PROJECT REPORT ON

WORK-LIFE BALANCE OF WOMAN EMPLOYEE

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE DEGREE AWARDED AT

M.COM PART II (ACCOUNTANCY)

SEMESTER IV

SUBMITTED TO

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2021 – 2022

SUBMITTED BY

NAME: MANSI DEEPAK DEDHIA

ROLL NO: 05

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 VIVA COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE AND SCIENCE

VIRAR (WEST)

401303

DECLARATION

I Hereby Declare that the Project Titled “WORK-LIFE BALANCE OF

WOMAN EMPLOYEE” is an original work prepared by me and is
being submitted to University of Mumbai in partial fulfilment of “M.
Com. (ACCOUNTANCY)” degree for the academic year 2021-2022. To
the best of my knowledge this report has not been submitted earlier to the
University of Mumbai or any other affiliated college for the fulfillment of
“M.Com. PART II (ACCOUNTANCY)” degree.

Date: 16/04/2022 Place: VIRAR

Name: MANSI DEEPAK DEDHIA

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Signature:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I M\S MANSI DEEPAK DEDHIA the student of VIVA College pursuing

my “M.COM PART II (BUSINESS MANAGEMENT)”, would like to
pay the credits, for all those who helped in the making of this project.
The first in accomplishment of this project is our Principal Dr. A. P.
Pandey, Vice-Principal Prof. Prajakta Paranjape, Course Co-Ordinator
Dr. Nilima Bhagwat and Guide Prof. Suraj Wadhwa and teaching &
non-teaching staff of VIVA College. I would also like to thank all my
college friends those who influenced my project in order to achieve the
desired result correctly.

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Page 4 of 64
 INDEX

SR.NO. CONTENT PG.NO.

1. INTRODUCTION TO WORK LIFE BALANCE OF 6-10

WOMEN EMPLOYEES

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 11-17

3. RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY 18-27

4. HYPHOTHESIS & OBJECTIVES OF WORK LIFE 28-33

BALANCE

5. BENEFITS OF WORK LIFE BALANCE 34-38

6. DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION 39-45

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 7. FUTURE SCOPE OF WOMEN EMPLOYMENT 46-51

8. LIMITATIONS OF STUDY 52-55

9. CONCLUSION 56-57

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY & APPENDIX 58-59

INTRODUCTION

Changes in the social, political and economic fabric of societies have influenced and
continue to influence both the nature of employment and its relationship to life
outside work. Work- life balance has emerged as a hot topic in recent years– fuelled
in part by changing trends in women’s social roles. Whilst labour market participation
has increased for women of all ages, women continue to shoulder the main
responsibility for organizing and undertaking unpaid caring work. Changing
employment patterns together with changes in the demographic structure of the
workforce have resulted in a different reality for the 21st century. Instead of trying to
manage copious amounts of leisure time, many employees are instead trying to juggle
numerous responsibilities with the increased, intensified demands of work.

Such reality, and in particular, transformations in the structure of both the workplace
and the workforce imply that work practices and employers’ expectations must
change accordingly. The traditional assumption that employees should be willing and
able to make work their top priority in life is no longer tenable. Globalization, new
technologies and business restructuring are challenging the long-established patterns
of paid work while imposing new burdens on families, individuals and households.

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Until quite recently it was widely assumed, particularly in and concerning the richer
countries, that working hours were steadily reducing, the amount of leisure time
increasing and that these trends would continue. Many people looked forward to a
golden age of leisure (WTO, 1999: 3).

The changing economic conditions and social demands have changed the nature of
work throughout the world. The concept of Work life balance is becoming more and
more relevant in an ever-dynamic working environment

1. WORKLIFE BALANCE

The transformations in the structure of both the workplace and the workforce imply
that work practices and employers’ expectations must change accordingly. The
traditional assumption that employees should be willing and able to make work their
top priority in life is no longer tenable. It is in this context that the notion of ‘work-
life balance’ has come to the fore in policy debates. Work/life balance is a global
topic of growing importance and frequent discussion. The reality is that most of us are
facing increasing competition for our time and energy. In today’s fast-paced world,
how can we have a satisfying work experience and a healthy personal life? The
expression WLB was first used in the late 1970s to describe the balance between an
individual's work and personal life. Work-life balance is a broad concept including
proper prioritizing between career and ambition on one hand, compared with pleasure,
leisure, family and spiritual development on the other. The term Work-life balance
can mean different things to different persons – and different things to same person at
various points in his/her career. Work-life balance is about --8-- creating and
maintaining supportive and healthy work environments, which will enable employees
to have balance between work and personal responsibilities and thus strengthen
employee loyalty and productivity. The challenge of work-life balance is without
question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern employee. The
challenge of balancing one’s work and personal life is experienced around the globe.
Organizations from all countries must respond to the struggle employees are facing by
implementing effective work-life initiatives.

2. WOMEN IN SERVICE SECTOR

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Out of the 3.0 billion people that were employed around the world in 2008, 1.2 billion
are women (40.4 per cent). In which sectors are women working, and what are the
working conditions faced by women? Only a small proportion of employed women
are working in industry (18.3 per cent in 2008, as compared to 26.6 per cent of men);
the large majority are - -7-- in agriculture and, increasingly, in the services sector. The
services sector accounted for

46.3 per cent of all female employment in 2008, as compared to 41.2 per cent of male
employment.9 ILO (2009) Today, India has more working women majorly in service
sector than any other country in the world, according to a paper commissioned as part
of NASSCOM's ongoing gender inclusivity initiative in association with Mercer
Consulting.

The demand for women employees will grow with the continued growth of this
sector.

3. WOMEN AT WORKPLACE

In India, it is taken for granted that economic activities are exclusively the prerogative
of males while domestic work, child bearing and child rearing are the sole
occupations of women. Historically, women in India have not enjoyed a good status
in workplace settings whether in managerial or operative roles. Since times
immemorial, women have been burdened with work of all sorts all through their lives.
From reproduction to all household chores and outside, their role as worker is
significant, unique and burdensome. But they are discriminated and exploited all over.
But today scenario is changing. Now female workers carry not only the load of
domestic work but also carry a significant part of the load of economic activity. Their
contribution to economic activity is in fact on the higher side than what is revealed by
the different Indian Censuses. Liberalization of the Indian economy has created
considerable employment opportunities for those, including women, who possess
marketable skills and talent. Today women form an important part of the Indian
Workforce. According to the information provided by the Registrar General of India,
the work participation rate for women was 25.68 per cent in 2001. This is an
improvement from 22.73 per cent in 1991 and 19.67 per cent in 1981.

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The work participation rate continues to be substantially less for females than for
males. Since independence in 1947, the percentage of women in the Indian workforce
has been on a steady increase 1 Datt & Sundaram, 1999. Women workers constituted
19 per cent of the total organized sector employment in the country, as on 31st March,
2004, there were about 49.34 lacs women workers employed in the organized sector
(Public and Private Sector).

Although most women in India work and contribute to the economy in one form or
another, much of their work is not documented or accounted for in official statistics.
Women flow fields and harvest crops while working on farms; women weave and
make handicrafts while working in household industries; women sell food and gather
wood while working in the informal sector. Additionally, women are traditionally
responsible for the daily household chores (e.g., cooking, fetching water, and looking
after children). Today, India has more working women than any other country in the
world, according to a paper commissioned as part of NASSCOM's ongoing gender
inclusivity initiative in association with Mercer Consulting.

In the traditional era, the women were confined to household work like cooking,
washing, cleaning, taking care of children, etc. They were considered as home makers
and were deprived of the right or opportunity to go outside home. But now the story is
different. Apart from home maker role, they also have a significant role to engage
even outside the home. With the increase in cost of living on one hand and the
improved education and employment opportunities on the other hand, both husband
and wife started working and many families became dual earners.

