EFFECTS OF WOMAN`S EMPLOYMENT ON FAMILY LIFE KADININ
Transkript
EFFECTS OF WOMAN`S EMPLOYMENT ON FAMILY LIFE KADININ
EFFECTS OF WOMAN’S EMPLOYMENT ON FAMILY LIFE KADININ ÇALIŞMASININ AİLE YAŞAMI ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİLERİ Ass.Prof. Muhteşem TELSİZ Hacettepe University School of Home Economics Ankara-Turkey The more women share the responsibility of supporting a family with their spouses, the less gender-bound the roles of the spouses are expected to be in twoprovider families. Nevertheless, the roles of men have been changing relatively slower than those of women. In families with two-earners, the women, rather than the men, tend to bear the housework. In well-educated families, on the other hand, women's employment presents positive effects on marital satisfaction. Female employment makes it possible for women to have a much greater say in decisions concerning financial matters within the family. Kadının aileyi geçindirme yükümlülüğünü eşiyle paylaşmasıyla birlikte, ailede eşlerin rollerinin daha az cinsiyete dayalı olması beklenmektedir. Oysa, erkek rolünün, kadın rolüne oranla daha yavaş değiştiği; kadının çalıştığı ailelerde, ev işleriyle ilgili sorumlulukları çoğunlukla kadının üstlendiği görülmektedir. Özellikle eğitim düzeyi yüksek olan ailelerde, kadının çalışması evlilikten memnuniyeti olumlu yönde etkilemektedir. Kadının çalışması, ailede ekonomik konulara ilişkin kararlarda kadının daha fazla söz sahibi olmasını sağlamaktadır. Key words : Working women, Family relations, Dual-Earner families Anahtar sözcükler : Çalışan kadınlar, Aile ilişkileri, Çift gelirli aileler Today, as the educational level of women increases, more and more women join the labor force. According to the 1992 Household Labor Force Survey Results of Turkey, the level of working women is 42.8 %. It seems evident that the higher the level of education among women, the higher the ratio of women in the labor force. Among the women who are primary school graduates and those who are illiterate, this ratio nears 30 % whereas it is 40.8 % among high 1 school graduates and as high as 82.9 % among the women who are university graduates (T.C. Devlet İstatistik Enstitüsü, 1995). As more women begin to work, it is becoming increasingly important how family relationships, the division of household labor, financial decision making patterns and the use of money are affected. In the past, the common belief was that a women's equal employment at the same status of her spouse, would harm the marriage. However, today it is widely believed that when both woman and man work at similar positions, it will promote marital solidarity and the happiness shared by the couple. This is due to the fact that spouses can relate to each other's daily problems and assume similar responsibilities at home. Thus women's employment provides spouses with common concerns and experiences, encouraging the development of marital solidarity (Spitze, 1988). It has been claimed that women's employment would in fact impede the couple's ability to communication due to scarcity of time and lack of interaction, which would lead to problems in the marriage. However, there are the studies investigating the differences between dual- and single- earner families which maintain that there was not a significant difference between those two groups when the time spent together was concerned (Kingston&Nock, 1987; White, 1983). The fact that the ratio of divorce among the families of dualearners is higher is not due to the incompatibility between partners when compared to the couples of single-earner. It is the financial independence of women in these families which tend to facilitate decision-making concerning dissolution of the union (Hoffman, 1989). Studies investigating the marital satisfaction among families with working women in which the household responsibilities are shared reflect that among the lower-income families, in which the women do not work, there is more marital fulfillment. Among the middle income groups in which both spouses work there is more marital satisfaction compared to that of single-earner families especially when the woman is pleased with her job (Moen, 1983). The couples of higher education status who earn two wages maintain that despite the difficulties encountered, the woman's employment seems to have improved marital stability and they have not experienced problems of serious nature in their marriages. The dissatisfaction due to the women's employment usually arises in traditional families which hold the beliefs of traditional gender roles i.e. the main role of the men being the family provider (Hoffman, 1989). This is in part caused by the desire of men in lower-income status to solely hold the power involved and to dominate in being the only provider for the family. Thus, they are hesitant about their wives' working. The men believe that when their spouses share the role of family providing, it will reduce their dominance as the head of the family. 