Investigating The Motherhood Abilities Of Non-Career Women In Comparison To The Working Ones In Sydney, Australia

Current Situation of Working Women and Their Motherhood

Discuss about the Career Development and Aspirations of Management.

In the age of incessant inflation rate and continues rise in prices, it has become imperative for the mothers to start working. This has led to the increasing participation of the mothers in the professional world of jobs and opportunities. This decision has come into the light of providing financial support to the family in order to fight the problems of rising prices and inflation. Some of these mothers get back to work right after giving birth to their children, as they do not want to sacrifice their careers which they have developed over the years. Some of these women and mothers face the daunting task of managing their families, in-laws, work and their motherhood. It becomes a herculean task for many of them. Against this backdrop, this research proposal aims to investigate into this question of whether non-working or non-career women are better mothers in the context of Sydney, Australia.

The primary research question deals with the fact that whether the non-career oriented women are better mothers than their working counterparts in the context of Sydney, Australia. Some of the other ancillary research questions are:

• Are the children of the non working women in their education as well as professional spheres?
• What is the psyche behind the job of motherhood of both the working as well as her non-working fellow Australian counterpart?
• Is the amount of time spent by the family members and specially the mothers with their children, the ‘only criteria’ of judging the success of their motherhood?
• Why mothers in Australia are, are so compelled to work, given the better standards of living provided by the Australian government?

The primary aim of this research is to find out whether the non-working or non-career oriented women are better in the job of motherhood than their working counterparts. All the components and factors which influences motherhood for women have been looked upon with the aim of finding about the authenticity of the above mentioned research question. This research looks to focus on the bigger picture and all the allied sources regarding the job of parenthood. The criteria for being a good mother for a working and non-working women, the kinds of development seen from the children of both these categories of mothers and the overall problems faced by the mothers and the guilt faced by them in raising their wards. This proposal aims to investigate this topic, against the backdrop of the city of Sydney, Australia.

This research is one of the most important topics in today’s dynamic world, where motherhood is going through a transition mode. In today’s world, the growing number of mothers and other women in the professional sphere of life has cast a shadow on the job of motherhood. It is one of the most important time periods in a women’s life and at the same time, it is one of the defining periods of any child’s life. The demanding pressures of inflation need for independence and career growth opportunities have taken a toll on the motherhood of the mothers. According to Prime Minister, Turnbull of Australia, the country of Australia is now seeing the highest female workforce participation rate. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Labour Force Australia publication has shown that female labour force participation rate is now at its highest ever in the last quarter of last 2015 (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2018). This trend has continued. This has taken a hit on the motherhood of the working women. Against all these development, this proposal looks to investigate into the motherhood abilities of the non-career women in comparison to the working ones.

Impact of Working Mothers on Their Children

As per the reports, which have come from the former Australian Prime Minister Turnbull’s office, back in 2016, it had been observed that the participation rate of the women folk in the professional arena of life has been on an increase. This has led to some serious repercussions in the motherhood aspects, such as poor emotional and social development of the child, serious medical implications on the health of the working women, all these factors has led to the preparation of this research.

Various studies have been conducted dealing with the impact of working women on their motherhood. A study steered by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that when mothers work full time during their child’s kindergarten years, the child is becomes less effective at some of the most basic tasks of everyday life. (Cavel, 2001).It has also been seen that these children found themselves unemployed 9% more apart from suffering from various kinds of psychological stress, when compared to 28% more of the time compared to that of children with nonworking mothers. Apart from this, Wentling (2003) has showed that the twin roles of women of professional as well as personal life, cause tension and conflict due to her social structure, performance inequality pay, harassment and in equal work life balance which are still more dominant in this setup.

In Australia, female employment is overwhelmingly categorized by part-time work, in both the actual as well as their preferred working hours; whereas when compared to the United States, full-time employment is the norm in terms of the actual and their preferred working hours. When compared to the other developed countries of the world, it can be seen that Australia is much more relaxed in terms of working women population working hour’s norms. Nevertheless, the working women have faced a lot of problems in terms of balancing their personal as well as professional life. The women find difficulties in juggling their urgent tasks of the office along with the job of taking care of her ailing child (Alam, 2013). The women folk face many issues while dealing with their children’s sickness and health issues while simultaneously dealing with their jobs. This phenomenon is prevalent in both the developed economies specifically UK, US, Australia, Germany and others as well as the developing nations like India, Brazil etc. In this report, apart from this, the research has focused on the various other relevant issues concerning the efficacy of motherhood regarding non-working women in Australia. Some of the statistics about the employment rates of all the Australian mothers, in accordance with the age of their youngest child from the period 1991-2011 has been provided below:

Issues faced by Working Mothers of Australia

This goes on to prove the amount of rapid increase in the number of employed mothers in the past 20 years, have they come at the cost of the family, this is one of the facets which would be discovered by this research.