The growth of higher education has improved job prospects for women and resulted
in the move from stay-at-home mothers to thriving professional women. Over a
period of time women accomplished remarkable progress in every walk of life and
made a noteworthy mark in the respective fields. But there is no significant change in
performing the role of home maker. In majority homes, the women still do household
work, cooks, takes care of the family members and manages the house. With increase
in demands at work place and at home, the work- life balance of women employees is
at stake. In the cut throat competitive environment, the organization's expectations

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from the employees are increasing. In order to meet the employer's demand, the
employees have to stretch themselves and focus more on their work which is creating
work-life imbalance. In fact, striking a balance between work- life and personal life is
one of the most challenging issues being faced by the women employees in the
21century.

It is said that many women employees working in various sectors are having a
disturbed work-life balance leading to increasing number of divorces, strained
relationships among the family members, conflicts in the organizations and suicides.
The issue of work-life balance has become the hot topic in 2the current day scenario.
Sverko et al (2002) emphasized that changes in technology, values and demographic
trends contributed to the emergent relevance of work-life balance in industrialized
societies. It is supplemented by other factors which include increasing complexity of
work, change in nature of family and the extended number of women entering the
workforce. Work-life balance refers to the divergence between the work place
demands and the demands of personal life.

When either side becomes unbalanced for extended periods of time, the effect is likely
to be visible in unhealthy symptoms (fatigue, stress, depression, etc.). Alack of
synchronization between domestic life and work life causes great personal and
financial hardship, both to the individual and the company. In the competitive era,
organizations are under competitive pressure to achieve high productivity and require
employees with healthy work-life balance as an employee with good work-life
balance will be in a position to contribute more towards the organizational growth and
success (Naithani, 92010). Therefore, it is a high time for employers to draw out
strategies and help the women employees to enjoy their work and live life to the
fullest.

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 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Work- life Balance of Women Employees:

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Both personal and professional lives are important and women employees struggle to
do justice for both the roles and in the process if they spend more time pursuing one
role as opposed to the other can lead to negative outcomes (Nair, 142010) According
to Peeters, Montgomery, Bakker and 13Schaufeli, (2005), job demands and family
demands are often irreconcilable creating an imbalance between the two. Previously,
in India the female employees were mainly confined to low-profile or non-managerial
positions. Now, the story is different. Their presence is seen everywhere in different
positions in the workplace. These transformations in work culture have brought in
more additional duties and responsibilities for women employees towards their
family, work place and society as well (Mathew & Panchanatham, 82009). Therefore,
it is very much required to explore issues and implications of work-life balance.

For working women employees, work-life balance was considered as not only a
source of distress but also the major 7source of dissatisfaction (Hughes, 2007). Work-
life balance can be difficult to achieve for full time workers irrespective of work
schedules especially for those with children 18(Williams, 2006). Part- time work
would really help 1women to balance their work and family (Higgins, 2000). This is
the reason why many women employees choose part time job though there is lot of
discrimination in wage 6(Schone, 2006). Women always try to look for more self-care
time in an attempt to uncover new meaning in the work place, family 3and self-
equation (Geraldine Grady, 2008). In fact, women frequently commit to achieve
balance between their career 4and life (Kirton, 2006). Undoubtedly women
participation in labour market is increasing but at the same time their identity and
workload continue to be related to caring work 17especially for children (Thilakshi
Kodagoda, 2010). Equal opportunities are not just about women entering the work
force as equals. It is also about men being empowered to take on non- traditional roles
or careers (Nona Walia, 112012).

There are four factors relating to women's career continuity including household
responsibilities, the women personality variables, financial considerations and the
husband's attitude towards his wife's paid employment 16(Stolz & Marian, 1992).
Women who spend more time at work climb the corporate ladder faster than those
who don't 10work (Nirmala Govindarajan, 2009). Women choose to postpone child
birth or remain childless in order to pursue a 12working career (Oliver, 2009). In

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international assignments which involves the physical relocation of family for female
employees, work family conflicts are likely to increase due to the collective impact of
5role and culture uniqueness (Garris, 2004). Women have been argued on their behalf
that they have maintained the emotional responsibilities for home and family hence
they 15require more emotional intelligence (Srinivasa, 2009).

1. GoyalK. A, AgrawelA (2015) in the paper titled" Issues and challenges of

Work life balance in banking industry of India" explained that Work life balance
policies and programs are an investment in an organisation for improving
productivity, reducing absenteeism, achieving improved customer services, better
health, flexible working as well as satisfied and motivated workforce especially in

banking industry.

2. Singh S. (2013) mentioned Role stress theory in his paper Titled "Work-Life
Balance: A Literature Review" wherein the negative side of the work-family
interaction has been put under the spotlight. Recently, the emphasis has shifted
towards the investigation of the positive interaction between work and family role as
well as roles outside work and family lives, and scholars have started to deliberate on
the essence of work-life balance.

3. Jang (2008), studied" The relationship between work-life balance resources

and the well- being of working parents" which aimed to study how working parents
cope with work-life demands. The study used 27 working parents with either ill or
disabled children in New Jersey. It was mixed research with both qualitative and
quantitative results. The result talks about the effect of formal and informal workplace
support in enhancing the well-being of employees with the children in general and

those with a chronically ill or disabled child in particular.

4. Murthy M. and Shastri S. (2015) observed various issues in Work Life

Balance of Parents in the paper titled "A Qualitative Study on Work Life Balance of
Employees working in private sector", like parenting issues: Need more time for
children, Showing work frustration on children. Marital issues: Need more time of

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spouse, notable to give time to spouse. Role conflict/ Role guilt: Doubtful about how
good they are in the roles that they play at home... e.g., as a mother or as a daughter in
law.

5. Phyllis and Yun (2002) mentioned strategies in paper titled" Effective work
life strategies, working couples, work conditions, gender and life quality" focuses on
dual earner families. It was concluded and discussed in the study that the work life
strategies and work conditions are different among genders. For example, some
families prefer husbands working for a long hour and women to work part time or
fewer hours.

Women report more stress and overload and lower levels of coping when compared to
men.

Job insecurity is similar in both men and women.

6. Kumaraswamy M., Ashwini S. (2015) in paper titled" Challenges in WLB of

Married working Women" studied that it is important for employees to maintain a
healthy balance between work and their private lives. Generally, those employees who
have better work-life balance contribute more towards the success of the organization.
The organization can render better service to the customers by having productive and
efficient employees. Family sphere changes that have impacted the work life balance
of individuals in today's context include nuclear families, single parent households,
and dual earning parents, parents working at different locations and increasing
household work.

7. Kumari L. (2012) in her study" Employees Perception on Work Life Balance

and its relation with job satisfaction in Indian Public Sector Banks" emphasized that
each of the Work life balance factors on its own is a salient predictor of job
satisfaction and there is a significant gap between male and female respondents with
the job satisfaction with reference to various factors of Work life balance. The result
of the study had practical significance for human resource managers of especially
banks to improve staff commitments and productivity along with designing
recruitment and retention employees.

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8. Shalini and Bhawna (2012) reported in their study," Quality of work life
balance" is being used by the organizations as a strategic tool to attract and retain the
employees and more importantly to help them to maintain work life balance with
equal attention on performance and commitment at work.

9. Santosh R. S., Jain R. (2016) In their paper" Study of Effect of Commuting

&Working Hours on Work Life Balance of Working Fathers in Mumbai" proved that
long working hours and long commuting hours are seriously affecting the Work Life
Balance of working fathers in metro cities. There is need to research and investigate
further on this subject in order to improve lives and productivity of working men in
metro cities of India.

10. Lazar I. (2010) in paper titled" The Role of Work Life Balance Practices in
Order to Improve Organizational Performance", showcased that everyone benefits
from good practice in work-life balance. For instance: business through easier
recruitment, improved retention, and easier service delivery, as the labour market
grows more skilled and experienced people are available to work; parents and careers,
who can spend quality time at home as well as providing financial support through
work; people with disabilities, through improved access to work; and the workforce
generally where they are better able to balance their work with other aspects of their

lives.

