Work-Family Programs and Nonwork Networks: Within-Group Inequality, Network Activation, and Labor Market Attachment

Abstract

Organizations increasingly offer work-family programs to assist employees with balancing the competing demands of work and family life. Existing scholarship indicates that the consequences of work-family programs are heterogeneous across different socio-demographic groups, but limited research examines when and why workers within the same group may benefit differently from such programs. Understanding these differences may illuminate important mechanisms driving the effectiveness of work-family policies. We theorize that one key driver of within-group variation in the effectiveness of work-family programs is the extent to which workers’ nonwork social networks activate resources to support them. Specifically, we argue that workers whose nonwork networks are less likely to activate supportive resources will benefit more from organizational programs. We further posit that the status characteristics of workers’ dependents may shape the activation of resources among nonwork networks. Drawing on novel data from an Indian garment factory and a quasi-experimental research design, we examine how a work-family program, employer-sponsored childcare, affects the daily work attendance of a socio-demographically homogenous group of working mothers. We find that women whose nonwork networks are less likely to activate informal childcare support—specifically, women with daughters—benefit more from employer-sponsored childcare. Supplemental interview data supports our theoretical claims. We conclude by discussing the contributions of our argument to scholarship on work-family policies and social networks.