The Kenexa® Research Institute evaluated female workers' opinions of work/life balance. In the U.S. 61 percent of women report their company supports employees' efforts to balance work and family/personal responsibilities. The report is based on the analysis of data drawn from a representative sample of 10,000 U.S. workers who were surveyed through WorkTrends™, KRI's annual survey of worker opinions.

Traditionally, women play a large role in managing their family responsibilities and, therefore, are likely to feel the pressure of balancing both work and family demands. Although there are competing pressures from both work and home, in the United States, 61 percent of women state that they can meet career goals and still devote sufficient attention to their personal lives.

Experiencing work/life balance is defined as having the ability to meet career goals, while devoting attention to family/personal life and working for an organization that supports employees' efforts to balance work and family/personal responsibilities.

Women in the U.S. report they are more likely to achieve balance when their stress level at work is reasonable, they enjoy, in fact, get excited about their work, they feel there is a promising future for them at the company, the company values their contribution and employees are encouraged to participate in making decisions that affect their work.

For all female workers studied, working in an organization that supports work/life balance has a significant, favorable impact on how these workers rate their pride in their organization, willingness to recommend it as a place to work and their overall job satisfaction. Additionally, those female employees who report having a balance between work and personal responsibilities state a much lower intention to leave the organization.

In the United States, the highest percentage of women reporting that they can achieve work/life balance work is in the hi-tech industry (69 percent), followed by those in the financial services (66 percent), healthcare services (63 percent), government (61 percent) and manufacturing (57 percent) industries. The lowest percentage of women (53 percent) reporting work/life balance work is in retail.

"It is encouraging to see that women can find a balance by 'bringing home the bacon' and 'keeping the home fires burning,' but some organizations can do more. Almost 40 percent of women don’t report adequate organizational support. Companies that build a supportive infrastructure and processes stand to attract and retain talented employees and also strengthen their marketplace advantage," said Brenda Kowske, Ph.D., research consultant, Kenexa Research Institute.

Database Overview
The WorkTrends database is a comprehensive normative database of employee opinions on topics including leadership, employee engagement and customer orientation. In 2010, approximately 10,000 workers in the United States, and 1,000 individuals in each of the following countries/regions took the WorkTrends survey online: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The Gulf Co-op Council (GCC) countries of the Middle East were also surveyed to a lesser extent due to surveying limitation in that region of the world. The GCC countries include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Altogether, 29,338 employees were surveyed in 2010.

Study Details
The WorkTrends survey questions were designed specifically to evaluate how workers view their own work/life balance. The questions asked were:

• I can meet my career goals and still devote sufficient attention to my family/personal life
• My company supports employees' efforts to balance work and family/personal responsibilities

Opinion items were rated using a 5-point Likert-like scale. The percentage favorable is the percentage of employees who chose either of the two most positive answers (typically "strongly agree" or "agree").

Survey Results
Women in the U.S. report they are more likely to achieve balance when their stress level at work is reasonable, they enjoy, in fact get excited about their work, they feel there is a promising future for them at the company, the company values their contribution and their manager makes a personal investment in their growth and development.

Work/Life Balance for Women, by Country
Experiencing work/life balance is defined as having the ability to meet career goals, while devoting attention to family/personal life and working for an organization that supports employees' efforts to balance work and family/personal responsibilities.

Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is defined as the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organizational success, and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplishing tasks important to the achievement of organizational goals. An engaged employee has pride in, advocates for, is loyal to his/her employer and exerts discretionary effort toward achieving employer goals.

The Employee Engagement Index is the average level of agreement for:

• I am proud to tell people I work for my company.
• Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my company as a place to work.
• I would recommend this place to others as a good place to work.
• I rarely think about looking for a new job with another company.