Vijaya Mani (2013) has uncovered the central point impacting the Work Life Parity of
Ladies experts in India, for example, part clash, absence of acknowledgment,
authoritative govern- mental issues, sex separation, elderly and youngsters’
consideration issues, nature of wellbeing, issues in time administration and absence of
fitting social backing.

K. Santhana Lakshmi et al, (Walk 2013) have inspected that the Instructive
foundations should address the Work Life Off-set related issues among their staff,
particularly ladies also, take an all-encompassing way to deal with outline and
actualize the approaches to bolster the instructing staff to deal with their WLB.

Kumari K. Thriveni et al, (2012) have considered and broke down the huge
relationship between the demographic variables and WLB Shalini and Bhawna 2012
reported in their study, Nature of work life is being utilized by the associations as a

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key apparatus to pull in and hold the representatives and all the more essentially to
help them to keep up work life parity with equivalent consideration on execution and
duty at work.

Niharika and Supriya (2010) have considered the work-based variables and family
related components that are considered to add to work life equalization. Work based
variables are flexi time, alternative to work low maintenance and flexibility to
telecommute and the family related variables are tyke care office and adaptability to
deal with crises at home. Masako SETO et al, (2004) have analysed the impacts of
business-related components and Work Family Clash on depressive manifestations
among working ladies living with youthful youngsters in a Japanese City.

Ahmad, Aminah (2007) examined the work-family conflict experienced by 239

married female production operators in dual-career families, the social support they
received and the coping strategies used to manage the conflict. The women
experienced more work interference with family than family interference with work.
The intensity of work interference with family was significantly higher in the earlier
life-cycle stage than in the later stage. About two thirds of the women indicated that
they intended to leave their job upon having another child, mainly due to the rising
cost of childcare services. They received the least social support from their
supervisors compared to other sources, and tended to cope with conflict using reactive
role behaviour and personal role redefinition strategies.

Samantha J. Callan (2008) suggests for cultural revitalization as a generic principle of

change rather than focusing on conflict, or reflecting on the polarization of opinion
which can be common within organizations. Cultural change programmes with the
aim of work-life integration would do well to appreciate the importance of values and
correctly identify those which appear most resonant for employees, ensuring the

promotion of a work-life balance agenda.

Work Life Equalization implies the fitness to plan the hours of an individual expert
also, individual life in order to lead a sol-id and serene life. It underscores the
qualities, demeanors fur-thermore, convictions of ladies in regards to their age to

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work in sorting out and adjusting their work and individual life. (K. Santhana
Lakshmi &S. Sujatha Gopinath, Walk 2013). The accompanying variables affecting
the experience of WLB were distinguished while inspecting the different literary
works.

• Work Family Clash and Family Work Clash

• Ladies in different parts

• Professional success

• Work Stress

• Child care Work Life offset is not something that just happens.

It includes the endeavors of various accomplices: the worker, the association for
which the representative works, the family with whom the worker lives and the
general public in which all are implanted. It includes common comprehension and
admiration between these players. (N. Gayathri & Dr. P. Karthikeyan, August 2013)
Work Family Conflict and Family Work Conflict: Scientists characterize the
incongruently between the space of work and the area of crew as work-family
struggle. Struggle between these spaces happens when cooperation in one part is more
troublesome because of cooperation in the other part. Today, work-family struggle
(work meddling with family) is more predominant than family-work strife (family
meddling with work) however both can happen. Then again, paying little heed to the
bearing of causation, when one space is dissonant with another area, the outcome is
strife and expanded weight on the person. Attribution hypothesis expresses that there
are interior and outside clarifications for work-family and family-work struggle.

Krishna Reddy and Vranda (2010), talk about the issues of Family and Work Strife
and Work Family Struggle are more prone to apply negative impacts in the family
area, bringing about lower life fulfillment and more prominent inside clash inside of
the family variables affect the experience of WFC and FWC. Pay hypothesis
recommends that individuals add more to one area than the other with a specific end

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goal to equalization what needs in either. As it were, life equalization is an immediate
aftereffect of the measure of time and mental assets an individual chooses to focus on
both areas. In the event that the individual submits additional time or mental assets to
work, then work-family strife may increment. On the off chance that an individual
chooses to confer a greater number of assets to family than work, however work
necessities build, then family-work struggle likewise increments. While the contention
in the middle of work and family may be unavoidable, specialists, for example,
Friedman and Greenhaus (2000) recommend elective systems for decreasing the
anxiety. For instance, more independence in the working environment and systems
administration with companions can expand the nature of work life. Their studies
demonstrate that people who work for associations that permit people to invest more
energy at home, work in virtual business, and set aside a few minutes courses of
action, have a tendency to perform preferred as a guardian over the individuals who
don’t have these open doors. Keeping up fulfillment on both fronts is imperative for

lessening the sentiments of contention (Friedman and Green- haus, 2000).

Role of Women and WLB:

Ladies are for the most part into full time benefits and are working 8 hours for every
day and 5 days in a week least and are gone up against by expanding workload
ordinary. In this way, the greater part of them conveys work and obligations to home
yet adjusting between these two perplexing circumstances in the present-day quick
life obliges ability, affability, expertise and alert. Ladies need to adapt up to high
work targets, office duties, tight meeting timetables and the obligations and
obligations of life and home. Superintendents ought to focus on encircling different
approaches and plans to encourage Work life parity to empower and draw in ladies’
representatives. (Sayanti Ghosh, 2010).

Representatives take in various types of conduct from working environment life and
private life. Since equal collaborations between both the life spaces happen a Green
Work Life Parity
Idea is recommended to encourage naturally benevolent con-duct for them. (N.

Gayathri, Dr. P. Karthikeyan, (2013).

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 RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY

The study of the objectives and testing of hypothesis is dependent primarily on the
reliable measurement of the variables and secondly on the methods and procedures

applied for deriving conclusions.

Sample Design:

The women employees in Bangalore city constitute universe for the study. The
researcher selected women employees working in various sectors like banking,

insurance, IT, BPO, health care and education sector as the sample frame.

Sample Size:

The sample size considered for the study is 360 working women employees selected
from various professions and jobs. The sample respondents include doctors, teaching
faculty, software engineers, customer relationship officers, bank employees, etc.

Sampling Method:

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Simple random sampling method is used for the present study to ensure that different
strata i.e., different sectors are adequately represented in the sample.
Data Collection:

Both primary and secondary data are collected for the purpose of the study. The
survey method is used to gather primary information for the study. The required data
is collected from the sample respondents with the help of a questionnaire designed for
the purpose and through personal interviews also. The secondary data is collected

from books, journals, magazines, websites, etc.

Questionnaire:

Based on the objectives of the study, questionnaire is designed. The questionnaire

comprises few dichotomous (YES/NO) questions, few multiple-choice questions and

statements using Likert Scale method.

Statistical Tools Used for Research:

The tools that are used for analysing data are ANOVA, mean score and percentages.

METHODOLOGY:

The data has been collected thorough the structured questionnaire. The sample size
was 40 and all the respondents were from the education sector. The collection method
was convenient sampling. For the purpose of data analysis Z test has been applied
with the help of SPSS and where required the data has been presented with the help of
Pie chart and bar diagram.

H01: There is no significant difference in the mean value of women employees

think about work when they are not at work. The null hypotheses have been rejected
(p<0.05), hence it can be said that there is a significant difference in the mean value of
women employees thinking about the work. It may be due to they are overburdened or

they are very possessive about the work.

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H02: there is no significant difference in the mean value of women employees
spending much time at work place. The null hypotheses have been rejected (p<0.05),
hence it can be said that there is significant difference in the mean value of women
employees spending much time at work place. Spending more time at work place may
be due to that speed the female employees are slow or the nature of the work given to
them is time consuming.

