Women & Work-Life Balance

As I posted earlier, the terms work/life balance has difference meaning to different people. Of course, as a working mother like me, I believe that it has a deeper meaning for people like me as we struggle the most to care for the children and taking care of our elderly all at the same time. The burden are sometimes shouldered only to us. 

In today's life, especially living in urban areas, for middle to low-income-household (LIH), the need for dual-income earners in family is seems unavoidable. Some may pursue for future career path others may want to be liberate with their own capability on own earning instead of hoping from their spouse. Other may just need to work to make a living for the little luxury in life.

WLB Bigger Picture

From the economic perspective, World Bank asserted that women dominate 46% out of the workforce in the country (Retaining Women in the Workforce 50 Champions of Gender Diversity). We have to wear two hats at the same time, take care of the children and work to make a living. Some even have to care for their elderly especially if they are old or sick.These sandwich generation are sometimes are in conlict as they are juggling their responsibilities, manage imposible shedule to cater for their roles as an employee, a mother and a daugther. 

Butterworth (2009) cite that according to a study by the Centre for Policy Studies, one out of eight women with children, which are 12% are willingly and want to work fulltime. This is due to the fact that they could not cope with the stress. Some has taken a career break and others simply just do not return to the workforce to continue to raise their family. This will lead to the reduction number of women in the workforce especially for working mothers.

Work-Life Balance concept offers a win-win solutions to both employers and employees. And, in a bigger picture, work-life balance helped to address the women' workforce retaintion issues on the national persepective.



Reference:
Retaining Women in the Workforce 50 Champions of Gender Diversity

Butterworth, M. ( Oct 2009) Less than one in eight mothers want to work full time. The Telegraph

Photo Credit:
The Telegraph