Juggling Family and Business: Work–Family Conflict of Women Entrepreneurs in Israel

Abstract

This article investigates work–family conflict of women entrepreneurs in Israel. On the basis of the resource theory maintaining that class, ethnicity and gender interact in various combinations for different groups, the article explores factors influencing the intensity of work– family conflict of Arab, immigrant and Israeli-born Jewish women.2 Data were collected in 2007 through a questionnaire administered to a convenient sample of 111 women entrepreneurs in Israel. Degree of family support influenced intensity of the work–family conflict for all three groups of women entrepreneurs, but those from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) experienced the lowest intensity of the conflict, which can be explained in terms of particularities of gender status in their country of origin. Work—life balance remains a major issue for self-employed women.