Work-family conflict and the commodification of women’s employment in three Chinese airlines

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Author
Foster, Deborah
Ren, Xiaoni
Date
2015Type
Article
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
ISSN
0958-5192
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In the East, where gender is mediated by different family structures, societal institutions and economic development, the work–family conflict (WFC) metaphor remains appropriate. This paper investigates Chinese women's experiences of WFC in the fastest growing commercial airline sector in the world. It finds that, in contrast to the West, work-to-family, rather than family-to-work, conflict dominates. Liberalization, competition and commercialization have also had a significant gendered impact on jobs. The latter resulting in the commodification of women's aesthetic and emotional labour, job segregation, employment insecurity, poor career opportunities and increased WFC. We explore reasons why HR policies and practices in airlines fail to address women's workplace concerns and find that occupational status and lack of organizational power, together with the prevalence of traditional gendered norms and attitudes, play important roles
Journal/conference proceeding
The International Journal of Human Resource Management
Citation
Foster, D. and Ren, X. (2015) ‘Work-family conflict and the commodification of women’s employment in three Chinese airlines’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26 (12), pp.1568-1585
Description
This article was published in The International Journal of Human Resource Management, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.949821
The author's post-print is available in this repository from 21 February 2016.
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