2 Many of today's working women admit that assuming the burdens of work and family life simultaneously would constitute a considerable source of stress. In families with working women, fulfilling both the responsibilities of the roles involving work and parenting and daily activities of life leads to scarcity of time, excessive work load and exhaustion, which all together create dissatisfaction in family life (Gonen, Hablemitoglu & Ozmete 1998). In view of this, one of the most important issues in the lives of dual-earner families is the division of household labor. Within the dual-earner families in which the division of labor is less traditional men are more involved in housework and child care than in families with a single-earner even if the woman assumes much of the responsibility. To yield a better understanding of basic characteristics of the Turkish Family structure, the State Planning Institution (DPT) has conducted a nationwide study. The study confirms that in the case of working women, the participation of men in household labor is not one of sharing. Rather, it is one of helping their spouses with the household tasks (Atalay et al. 1993). While men are still considered as the main provider for the family, for women who are responsible for housework and child care, employment is seen as a secondary role (Moen, 1983). Caring for the home and the children is regarded as the natural role of females. Hence, they are also expected to smoothly combine this ''natural and main role'' with working-life (Imamoglu, 1995). This arises as a result of imposed gender stereotypes of the community on women and men since their childhood. In Turkish society, for instance, the female children are given some household tasks whereas the male children are given no such responsibilities. On the contrary, the male children are provided with most of the household services by their mothers, and this is considered as natural rights of male children. As a consequence of this, when Turkish men get married they also regard their wives taking the burden of housework very natural. Women's employment out of home has also affected the economic power equity between the spouses and increased the female power over decision making in financial matters. In a study conducted by Terzioglu and Safak (1988), they have found that more than half of the working women have been participating in planning how and where to spend their money with their spouses. Similarly, Bayraktar (1989) has shown that about half of the working women have more say over the spending of family income and are more independent in their personal spending. As the educational levels of women increase, they get more selfsatisfaction from work; thus be more competent in their jobs. If women are satisfied at work, the tasks at work decrease their daily stress. As a result, their contentment with work and their roles as a mother contributes to effective parenting (Hoffman, 1979). Since employment out of home induces self-happiness for the mother, it provides a higher quality of communication between the mother and the child. When the 3 quantity of interaction between the child and the working mother is concerned, however, it is also seen that the working mothers, in particular, those of preschool children spend less time with their children when compared with non-working mothers. Therefore, most working women tend to create time at weekends and off-work hours to compensate for the scarcity of communication with children (Hoffman, 1989). The mothers of preschool children face the problem of child care. Dual-earner families arrange solutions such as day-care facilities, hiring baby-sitters, or having a family member take care of the child. If they have no relatives who are able to take care of the child, paying for the day-care facilities or hiring baby-sitters bring an additional burden on the family budget. The difference between the expenses of dual- and single-earner families does not only lie within the spending on child care. As the free time of working women is more limited than that of non-working women, they can spare less time for housework (Foster, 1988). Consequently, working women tend to benefit more from time and energy saving devices and convenience foods; thus they decrease their work load (Reilly, 1982). Yener and Hincal (1992) have found that in addition to the expenses of home cleaning and care, dual-earner families spend more money on eating out, personal care, and other such necessities. In conclusion, although the family life of working women is negatively affected in some aspects, working out of home usually provides women with more life satisfaction. This, in turn, provides the other members of the family with opportunities to develop healthier family relations. Furthermore, the employment of women contributes to the change in the traditional gender based attitudes and opinions of the family members and individuals of the society alike. Thus, it helps to promote fair judgment of gender roles among the members of society on behalf of women. REFERENCES Atalay, B., Kontaş, Y.M., Beyazıt, S., and Madenoğlu, K. (1993). Türk Aile Yapısı Araştırması, T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı Sosyal Planlama Genel Müdürlüğü Yayın No: DPT: 2313-SPGM: 421, Ankara. Bayraktar, M. (1989). 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