scholarly journals THE EXPERIENCE OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE FACED BY MOTHERS WITH PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-93

The article presents the results of the sociological study “Parents between the need to work and family responsibilities” (in baze on 1047 questionnaires with mothers with preschool children and 20 in-depth sociological interviews), conducted by the Center for Demographic Research of NIER. The purpose of the study consisted in analyzing the particularities of reconciling the family life and the professional life of mothers with preschool children, in highlighting the difficulties they face in reintegrating into the labour market after child care leave and in determining the factors that contributes to facilitating the process of balancing family and professional life. The results of the study revealed that families face difficulties in establishing and maintaining a balance between many and sometimes contradictory demands of family and professional life. The interviewed mothers highlighted a high level of motivation to be employed, but the defining reason for returning to the labor market is the need to earn money. Depending on the professional and family orientations, mothers with preschool children can be divided into three categories: mothers who want to combine the work with raising children (65%), mothers who intend to make a career but do not forget about children (21.3%) and mothers who prefer to be housewifes and take care of children (13.7%). Although the support of the husband moderates the relationship between family and professional responsibilities, the results of the study have shown that there is a tendency for women to take full responsibility of the household and child care. The lack of quality care and education services for preschool children, the absence of flexible work programs but also the unequal distribution of family responsibilities contribute to making the work-family life balance a predominant problem.

Pravaha ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-232
Author(s):  
Tej Narayan Prasad Nepali

Work- family balance” is a term that refers to an individual’s perceptions of the degree to which s/he is experiencing positive relationships between work and family roles, where the relationships are viewed as compatible and at equilibrium with each other. Like a fulcrum measuring the daily shifting weights of time and energy allocation between work and family life, the term, “workfamily balance,” provides a metaphor to countervail the historical notion that work and family relationships can often be competing, at odds, and conflicting.There was a time when the boundaries between work and home were fairly clear. Today, however, work is likely to invade our personal life — and maintaining work-life balance is no simple task. Family work balance is a complex issue that involves financial values, gender roles, career path, time management and many other factors. Every person and couple will have their own preferences and needs. The problem of maintaining a balance between work life and family life is not a new one. But in the recent few years social scientists have started paying more attention to it. Now there is growing concern in Nepal and experts are of the view that a constant struggle to balance both sets of life will have serious implications on the health of an employee.The seriousness of this problem increases many times in the cases of women workers in our society which is a traditional one and where women are still supposed to have greater family responsibilities. They are expected to look after their children, entertaining the guest, taking care of their parents, in laws and other elderly members of their families as also managing kitchen and other household affairs. Neglecting any of these responsibilities for the sake of discharging work in office or in other institutions where they are employed is not tolerated by their husbands and other male members of the society. We talk of women empowerment but we fail to understand the problems which working women are facing in the tradition bound society like of ours. The study is a pioneering work to investigate into this problem. It is a modest attempt to understand the manner in which women workers try to maintain balance between their work and family lives. The study also explores the ways and means by which female workers can be enabled to maintain proper balance between the two sets of their lives. The findings of this study may be of great use to employers, and business executives as well, who have now come to realize that the responsibility to maintain a healthy work life balance rests on both the organisation and employee. Pravaha Vol. 24, No. 1, 2018, Page: 217-232


2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Armstrong

This paper proposes that there is a need to push beyond the popular discourses of ‘flexibility’ and ‘work-life balance’. Developing a feminist-Bourdieuian approach and drawing on three illustrative case studies from my interview research with 27 mothers in the UK, I show the importance of maintaining a focus on class and gender inequalities. In the first part of the paper the concepts of capitals, dependencies and habitus which shaped, and were shaped by, this interview research are discussed. An analysis of three women's accounts of their experiences across work and family life is then used to illustrate that although these women all used terms such as ‘flexibility’ and ‘juggling’ in describing their work, the experience of that work was crucially influenced by their histories and current positioning. Tracing each of these women's trajectories from school, attention is focused on the influence of differential access to capitals and relations of dependency in the emergence of their dispositions toward work. Overall, the paper points to the significance of examining the classed and gendered dimensions of women's experiences of employment and motherhood.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.6) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
S M. Chockalingam ◽  
P Sudarshan

Human beings in this earth have to work for inevitable reasons. For the purpose of employment people even migrate to their nearest cities or even they may relocate themselves too far off places, due to swiftly growing population across the country and also numbers of people getting qualified degrees have increased a lot. On the other hand scope for employment is considerably reducing day by day. This has made job markets completely employee driven. When job markets become employee driven, by all means employees will extract much work from employees. This will make them spend more and more time at the workplace and less time with their families. The result of this will lead to imbalance between work and family life. This study tries to cover many insights on work life balance especially covering major BPO employees working at Bangalore.  


