Academic Research International Vol. 8(1) March 2017 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2017 SAVAP International ISSN: 2223-9944, e ISSN: 2223-9553 www.savap.org.pk 139 www.journals.savap.org.pk GENDER, LIFE ROLE IMPORTANCE AND WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT IN INDONESIA: A NON-WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Indah S.R. Kuntari 1 , Jan M.A.M. Janssens 2 , Henndy Ginting 3 1,2 Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, NETHERLANDS; 1,3 Faculty of Psychology, Maranatha Christian University, Bandung, INDONESIA. 1 socark@gmail.com, 2 j.janssens@pwo.ru.nl, 3 henndyg@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This study examined gender differences among profiles based on life role importance on work-family conflict. The sample consisted of 404 Indonesia working couples with children. We found four profiles based on their work and family role importance that is a Family, Work, Dual and a Low profile. More men than women belonged to the Work profile and Low profile; more women than men belonged to the Family profile. There was no difference between men and women in Dual profile. There were differences among the four profiles on Work to Family and Family to Work conflicts. Men in the Dual profile experienced the least Work to Family and Family to Work conflicts. Men in the Low profile group experienced the most Work to Family and Family to Work conflicts. There were no differences in Work to Family conflict among women in the four profile groups. Women in the Dual profile experienced the least Family to Work conflicts. Women in the Low profile experienced the most Family to Work conflicts. Limitations and future research are discussed in the light of these findings. Keywords: Gender, Role Importance Profiles, Work-family conflicts INTRODUCTION Full-time working couples with children have a role in two central domains of their life, work, and family. Many couples find it difficult to perform their role in job and family simultaneously. The role expectations and role demands from work and family often occur at the same time, which may raise a potential conflict of interest in fulfilling work and family roles (Katz & Kahn, 1978). Inter-role conflict occurs when pressures associated with one role are incompatible with pressures associated with another role (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). The Scarcity theory or the Role Strain theory states that everyone has limited energy to perform multiple roles. Interrole conflict cannot be avoided when an individual has many roles to be executed. Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) stated that work- family conflict is a type of inter-role conflict in which the role demands coming from one domain (work or family) are incompatible with the role demands coming from the other domain (family or work). Work-family conflict can occur in two directions, work-to-family (WF) and family-to-work (FW) conflicts (Barling, Kelloway, & Frone, 2009). For example, a parent might experience a WF conflict when late work hours make it difficult to arrive at home in time to help his/her child completing homework. A parent might experience a FW conflict when facing a dilemma to stay at home to take care of his/her sick child and not being able to attend an important meeting at the office. Research supported the idea that WF and FW conflict are two distinct constructs (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992a; Kelloway, Gottlieb, & Barham, 1999; Netemeyer, Boles, & McMurrian, 1996).