H03: there is no significant difference in quality time spending with family and
friends due to work. The null hypotheses have been rejected (p<0.05), hence it can be
said that there is a significant difference in quality time spending with family and
friends due to work. The reason may be that they are not getting enough free time

after their work or due to some other responsibilities.

H04: There is no significant difference in temperament of women employees due to

workload. The null hypotheses have been rejected (p<0.05), hence there is significant
difference in temperament of women employees due to work load. Because of the
excessive work or multiple expectations, they are getting irritated or they are

responding with irritation.

H05: There is no significant difference in affecting domestic work due to office work
of women employees. The null hypotheses have been rejected (p<0.05), it can be said
that there is a significant difference in affecting domestic work due to office work of
women employees.

H06 there is no significant difference in problems in family due to office work of

women employees. The null hypotheses have been rejected (p<0.05), hence there is a
significant difference in family problems due to office work of women employees.
The reason may be that the work gets affected at home because of the office work.

H07 there is no significant difference in office work getting affected due to stress at
home. The null hypotheses have been rejected (p<0.05), hence there is a significant
difference in office work getting affected due to stress at home. It may be due to the
office pressure women were not able to concentrate on their domestic work which
creates stress.

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H08There is no significant difference in satisfaction of women employees by
organization support to manage the family problems. The null hypotheses have been
rejected (p<0.05), it can be said that there is a significant difference in satisfaction of
women employees by organization support to manage the family problems. Apart
from this the demographic variable show that 65% of women employees belongs to
age group 25-35(chart 1), 38% were arts graduate (chart 2), 45% of the employees
were having experience of 6months to 5 years and 55% were earning 5 to 10 thousand
per month.

Research study is descriptive study type of research service. This type of research
deals with quality of responses from the respondents, attitudes, interest, beliefs and
values, etc. Primary data was collected by questionnaire survey method. The
secondary data was collected from journals and articles to support research.

PERCENTAGE ANALYSIS:

The percentage method was extensively used for analysis and interpretation. It is
calculated as follows:

Number of Respondents favourable × 100

Total No. of Respondents

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The study reveals the following information about the personal information of
respondents,

Table -1 Age of The Respondents

Age Number of Percentage (%)

Respondents

Below 25years 34 34

26-30 years 26 26

31-40 years 19 19

41 and above years 21 21

Total 100 100

Inference: From the sample collected from out of 100 respondents, 34% of the
respondents belong to the age group of below 25 years, 26% of respondents belong to
the age between 26- 30 years, 21% of the respondents belong to the age group of more
than 41 years and 19% of respondents belong to the age between 31-40 years. It is
concluded that maximum (34%) of respondents belong to the age group of below 25
years.

2. Marital Status

Marital status Number of Percentage (%)

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 Respondents

Married 67 67

Unmarried 33 33

Total 100 100

Inference: From the sample collected from out of 100 respondents, 67% of the
respondents are married and 33% of the respondents are unmarried. It is concluded
that maximum (67%) of respondents is married.

3. Monthly Income of The Respondents

Monthly Income Number of Respondents Percentage

Below Rs.3000 0 0

Rs.3001- Rs.5000 8 8

Rs.5001-Rs.7000 33 33

Above Rs.7000 59 59

Total 100 100

From the sample collected from out of 100 respondents it is concluded that majority
(59%) of respondent’s monthly income is more than Rs.8000.

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 Table -
1. Educational Qualification of The Respondents

Educational Qualification Number of Respondents Percentage (%)

Below 8th std 14 14

8th -12th std 23 23

Graduate 44 44

Post graduate 19 19

Total 100 100

Inference
It is concluded that maximum (44%) of respondents is belong to 8th -12th Std
qualification.

Table-5 Work Experience in Banking Sectors

Experience Number of Respondents Percentage (%)

Less than 1year 25 25

2-5 years 65 65

6-10 years 8 8

More than 10 years 2 2

Total 100 100

Inference:

It is concluded that majority (65%) of respondents work experience is 2-5 years

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 Table -
6. Satisfaction of Working Hours

Satisfaction of Working Hours Number of Respondents Percentage (%)

Yes 72 72

NO 28 28

Total 100 100

From the sample collected out of 100 sample respondents ,72% of respondents
satisfied their working hours and 28% of respondents are not satisfied their working
hours. It is concluded that maximum (72%) of respondents is satisfied in their
working hours.

Table -7 Employees Opinion about Balancing Work life

Opinion Number of respondents Percentage (%)

Yes 69 69

No 31 31

Total 100 100

Inference: It is clear from table that out of 100 sample respondents who agree that
69% of women balancing their work life and 31% of women feel that not able to
balance their work life.

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 Table -

8. Employees Opinion about Separate Policy Provided by the Organization

To Balance Work life

Opinion Number of Respondents Percentage (%)

Yes 72 72

No 16 16

Not 12 12

Aware

Total 100 100

Inference: It is clear from the above table, out of 100 sample respondents 72% of
respondents told their organization is providing separate policy to balance their work
life, 16% of respondents said that organization is not providing separate policy to
balance their work life and 12% of respondents are not having awareness of separate
policy provided by organization.

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 Table -

Table-9 Separate Policy provided By the Organization to Balance Work life

Factors Number of Respondents Percentage (%)

Flexible Starting Hours 14 14

Flexible Finishing 26 26

Hours

Flexible hours in 28 28

General

Job sharing 15 15

Time off for Family 17 17

Events

Total 100 100

From the above table 3, we can know that separate policy provided by the
organization to balance the employee’s work life. In that we conclude that 28% of
employees are satisfied on Flexible hours in general.

Inference

It is concluded that majority (65%) of respondents work experience is 2-5

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Future Directions

It is critical for work and family research to fully understand the conditions under
which the married women employees experience conflict between their roles. There is
a need to consider working environment, job satisfaction, family support and number
of working hours in the future research. Future studies should also continue to refine
the methodology used in the area of work–family research. In order to attain in-depth
understanding of one's work and family life, researchers who study work–family roles
should include multiple perspectives such as job stress, quality of life, mental health,
and work demands. In addition, it is necessary to explore multiple waves of data
collection over a longer period of time to better understand the changing nature of
work family roles over time. Longitudinal studies need to be conducted to examine
how the stages of life (e.g., marriage, child birth, and child rearing) affect work and
family concerns. It is clear from the current study that married women employees
indeed experience WFC while attempting to balance their work and family lives.
Thus, organizations need to formulate guidelines for the management of WFCs since
they are related to job satisfaction and performance of the employees.

Like all studies, the current research has limitations. The sample in the present study
is quite small; hence, the generalization of the findings is limited. Additional research
is needed in other employment settings to explore the relationship between WFC and
quality of life among married women employees.

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 HYPOTHESIS & OBJECTIVES OF WORK LIFE BALANCE

Hypothesis of study:

Hypothesis 1:

H1o: Use of work life balance policies is not influenced by marital status

H1a: Use of work life balance policies is influenced by marital status

Hypothesis 2:

H2o: Use of work life balance policies is not influenced by age level

H2a: Use of work life balance policies is influenced by age level

Hypothesis 3:

H3o: Use of work life balance policies is not affected by number of dependents H3a:
Use of work life balance policies is affected by number of dependents.

Statement of the problem:

There is presence of work life imbalance among female employees working in

service sector in Pune city.

Hypothesis Validity:

All the three-hypothesis proposed by the researcher as mentioned above were proved
to be true and it was concluded that

• Use of work life balance policies is influenced by marital status

• Use of work life balance policies is influenced by age level

• Use of work life balance policies is affected by number of dependents

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Hypothesis of the Study

• There is significant association between childcare and organizational performance.

• There is significant relation between childcare and hours of work by women

employees.

• There is significant association between occupation (technology) and work life

balance of women employees.

• There is significant association between age and work life balance of the women
respondents.

• There is significant relation between recreation facilities and work life balance of
women employees.