2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
JESSIE VANDEWEYER ◽  
IGNACE GLORIEUX

AbstractIn 2004, 9 per cent of female employees took advantage of the system of ‘career break’ or ‘time credit’ in Flanders, compared to only 3 per cent of male workers. Although the number of men taking a career break is increasing, they remain a small group. In this article the time use of men interrupting their careers full-time or part-time is compared to that of full-time working men, using representative time use data from 2004. Analyses show that a career break does not imply a reduced workload. Half of the men interrupting their career full-time do so to try out another job. Men who take part-time leave are mainly motivated by their desire for a better work and family life balance. About 80 per cent of the time they gain by working on a part-time basis is allocated to household and childcare activities. This suggests that encouraging men to work fewer hours could well be the best policy for achieving gender equality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Najia Syed ◽  
Cathy Banwell ◽  
Tehzeeb Zulfiqar

Finding a balance between work and family life is challenging for many women, particularly migrant women living in Australia without family support. This study provides insights into their dilemmas, difficulties and strengths in terms of household responsibilities and employment pressures. Design: Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten South Asian skilled mothers living in Canberra, Australia. Findings: Participants were positive about contributing to their family’s income and gaining financial independence. However, as skilled migrant women, they struggled to use their work skills due to increased demands of domestic responsibilities. They often negotiated work and family life by seeking low-prospect careers. Conclusion: The socio-cultural factors faced by South Asian migrant women have a significant impact on their work-life balance. Deskilling, increased work pressures and lack of support may negatively impact their career aspirations and well-being. Flexible policies can help mitigate these barriers to help migrant women maintain a work-life balance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Vishnoi

Work-life balance is a situation in which employees can give right amount of time and efforts to their professional life as well as their personal life. The present study have focused on work life balance of women employee's in Bangalore, how women are trying to balance their work and family life in garment Industry. Descriptive Research design was used for this research. Sources were collected through questionnaire; total 200 employees were identified for this study. Convenient sampling method is adopted for sampling technique. This study concludes that most of the women employees are not able to balance their Work-life due to issues arising in the organization. The management should identify the problems related to Work-life balance. The company should frame better recreation facilities, work environment, counselling to motivate the employees. These steps can improve the productivity of the employee as well as the Organization.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abe N. Ethel ◽  
Ziska Fields ◽  
Atiku O. Sulaiman

The inability of workers to achieve balance between work and family responsibilities has led to heightened incidence of illnesses associated with stress. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the role of Sense of Coherence (SOC) on the achievement of work life balance by focusing on individual managers at a municipality in the South African public service. These individual managers often struggle with work-life balance (WLB) challenges like HIV/AIDS, relational tension, single parenthood, child and elder care, alcohol and substance abuse, debt and financial issues, absence of job autonomy, function vagueness/role conflict and job stress. A sequential transformative mixed methods research design is adopted. Data were collected using self-report questionnaire administered to 364 individual managers; additional eleven members of top management were interviewed. Quantitative data gathered are analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 to test the reliability and validity of the instrument as well as the bivariate association between the variables. NVIVO is used in organizing qualitative data for ease of content analysis. The findings indicate that SOC should be considered when designing strategies to address employee work-life needs. Furthermore, it confirmed that the presence of strong SOC does not lead to achievement of WLB


Author(s):  
Ufuk Durna ◽  
Ali Babayiğit

Work and family environment is the areas that individuals spend most of their time and gives the most importance comparatively. Despite the rules, different and perceived thoughts and behavior patterns they have, these fields represent the area continually interacting with each other. Work and family is two most important elements in every person’s life. For this reason, individuals have certain roles in their work and family life. These roles are the most significant roles undertaken in their lives. They have to strike a balance to play the roles in their work and family life and to get the expected yield. Work and life balance is the most important aim for individuals and family members interacting each other in work and family life. Having a balance in work and life is significant not only for working individual but also for the society he lives. Today, the subject how the expectations on work and private life can be balanced has become a specific discipline because of the radical changes on the responsibilities related to work and family. Examining the previous studies, it is seen that workers can’t achieve a healthy balance between work and private life and as a result they can’t work efficiently and can’t allow time to their families. Therefore, they face individually organizational and environmental problems. In this paper, the significance of the balance from the point of individuals and organizations and the extent of influence on work and family balance to employee’s organizational commitment will be studied.


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