Families are not what they used to
be. Households in which the wife is full-time housekeeper, and the husband and
father is the sole breadwinner are in the minority today. The set of variables
that relate to mothers seeking employment are: 1. Economic need 2. Educational
attainment 3. Child care availability 4. Occupational opportunity 5. Child care
cost 6. Number of children in the home, especially the number under the age of
five 7. Marital status 8. Male partner’s work schedule. Each of these variables has been shown to
either inhibit or promote mother’s participation in paid employment.
Economic need
In
cases where a simple budget indicates that the family’s expenditures exceed the
income of the father, the solution that comes to mind is for the wife and
mother to work. In some families the consideration given to the possibility of
the wife seeking gainful employment is prompted by the fact that the husband’s
earnings cannot cope with justifiable needs. The recommendation that mothers
should not work will only be tenable where the father’s income can provide for
basic needs which to some extent will make life worth living. Under the
condition of financial strangulation the mother has to work to augment the
family income.
No
general rule should be laid down to determine whether the wife and mother
should work or whether she should devote herself entirely to homemaking. The decision
in a given case, however, should be made only after due consideration is given
to the many factors concerned. She surely should not work unless she and her
husband have agreed that circumstances justify her employment.
Educational attainment
The
question is should the well educated woman remain jobless and waste her talents
and acquired skill in the home simply because she is a wife and a mother? Many
is answer no. is it not reasonable for her to help the husband in increasing
the economic prospect of their home? The women have a saying, “What a man can
do a woman can do and even better.” Women have acquired education in diverse
fields of human endeavor. It is important that their talents should not be
wasted but put to gainful use for themselves and their families.
The
educated, nonworking mother may over-invest her energies in her children. This
can foster an excess of worry and discourage the child’s independence. In such
situations, the mother may give more parenting than the child can profitably
handle. Working mothers is a part of modern life. It is not aberrant aspect of
it but a response to other social changes. It meets needs that cannot be met by
the previous family ideal of a full-time mother and homemaker.
Not
only does it meet the couple’s needs, but in many ways it may be a pattern
better suited to socializing children for the adult roles they will occupy
later in life. This is not only especially true for daughters but it is also
true for sons. Just as his father shares the breadwinning role and the
childrearing role with his mother, so the son, too, may be more willing to
share these roles. The rigid gender stereotyping perpetuated by the divisions
of labor in the traditional family is not appropriate for the demands that will
be made in children of either sex as adult in the new millennium.
The
needs of the growing child require the mother to loosen her hold on the child –
grant him some independence. This task may be easier for the working mother,
whose job is an additional source of identity and self-esteem. However, a common experience of working
mothers is feeling guilty about being away from their children. The guilt may
triggered by parents who miss their children, worry that their children are
missing them. They are worried if their children are receiving good child care
and the long-term effect of not being around and whether it will have adverse
effect on the children in future.
A woman who goes to work meets
people, gains from the experiences of others and broadens her outlook while the
home-ridden wife seldom get outside experience. And so, she can hardly be
expected to enter into a lively chat with her husband let alone visitors. Work
trusts a responsibility on the woman, helping her to learn to organize herself
better and put herself together in all respect.
Child care availability
Some
people believe that a woman’s real place should be in the home. This argument
rests on the premise that a mother should not only bear children but also bring
them up. That is, she should give them the basic education in manners and help
them develop attitudes and characters which are desirable. Therefore the
possibility of her accepting employment must be conditional upon provision for
the children proper upbringing. When the children are young, adequate provision
for their care is difficult to arrange. This fact in itself should dissuade
most mothers from working. In terms of the integrity of the family and the
future well-being of the children, it is better that the family live on a more economical
standard than allow the children suffer because of being deprived of the
mother’s companionship and influence while she labor outside the home to
provide the luxuries of life.
Occupational opportunity
When
I say work, it does not mean white collar job alone. It could be farming, petty
trading, and restaurant business for the women who are good at cooking, so long
as it keeps the mind busy, because an adage says that, “An idle mind is the
devil’s workshop.” A woman who engages herself in day to day honest and
profitable business certainly will have no time to gossip or engage in
activities that might lead to ruining her matrimonial home. Another
consideration is how about if the man is retrenched?
Child care cost
Before
a couple decide that the mother should work they must first consider the cost
of child care their children may require. If the income will not be able to pay
for it there may not point in going ahead with the employment hence the mother
working will not help solve the dire financial condition of the family.
Number of children in the home
The
number of in the home is another important variable to consider when taking
decision for the mother to work or not to work. If the children are many and
most of them below five years it will be advisable for the mother to stay back
and take care of her children until they grow older.
Marital status
Marital
status is a great determinant whether a woman should work or not. In a
situation of a single mother she has no choice but to work in order to provide
for herself and her child or children. This is what joy a single mother had to
say, “I don’t think living alone is something to aspire to. But it’s something
I’d made peace with by the time my boyfriend walked away after I became
pregnant. If opportunity presents itself again, I’ll prefer to find my other
half, make life with him, and have children together and care for them.” For
Joy, she has no choice but to work
How
about widows who their husbands died leaving nothing reasonably to take care of
the children left behind? The widows might have no alternative but to seek paid
employment to enable her take care of her children’s education and upkeep. The
same applies to a woman whose husband is incapacitated. She may have to work to
take care of the family including her invalid husband.
Male partner’s work schedule
Some
husbands work schedule is flexible. Under this condition it may be possible for
the mother to work. Whenever she is busy her husband will attain to the needs
of the children. if the man is a very busy businessman who is rarely at home it
will be difficult for the children if their mother is equally very busy and
have no time for them. This may in the long run prove to be “penny wise and
pound foolish”, because such children could grow without proper basic family
upbringing and eventually become serious liabilities to the family and the
society at large.
Husbands
and wives must give broadminded consideration to their standard of values. Too
many things in life are measured in terms of monetary value. The most valuable
homes are not necessarily those in which the most money is spent. The best
homes are those in which peace, love, and mutual respect exist among the
members of the families.
Conclusion
On the whole, having a mother who works
is beneficial to the child. This is especially true for girls whose mothers
have successful careers in business or professions. The daughters of career
women tend to be higher in self-esteem, better adjusted socially, and more
achievement-oriented than other girls. The sons of career women tend to be more
independent and to have more positive attitudes toward women and work than
those whose mothers stay at home. But this can only be true when the women are
able to balance their career and motherhood.
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