Female Social Workers: Career or Family?

Abstract

This article reports on a study in which 54 retired women social workers were interviewed in depth about their commitment to work vis-à-vis their family responsibilities during their working years. Family responsibilities were measured by a variable, degree of family responsibility (DFR), operationalized by the author. Work commitment was measured by the duration of employment, status achieved, and the Simpson work-commitment scale. No differences in the commitment to work based on the DFR were found, which suggests that women need not be assigned to one or the other role exclusively but can be involved in both family and work.