Findings:

The findings of this survey reinforce the perceived importance of balance between
both work and personal aspects of one’s life to enable greater success to be achieved
in every area of life including professional matters. With increasing working
population and changes in perceived company commitment and loyalty, Work and
Personal Life balance is a real issue for employers and employees alike.

The participants rated work-life balance as the most important of the propositions. It
also was rated lowest for the amount of attention being paid to it through the
workplace.100 % of the female respondent said having work life balance is very
important for them.

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There is presence of imbalance among the work life and personal life of female
employees. 78 % female respondents have responded that their life is heavily
weighted toward work.

Only 4 % female employees said their life is in balance at present. 18 % female

respondent said at present their life is little weighted towards personal life. It was
observed that among those who reported that there is imbalance, majority said that

it was work that dominated.

Past financial experiences, Present financial requirements, future financial

requirements, use of educational qualification, overcome boredom at home, career
orientation, taking care of dependents, independence are the reasons being identified
for taking up the job. Practices followed by majority of female employees to manage
professional and personal life are Time Management, Use of personal vehicle for
commuting, Proper planning well in advance, participating in social networking.

The range of Work Life Balance initiatives by the organizations available can be
grouped into 4 main areas:

1. Leave provisions (such as parental and family leave)

2. Flexible hours provisions (including job sharing, flexible start and finish times)

3. Supportive structures and programs (such as child care provision or assistance)

4.Social policy initiatives.

Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no association between Work Support and women
employees.

Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): There is association between Work Support and women
employees.

Degree of freedom =(r-1) (c-1)

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 = (3-1) (3-1)

= (2) (2)

=4

Level of Significance = 9.488

Calculated value = 15.4224

Table value 9.488 is lesser than the calculated value 15.4224. So, the null hypothesis
is rejected. Therefore, it is concluded that the workers and the work satisfaction are
not independent.

Table- 11 Workplace Support and Women Employees

Work place support Agree Neutral Disagree

Total

All the employees are 54 30 16 100

Equal

Personal issues immediately 80 20 0 100

Good 56 13 31 100

Understanding

Total 190 63 47 300

Null Hypothesis (H0) = There is no association between Work Support and women
employees.

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Alternative Hypothesis (Ha) = There is association between Work Support and
Women Employees.

Degree of freedom =(r-1) (c-1)

= (3-1) (3-1)

= (2) (2)

=4

Level of Significance = 9.488. Calculated value = 43.6341

Table value 9.488 is lesser than the calculated value 43.6341. So, it is concluded that
here is significance difference between the Women Employee and the Support of the
workplace.

Therefore, the women Employees are support to workplace.

Important Factors to Balance Employees work life according to rank:

This following table explains that factors ranked by the employees which satisfied
them to balance their work life.

Table -12 Importance in balancing work life

a) More flexible hours 37 33 24 3 3 112 2

b) Work from home 22 6 23 39 10 132 1

c) Time off during school holidays 0 15 9 40 36 89 4

d) Support from family members 15 43 12 25 5 112 3

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 e) Time of during emergencies and events 1 1 5

Inference: Table 5, Explains above list of factors which helps to women employees to
satisfy and balance their work life in their organization and personal life. It is clear
from that table

132 respondents are satisfied on “Work from home”.

Objectives to study:

1. To identify the determinants of Work Life Balance of Women Employees

2. To find out present practices followed by women employees for WLB

3. To find the current policies by the organizations to facilitate WLB.

4. To identify the perception of women employees towards benefits and challenges

towards WLB.

5. To explore the statutory measures towards WLB.

6. To recommend / suggest ways for improving WLB

7. To ascertain the factors that affects the work-life balance of women of various
professions. 8. To reveal the effect of work-life balance of married working women
on their performance at work.

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9. To determine the work-life balance problems of married working women across
their demographic characteristics such as age group, number of children and spouse’s

profession.

10. To examine the relationship between demographic factors of the respondents and
Work life balance.

11. To study the perception of women employees about work-life balance and its
impact on the organizational effectiveness.

12. To identify the factors that help and hinder work life balance of women
employees.

13. To identify the impact of technology on work life balance.

14. To provide suitable suggestions to enhance the work life balance.

BENEFITS OF WORK LIFE BALANCE

Recognized benefits of work-life balance policies for employees include:

1. Improved work-life balance –a reduction in the impact of work on home and family
life

2. Reduced stress levels

3. Control over time management in meeting work-life commitments

4. Autonomy to make decisions regarding work-life balance

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5. Increased focus, motivation and job satisfaction knowing that family and work
commitments are being met

6. Increased job security from the knowledge that an organization understands and
supports workers with family responsibilities

7. Decreased Health Care Costs and Stress-Related Illnesses: With increasing

company focus on the high cost of health care, work/life programs are becoming an
intelligent choice to help lower the number of health care claims.

The employees and employers need to manage well both their both personal and job-
related stresses. If this strategy is managed well then it can surely reap the following
benefits:

EMPLOYER’S BENEFIT

There will be a reduction in Absenteeism rates and lateness.

Work life balance paves a way for increased employee morale and commitment. It
helps in reduction in stress and improved productivity.

It leads to the attraction of Skilled Employee.

The policies of work life balance assist to decrease in Employee Turnover. It provides
for Lower Recruitment and Training Cost.

It increases Return on Investment as Employee Stay for a Longer period.

EMPLOYEE’S BENEFIT:

Work life balance policies provide the ability to manage work and Individual
commitments.

It leads to improved personal and family relationships.

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It guides to have increased focus, motivation and job satisfaction knowing that the
family and work commitments are being met.

It leads to less distraction.

Paving a way for high morale and motivation

Directs in increased in job security due to organizational support through work life

balance policies.

Benefits of Work life Balance Programme:

Companies with high levels of employee’s satisfaction know that work-life balance
options are not “perks”. They are part of a business strategy that provides a solid
return on investment for the company as well as the workforce. In recent surveys,
companies across the world have reported that work-life balance programs have them
to:

•Reinforce recruitment Studies show work-life balance is one of the benefits

employees are looking for in a job, providing a competitive edge in tight labour
market.

•Raise retention The majority companies reported improved retention as an outcome

of work- life balance programs.

•Limit latecomers Companies reported reduced instances of employees arriving late

for work as a result of flex time options.

•Power up productivity Companies reported significant gains in productivity after

implementing work-life balance programs.

•Neutralize the nay saying these strategies produce gains in employee satisfaction
surveys, customer service evaluations and relationships among colleagues.

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•Promote participation in training.

Studies show employer support of work-life balance allows and encourages greater
participation in training and education.

•Engage the emerging labour market

The majority of high school and university students name work-life balance as a
personal goal.

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Existing Work-Life Benefits

Current work-life benefits could be better, the report found. Only 16% of employees
are satisfied with their organization's work-life practices. Nearly a third of workers
are skimping on work to meet personal commitments.

The majority of people don't even know what's available to them. Fewer than one-
third of employees are aware of their employer's work-life offerings. Work-life
benefits might include permission for telecommuting, flexible hours and on-site or
subsidized childcare.

Of those who are aware, only 25% say those offerings match their preferences. And
more than half of employees never use the available work-life benefits.

Which Work-Life Benefits Do Employees Want?

Employees prefer work-life benefits that help them manage their workload. For
instance, they like flexible work schedules, an appropriate amount of work, and
predictable working hours.

When most desirable employer asked about the five practices,

• 63% of employees included a flexible work schedule

• 62% cited an appropriate workload • 13% was the average for all other work-

life practices.

Recommendations for Employers:

Companies should improve their work-life benefits and communicate them to

employees, the report suggested. “Employees don't necessarily have to use work-life
practices to generate positive returns for the organization," the researchers noted.

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"Awareness of the work-life proposition is, in fact, slightly more important than
consumption of it."

