Self-Employment as a Strategy for Dealing with the Competing Demands of Work and Family? The Importance of Family/Lifestyle Motives

In this paper, we test the argument that self-employment may be a strategy for dealing with competing demands of work and family. We do this by comparing work-family conflict experienced by self-employed and employed men and women. By examining to what extent the self-employed versus regularly employed value time for themselves and their family i.e., whether they are driven by family/lifestyle motives in their working life we examine whether self-employment can help reduce work-family conflict among those guided by family/lifestyle motives. Using data from a 2011 Swedish survey of 2483 self-employed and 2642 regularly employed, the analyses indicate that experiences of work-family conflict differ between self-employed and employees. Self-employed men and women, especially those with employees, generally experience more work-family conflict than do employees. However, self-employment can sometimes be a strategy for dealing with competing demands of work and family life. The presence of family/lifestyle motives generally decreases the probability of experiencing work-family conflict, particularly among self-employed women with employees.