WORK–LIFE BALANCE AMONG EMPLOYEES IN CHINA: THE ROLE OF STRUCTURAL PRESSURES AND GENDERED SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64451/ijees.v2i1.15.2026Keywords:
work–life balance, China, structural determinants, gender roles, flexible work arrangements, work–family conflictAbstract
This study examines the influence of cultural and structural drivers of imbalance and gendered social role expectations on work–life balance (WLB) among employees in China. In the context of increasing work demands and persistent social expectations, maintaining work–life balance has become a significant challenge for employees. This study adopts a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, with data collected from 82 employees across various sectors in China using a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using reliability analysis, Spearman’s correlation, and multiple linear regression through JASP to assess the relationships between cultural and structural drivers of imbalance, gendered social role expectations, and WLB. The results indicate that gendered social role expectations is a strong and statistically significant predictor of WLB (β = 0.677, p < .001), demonstrating that gendered social expectations play a major role in shaping employees’ work–life balance. In contrast, cultural and structural drivers of imbalance does not show a statistically significant direct effect on WLB (β = 0.140, p = .195). The model explains 74% of the variance in WLB (R² = 0.74), indicating substantial explanatory power. These findings suggest that work–life balance challenges in China are more strongly influenced by social and cultural expectations related to gender roles than by structural or organizational factors alone.
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