Relationship between social gender roles and work-non work life balance: The case of a public institution

The concept of sex is a biological concept which defines the male and female kind in biological terms. And the concept of gender refers to a term created through the assumption of specific characteristics to the female and male kind by the society and culture. The simplest definition of gender is societies stereotyping female and male in line with their culture and expecting them to play certain roles. While these roles have forced women to stay at home, to be a good wife and a good mother, they have forced men to take part in the public sphere, to earn money by struggling the hard and tough life outside, and to provide for his family from past to present. However, this has started to change with the Industrial Revolution. The conventional family structure in the social life has been transformed as women have participated in the public life by leaving the private sphere (home), taken part in business life and started to earn money. As dual-income households started to appear, the necessity to have a distribution of household chores and responsibilities between women and men arose. This change and transformation posed the problem of work and non-work life balance for both women and men, and brought along the discussion about this balance, as well as the gender roles. This study addresses the issue of gender first, and then discusses the effect of gender roles on work and non-work life balance in line with the above information. This is followed by a field research conducted in a public institution and the implications of this research. The research suggests that even though women are now more involved and have established themselves in social domain, they believe they still have more responsibility in private sphere and this affects their work and non-work life balance. Keywords: Sex, Gender, Work- Non Work Life Balance, Public Administration