The roles of instrumental support and mentoring in balancing professional and family responsibilities: Perspectives from women in PR in the United States

Abstract: The rise of a professional career presents women in today’s public relations profession an intense challenge in balancing professional and family responsibilities. Therefore, this study investigates female public relations professionals’ perceptions of work-family conflict in their daily life. Specifically, we focused our research on women working in the professions of communication and public relations in the United States. Our research findings confirmed that female professionals have to constantly make changes to their plans for family activities when there is a conflict due to work-related duties. Such impact is particularly intense for professionals in the age bracket 31-40. They have to use a wide variety of coping strategies to manage the work-family conflict. Findings in our research confirmed the critical role of mentoring in providing extra support and to help junior female professionals find coping solutions. Effective mentor-mentee networks can be established and used as valuable resources to support women in managing work-family conflict.