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

INTRODUCTION:

Kumari K Thriveni & Devi V Rama (2012) stated that changes in the workplace and
in women employee demographics in the past few decades have led to an increased
concern for understanding the boundary and the interaction between employee work
and non-work lives. Demographic variables such as age, education, income,
experience, marital status, nature of family, number of children and nature of
residence influence the women employees in their work life balance.

The work-life balances of working women are influenced by various aspects like
working environment, work place relation, work-family understanding. The
influences of work life balance and imbalances on the working women are attributed
by different consequences in terms of their personal, family, social, occupational and
environmental basis. In addition to that it is imperative to understand the working
women and their profiles along with the status of work life balance in banking,
healthcare and IT/ITES sectors. By keeping this aspect, the collected data related to
women employees’ attitude about work life balance are analysed in this chapter. The
analyses of collected data have been done with the help of percentage analysis,
Garrett Ranking, and cross table with testing of association.

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AGE COMPOSITION OF THE RESPONDENTS:

Age is a prominent factor that influences the capability of any individual. The level of
age makes the individuals’ maturity level, attitude, skill and involvement
subsequently change. In this aspect, the women as multi role players are affected
based on their age composition. The age of any woman influences her to change her
perception, leads to commitment level, changes in the magnitude of issues faced.

Working women based on their age background undergo different categories of

pressure in the dimensions of family, social, personal and occupational bases. The
women employees based on their age composition encounter different facets of work
life balance related issues. In order to understand these aspects, the age composition
of working women in banking, healthcare and IT/ITES sectors have been analysed.

The Above table shows the age composition of working women in banking sector.
12.6 percent of women employees are in the age category of less than 25, 12.1 percent
are in the age composition of 26 to 30. 23.2 percent of women employees are in the
age group of 31 to 35, 24.2 percent are in the composition of 36 to 40 and 16.2
percent of them are in the category of above 45. It clearly tells that the distribution of

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women employees in banking industry in India are evenly distributed based on their
age.

Regarding the age composition of the respondents in healthcare sector, 12.6 percent
are in the age group of less than 25, 11.6 percent are in the age group between 26 and
30, 33.6 percent comes under the age category of 31 to 35, 18.6 percent in the age
composition of 36 to 40, 12.9 percent in the category of 41 to 45 and 10.7 percent are
in the age group of above 45. It is shown that the age group of 31 to 35 reasonable
existence in healthcare sector.

The age composition of the respondents in IT/ITES sectors tells that 20.9 percent are
in the age group of less than 25, 43.3 percent comes under the category of 26 to 30,
13.2 percent constitute in the age category of 31 to 35, 7.1 percent of the respondents
are in the age group of 36 and 40, 6 percent in the age category of 41 to 45 and 9.3
percent are above the age group of 45. It is arrived from the table that in IT/ITES
sector the constitution of women in the group of 26 to 30 is high.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND OF THE RESPONDENTS

(Khanka, 1998) highlights that education is the aspect that makes an individual attain
the status both in society and profession. It also helps the individuals to understand
and manage work and other parts of personal demands. The education is the source of
support to any woman to involve herself in occupation through which she attains the
economic and social status. It is also a channel for her to manage all forms of issues
during the time of her employment. In connection to that, educational background is
an attribute that helps the women to manage work life balance related issues. The
below interpretation describes the educational background of women working in
banking, healthcare and IT/ITES sectors.

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The above table informs that of the educational background of women employees
working in banking sector. 6.6 percent of the respondents have the education of
matriculation. 6.1 percent have intermediate or higher secondary educational
qualification, 34.3 percent of them are graduates, 22.2 percent are post graduates, 17.2
percent are professionals in the engineering, law and management and 13.6 percent
possess other forms of educational qualifications like agriculture management and
diploma.

The table clearly indicates that the women employees working in banking sector have
graduate and post graduate qualifications.

The educational background of the respondents in healthcare sector described in the

table 5.3 shows that, 6 percent have secondary school background, 16.7 percent have
the background of intermediate, 36.2 percent possess degree qualification, 14.5
percent have post graduate, 8.8 percent have professional qualification like post
graduate nursing, medical and 17.9 percent have other qualifications like diploma and
certified nursing courses.

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Regarding the educational background of the respondents in IT/ITES sectors, 7.1
percent have secondary level background, 6 percent possess higher secondary level
qualification, 22.5 percent have graduate background, 29.1 percent have post graduate
background in various selected disciplines, 21.4 percent possess professional
qualifications like engineering and management and 13.7 percent have other
qualifications like diploma or technical. It also shows that a majority of women
employees in IT/ITES have a minimum of graduate level qualifications.

MARITAL STATUS OF THE RESPONDENTS:

The women’s responsibility and accountability augment based on her status of

marriage. The types of autonomy enjoyed by women differ before and after marriage.
The women after marriage have the family and social responsibility. In addition to
that, modern day family systems need women to offer economic support and that
makes them look for occupation.

But at the same time women’s occupation make them balance both work and family
responsibilities. The marital status of women significantly differs in various sectors.
In order to understand these aspects, the following study has been conducted in the
form of table which deals with the marital status of women employees in banking,
healthcare and IT/ITES sectors.

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The above table describes the marital status of working women in banking sector.
14.6 percent of the respondents are unmarried. The married women are 42.4 percent.
24.7 percent of women are divorced and 18.2 of the respondents are in the status of
widowhood. The proportional rate of divorced is more among the working women in
this sector. Regarding the marital status of the respondents in healthcare sector, 13.5
percent are unmarried, 43.4 percent are married, 24.8 percent are divorces and 18.2
percent are widows. The marital status of the respondents in IT/ITES sectors
described in the table 5.4, 38.5 percent are unmarried, 32.4 percent are married,14.8
are divorced and 14.3 percent are widows. It shows that more women employees in
IT/ITES sectors are in the category of unmarried than others.

MONTHLY INCOME OF THE RESPONDENTS:

(Vanitha and Meenakumari, 2011) stated that that the source of income is an
instrument that makes the social composition of any family in society. The attainment
of wealth and welfare are determined through the sources of income. Today the
family demands women to go to work and their income. It is also an instrument that
makes women balance their working environment in proportion to family demands
through the source of income. The below table

5.5 shows the income level of the women employees in banking, healthcare and
IT/ITES sector.

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This following table shows the income status of the respondents in banking sector.
28.8 percent of the respondents earn less than Rs.20000 as monthly income. The
income level of Rs.20000 and Rs.30000 is for 51.5 percent of the respondents. 19.7
percent of the respondents receive monthly income of more than Rs.30000. It is
observed that the earning level of women is affordable in banking sector. The monthly
income of the respondents in healthcare is shown in the table of 5.5, 47.8 percent of
the respondents receive less than Rs.20000, 32.1 percent obtain between Rs.20000
and Rs.30000 and 20 percent get more than Rs.30000. It is shown that the income
level of a majority of women employees in healthcare sector lies between Rs.20000
and Rs.30000. Regarding the monthly income of the respondents in IT/ITES sectors,
23.6 percent receive less than Rs.20000 income, 31.9 percent get the income between
Rs.20000 and Rs.30000 and 44.5 percent obtain more than Rs.30000. It shows that

major income group in IT/ITES comes under the category of more than Rs.30000.

NATURE OF FAMILY OF THE RESPONDENTS:

(Clark, 2000) said that the family system makes an individual interact and is the
instrument which helps the individuals to share their feelings, emotions, sentiments
and values. Based on the system of family, the individuals’ role and contribution
differ. In this aspect, compared to men, women are highly influenced by the system of

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family. The nature of family constitution definitely influences the responsibility of
working women and also it is the source of instrument for managing work life balance
of women employees. The table shows the family system of the women employees in
banking, healthcare and IT/ITES sectors.

