, and if so, to what extent. Both sexes described feeling tension, guilt, and frustration balancing multiple roles. The perceived inability to adequately fulfill work and family responsibilities tended to generate tension and guilt in women, and frustration in men. Several strategies, requiring a great deal of emotion work, were devised to manage the incompatible role requirements of spouse, parent, and worker. Role management strategies were differentially utilized by men and women. A synthesis of interactionist emotion theory and role theory is offered to explain the gender differences in emotional experiences discovered in this study. Women's family roles are more incompatible with work than are men's family roles. Therefore, women experience greater tension and guilt when performing both family and work roles, whereas men experience frustration, family and work roles.