This table outlines the details of nature of family of the respondents. 26.3 percent of
the respondents of women employees working in banking sector live in joint family
system, 49 percent are in nuclear family category and 24.7 percent are in the extended
family category. It shows that women during the time of occupation prefer to live in
nuclear family system than other categories like joint and extended. Regarding the
nature of family of the respondents in healthcare sector, 26.1 percent are in joint
family, 49.7 percent are in nuclear family and 24.2 percent are in extended family
systems. The nuclear family system ranks one among the women employees in
healthcare sector. Table 5.6 also shows the family nature of the respondents in
IT/ITES sectors, 33 percent are in joint family system, 48.9 percent are in nuclear
family and 18.1 percent are in extended family system. The major part of women
employees in IT/ITES live in nuclear family system.

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 FUTURE SCOPE FO WOMAN EMPLOYEMENT

The modern world women have been able to overcome the hurdle of society’s
perception of considering them to the confined to the four walls of the house or
viewing them as weak entrepreneurs caught up in limited business area such as pickle
preparation food items, paintings, handicrafts, etc.

They have been able for show a remarkable shift from these small entrepreneurs at
ventures to modern technology-based business ventures such as:

i. Computer services and information dissemination

ii. Trading in computer stationary

iii. Computer maintenance

iv. Computer maintenance

v. Travel and tourism

vi. Quality testing, quality control laboratories

vii. Sub-assemblies of electronic products

viii. Nutrition clubs in schools and offices

ix. Poster and indoor plant library

x. Recreation centers for old people

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 xi. Culture centers

xii. Screen printing, photograph and video shooting

xiii. Stuffed soft toys, wooden toys

xiv. Mini laundry, community eating centers xv. Community kitchens

xv. Distributing and trading of house hold provision as well as saris, dress
materials, etc.

xvi. Job contracts for packaging of goods

xvii. Photocopying, typing centers

xviii. Beauty parlours

xix. Communications centers like STD booths, cyber cafes, etc.

Woman Entrepreneurs in India:

In modern days, women entrepreneurs are playing a very important role in business,
trade or industry. Their entry into business is of recent origin. Women have already
shown their vital role in other spheres like politics, administration, medical and
engineering, technical and technological, social and educational services. This is true
in advanced countries and now in recent years, they have been entering into these
fields in our country. Their entry into business is a recent phenomenon in India.

It is an extension of kitchen activities. In certain businesses, women entrepreneurs are

doing exceedingly well and even they have exceeded their male counterparts. Women
are successful not only in law, science, medical, aeronautics and space exploration
and even in police and military services, but now they are showing their might even in
business and industry. They have proved that they are no less them men in the
efficiency, hard work, or intelligence, provided they are given proper scope.

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The role or importance of women entrepreneurs may be ascertained from the study of
the functions they perform.

These functions are as under:

a) Exploring the prospects of starting new enterprises.

b) Undertaking risks and handling economic uncertainties.

c) Introducing innovations.

d) Co-ordinating administration and control.

e) Routine supervision.

It may be observed that these functions are not always of equal importance. For
example, risk-taking and innovation functions are of utmost importance for
establishing, diversifying and running the business successfully co-ordination and
supervision functions become important in improving the efficiency and attaining the
goodwill for the business as well as in assuring the smooth balanced operation of the
enterprise.

In the case of women enterprises, usually the same lady performs all these functions
and some-times, she may also take the assistance of other female staff members. In
most of the cases, a woman is the owner of the business enterprise.

Generally, the following three types of business are suitable to the women
entrepreneurs:

a) Manufacturing a product for direct sale in the market.

b) Manufacturing a product or a part of the product to meet the short term or long-
term order of a large industrial company, and

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c) Operating purely as a sub-contractor of raw materials supplied by the customers.

Woman Entrepreneurs in India, comparison between woman and men

entrepreneurs:

Woman Entrepreneurs:

a. Occupational Background:

i. Housewife

ii. Service-related occupational background

2. Sources of Funds:

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 i. Family and personal funds

ii. Personal loans

3. Reasons for becoming an entrepreneur:

i. Earning extra money for the family

ii. Keeping oneself gainfully occupied

iii. Inability to seek wage employment

iv.Lack of growth in the present job

4. Motivation:

i. Flexibility in working hours

ii. To be independent

iii. Achievement – accomplishment of a goal

5. Personality:

i. Flexible and Tolerant

ii. Goal oriented

iii. Adequate self confidence

iv. Enthusiastic and energetic

v. Creative and realistic

6. Support Group:

i. Close friends

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 ii. Family and husband

iii. Women organizations.

Men Entrepreneurs:

1. Occupational Background:

i. Experience in line of work

ii. Competence in managing business

2. Sources of fund:

i. Personal savings

ii. Bank finance

iii. Investors.

3. Reasons for becoming an entrepreneur:

i. Job frustration

ii. Side activity of present job

4. Motivation:

i. Self-image as it relates to status

ii. Desire to grow faster

iii. Achievement – strive to make things happen.

5. Personality:

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 i. Goal oriented

ii. High level of self confidence

iii. Enthusiastic and energetic

iv. Innovative and idealistic.

6. Support Group:

i. Professionals

ii. Family

iii. Business associates.

Motivational and Empowerment Factors for Women Entrepreneurship:

Following are few suggestions for development of women entrepreneurs:

 Encourage women’s participation in decision making.

 Training in professional competence.

 Counselling through the aid of committed NGOs.

 Continuous monitoring.

 Women entrepreneurship guidance cell system.

 Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women.

 Consider women as specific target group for all developmental

programme.

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  Adequate training programme on management skills to be provided to
women.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Barriers or challenges to Work Life Balance:

Only paper work no implementation: Many organizations have the policies only on
paper. There is very less concern for the implementation of the policies.

 Lack of communication: Communication about work/life programs is

essential. Although an organization may offer a rich menu of work/life benefits,
the desired effect—yielding positive business results is unlikely to occur if
employees do not know about the programs or understand them.

 Team Work: Introducing, operating and implementing work-life balance

requires collaborative working and is very much a holistic process.

 Time Consuming: Implementing a WLB strategy takes time. Timescales

for implementation need to be realistic.

Limitations:

The undertaken research is only related to work life balance issues of female
employees employed in service sector only. It excludes the females who are
employees in other sectors viz, Manufacturing or agricultural sector. It excludes the
male employed population. The survey excludes the unemployed and the self-
employed, so the level of imbalance in the population as a whole may vary. The study
is with reference to female employees in Pune

City only. There is future scope for doing research on wider basis viz for whole state
of Maharashtra or India or on international basis.

Future research must focus on a wider sample in order to get more generalized results.
Moreover, it must be directed at understanding individual differences so that

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employee specific initiatives to improve work life balance could be initiated by
organizations. The size of the sample used to determine the dimensions of the scale
was small. As a result, the stability of the results is uncertain.

Factors affecting work life balance:

The degrees of agreement about factors affecting work life balance of respondents
were assessed using an instrument consisting of 15 items on a 5-point scale ranging
from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The responses have been analysed as
follows.

Burden of excessive work: 67% of the respondents agree that they suffer from the
burden of excessive work. Working women are often confronted with tasks involving
children, home, in-laws, parents and their social circle. To add to this, they must also
take up multiple roles in their personal lives. With the increasing demands on the job,
working women have to spend long hours of work and sometimes even carry their
work home. Therefore, majority of them are burdened with excessive work in both
their personal and work spaces. This is a contributing factor to work life imbalance
and may lead to conflict.

Interference of work with family life: Majority of the respondents agreed that work
interfered with family life. This may be attributed to the fact that mostly work hours
are not limited to 7 or 8 hours a day and the private sector employees spend 12-16
hours at work. This leaves them with very little time for family. As more that one half
of the respondents are employed in the private sector, there may be interference of
work with family life due to long hours spent in completing official work.

Fulfil others’ expectations: A large majority of the respondents (77%) agree that they
are under pressure to fulfil other’s expectations. As working women are constantly
juggling between two full time jobs, taking multiple roles in both domains, there is a
lot of work pressure resulting in work life conflict. While, there is a lot of expectation
from family to fulfil social roles, the organisation also expects them to perform
effectively. Both domains expect the working women to do full justice to all their

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roles thereby exerting tremendous stress and strain. The above analysis suggests that
in trying to fulfil others’ expectations, working women are often left with very little
space for themselves to pursue their personal interests.

Longer work hours: Working women have to put in longer hours of work as they
need to compete with their male counterparts in their work domain so as to
remain in the race for advancement and promotions.

In the Indian context, women remain the sole caretakers of children and older
dependents which will entail longer hours of work at home thus jeopardizing their
work life balance. It is observed that working women are left with hardly any time to
pursue personal interests. No time for oneself: Majority of the respondents agreed that
they had no time for themselves. Though a large majority (84%) of the respondents
did not have to travel frequently at work and over 50% of them also had family
support, they had to commute long distances every day to work. This robbed them of
precious time that could be constructively spent for their personal growth or spiritual
pursuits.

Further, the analysis of responses on factors affecting work life balance has indicated
that working women selected for the purpose of this study are not necessarily stressed
due to financial pressures. Over 40% of the respondents also disagree that they do not
find time to meet social obligations. Working women in India are not exempt from
fulfilling their social obligations. As women are aware that certain social obligations
must be met whether they are working or not, they may be consciously setting aside
the time to fulfil such obligations.

Discussions with respondents revealed that though the younger generation Indian men
today are more tolerant of non-traditional lifestyles of the working women in their
homes, they are still fairly conservative and expect women to manage household
work and childrearing tasks. Often, working women are expected to make career
sacrifice by restricting themselves to limited work at the workplace. This may cause
anger and frustration which has the potential to spill over to the various role’s women
play in their work and family lives.

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Consequences of poor work-life balance:

The responses concerning consequences of poor work-life balance are analysed. High
levels of stress and anxiety: Majority (78%) of the respondents agree that they
experience high levels of stress and anxiety due to poor work-life balance. Working
women not only have to manage the tasks involved in bearing and raising children but
also have to deal with high levels of anxiety in having to compete in a man’s world.
Besides, they have to constantly juggle between the family and work preventing them
from aspiring to progress in their career beyond a particular level. Some working
women may choose to prioritize career over family. In such cases, they may
experience frustration and guilt in compromising on the time to be spent with family.
In either situation, working women are forced to make a difficult choice or
compromise resulting in stress and anxiety thereby adversely affecting their health.

Disharmony at home:

68% of the respondents agree that the consequence of poor work-life balance is
disharmony at home. Indian societal norms prescribe that woman must perform
certain household chores whether they are employed or not. In case of working
women, their work responsibilities may prevent them from conforming to societal
norms causing displeasure among family members resulting in discord and
disharmony at home. Unwillingness on the part of other family members to share
work exerts pressure on the working women. Moreover, the tendency to belittle a
working woman’s career and conferring a higher status as the primary breadwinner’s
role for the man, results in the dumping of all household responsibilities upon the
woman. This biased treatment of working women results in imbalance which could
lead to frustration and disharmony at home.

Job burnout: Majority of the respondents fall in the age bracket between 35 years and
55 years with more than 10 years’ work experience. Therefore, they are likely to be
in the middle management cadre having to lead teams and fulfill higher level
responsibilities. At this stage of their lives, they are also likely to be engaged in the
upbringing of teenage children and caring for elderly dependants. All this exerts
tremendous strain as, often the working women are torn between the demands of

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their personal and professional lives. In the workspace, they need to compete with
younger colleagues and keep themselves updated of developments in their areas of
work. Beyond a point, it becomes very difficult for working women to cope with the
pressures at work. Many of them are also affected by deteriorating health which
further aggravates their problems both at work and at home.

CONCLUSION

The study revealed that working women has the pressure in work life. There is a big
challenge for working women to balance both profession life and family life. The
Working women face several problems not only at the work place but also at their
home, even though they manage the family life. In-spite of these issues, women are
playing a vital role in their life to manage their dual responsibility. Between this dual
life-style the women suffer with a lot of mental and physical health problems.
Working women have to handle tactfully her various spheres of life to achieve work
life balance. She has to skilfully trace out ways in which she gets mutually benefited

in all works of life.

The working women play a very important role in the organizations and also in their
personal life. The demand for women employees is increasing day by day and their
contribution to nation’s growth and economic progress is significant. It is the joint
responsibilities of both organizations and the working women's family to take care of
the well-being of them which in turn will pave a way for a modern society. Hence to
conclude, achievement and enjoyment in all spheres will lead to work life balance.

Work life balance becomes highly important to study what women undergo in their
career path as they will be handling their family as well at the same time. The stress
and work pressure are far more than others as a lot of time management, job

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management, kid management, house management everything is put under criteria. It
is critical for work and family research to fully understand the conditions under which
the married women employees experience conflict between their roles. It is clear from
the current study that married women employees indeed experience WLB while
attempting to balance their work and family lives which in turn affects the human
resource development of the organizations. Thus, organizations need to formulate
guidelines for the management of WLBs since they are related to job satisfaction and
performance of the employees. The report argues that the organization (work) and the
supporting value from home will encourage work life balance and in practice will
reap the benefits and reduce the stress levels in both joint and nuclear family which
will increase the productivity both at home and work.

The analyses of work life balance presented in this study are an attempt to understand
factors affecting work life balance of working women and consequences of poor work
life balance. In the Indian context, women remain primarily responsible for their
family and career is rarely given top priority. This study has revealed that burden of
excessive work, the need to fulfill others’ expectations and not having time for
themselves are the prime factors affecting work life balance of working women. As a
consequence, women suffer from job burn-out, experience high levels of stress and
anxiety, are unable to realize their full potential and also do not enjoy harmonious
family life. Informal discussions with working women revealed that those who had
family support and flexible work schedule enjoyed better work life balance. The
above findings have implications for working women with regard to gaining a deeper
understanding of factors affecting work life balance and consequences of poor work
life balance. It also provides insights into finding solutions to maintain healthy work
life balance.

The present study concludes that the level of women employees’ satisfaction on work
life balance in personal and work life satisfaction is higher for the women employees
of nationalized banks than in private sector banks. They are more comfortable with
the WLB policies and get good support from the workplace. They are more pleased
with the financial assistance with less workload and thus they are more satisfied with
the work environment both in urban and rural areas. Good family support, better child

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care and dependent care, self-management increases the level of satisfaction both
urban area and rural area women employees in their personal environment. Family
support plays major role in good child care, dependent care and self-management.
However, their level of satisfaction is not fulfilled up to their expected level in
personal environment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Website Reference:

➢ www.en.wikipedia.org

➢ www.shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

➢ www.ictactjournals.in

➢ www.ajmjournal.com

➢ www.researchgate.net

➢ www.thebalancecareers.com

➢ www.worldwidejournals.com

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➢ http://www.isec.ac.in

➢ https://www.ijser.org

➢ www.ukessays.com

APPENDIX

1. AGE
 Below 25 years
 26-30 years
 31-40 years
 41 and above

1. Marital Status
 Married
 Unmarried

1. Monthly Income of The Respondents.

 Below 3000
 3000 – 5000
 5000-7000
 7000 and Above
1. Educational Qualification of The Respondents.
 Below 8th Std
 8th to 12th Std
 12th - Graduation
 Post Graduate

1. Work Experience in Banking Sectors

 Less than 1 Year
 2-5 Years
 6-10 Years
 More Than 10 Years

1. Satisfaction of working hours

 Yes
 No

1. Employees Opinion About Balancing work life

 Yes

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  No

8. Employees Opinion about Separate Policy Provided By the

Organization To Balance Work life.
 Yes
 No
 Not Aware

9. Separate Policy provided By the Organization to Balance Work life

 Flexible Starting Hours
 Flexible Finishing Hours
 Flexible Hours in General
 Job Sharing
 Time Off for Family Events.

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