It has also been seen that their exists some differences in the amount of maternity and leave benefits provided to the parents, specifically the mothers, from the private and the public sector, as the case may be. Will it have any kind of serious impact on the success of motherhood; this question needs to be specifically addressed by this research.  The complete statistical details have been provided below:

Working mothers have admitted that most of them continue to suffer from guilt during their motherhood phase, as has been explained by Dr Judy Rose, a renowned sociologist. According to her PhD work which was conducted in 2017, on the same topic of ‘mother’s guilt’, she has claimed said that ‘any mother breathing have felt mother’s guilt’. This guilt stems down from the lack of time provided to their children, inability to help their children in their daily activities, inability to take proper care of their children due to the pressure of staying away from home because of work pressure. This has led many working mothers in Sydney to quit their jobs in order to take better care of their children. The cost of the day care houses are also expensive, which cannot be afforded by young couples residing in Oz (Yelland et al., 2014). As a result, they begin to take care of their children unlike some of the older couples residing in mainland Sydney, unlike the younger couple who prefer to stay in the suburbs as those are cheap.

A recent combined study of Oxford University and London School of Economics of 2016 has revealed that the children of working women are better learners and they develop fasters than those who stay in their homes on a full time basis. It was observed that the children of those mothers who stay at home, had lower capabilities and had a negative impact amounting to roughly about 5% on their everyday social skills. Additionally, Laurence Roope, of Oxford University had emphasised on the fact that letting the child spend time in the day care homes have a ‘positive impact’ on them. She has gone on to explain that ‘engaging in various interactive activities’ makes the child harness his brain skills from a very tender age. Renowned child psychologist Dr David Carey has gone on to emphasise the fact that ‘the findings of this research would provide the badly needed reassurance to the working parents, specially their mothers’. At their primitive years it becomes important for these children to continue to interact with other children and continue to remain a part of an enthusiastic group. If the child is not exposed to a vibrant exposure, there remains the risk of under-development. It is strongly advisable for the mothers who stay at home, to take their children to different places and expose them to a plethora of activities, which is imperative for their all round development. In this way, certain shortcomings of the non-working women can be overcome.

Positive Impact of Working Mothers on Children’s Development

All these past and current researches have been conducted and some definitive results have been produced from them. In this research regarding the topic of non-career women being better mothers than their working counterparts would take into account all these researches as well take a new route of exploring some of the previously unexplored vistas.

One of the most pressing issues which have been ignored by the previous researches in this area is the fact that whether spending large amounts of time is enough for women to be regarded as a successful mother or is the kind of tasks performed during that time is important to be considered a successful mother. The proposal tends to explore this issue as well. Both the quantitative (time duration) as well as the qualitative (How the mothers spent the time) should also be explored in order to assess the gravity of the issue of motherhood of working and non-working mothers.

In Australia, the number of mothers who are trotting on the path of self employment and entrepreneurs are increasing at a very fast rate. This rate has been growing at an incessant pace and will continue to do so in the upcoming years. This tendency has grown over the ears especially in the case of cities like Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane. On focusing on the larger picture, it has to be finding out whether this increase is a good thing or will it have a bad bearing on the parenthood factor. The women are going into self employment because of the excessive pressure received by them on a salaried job (Duberley and Carrigan, 2013). Mothers generally do not get readily accepted in the corporate job because of the possibility of leaving the job due to domestic life pressure and apart from this they increasingly face a wide array of problems while working as mothers in the corporate world, which compels them to find self employment sources (Koven and Michel, 2013). This takes a financial toll on the family and as a result of which most of the time gets devoted in the entrepreneurial activities, causing complete neglect of the children. This leads to an improper parenting and a gap continues to form between the child and the mothers.

The sample techniques, sample size, primary and secondary data are some of the most indispensable part of any research proposal. They are the tools on which the overall success of the entire research stands upon. Some of these topics have been discussed below:

Research Aim and Objectives

Many kinds of sampling exist. These consists of “non-probability sampling, stratified sampling procedures, quota sampling procedures, mini-max sampling procedures, cluster sampling procedures and the process of simple random sampling. In this particular research which is based on the topic of motherhood and includes the surveys and interviews of mothers , deals with the usage of the procedure of simple random sampling.

“The population which is to be studied is actually the population on which the researcher needs to focus upon and upon which the research study needs to be ideally based upon. There needs to be a proper and thorough understanding of the target population for the purpose of ensuring that the needs of the various results of the study are being duly met. (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).  In this case the population of the study consists of the various mothers, both working and non-working, who are primarily based in the Australian city of Sydney. This would be the most important focus of the study.  

The sample population in any kind of survey is essentially the part or a precise proportion which is to be selected in order to be studied. This is accurately a percentage of around 10% of the total population which needs to be studied. However, it is very important to be ensured that the sample population of the study proves to be a just and fair representation of the actual sample population.

In the field of data collection, both primary as well as secondary data, play a vital role in ensuring success of the entire research paper. Primary data refers to those kinds of data which the researcher obtains first hand without any kind of medium involved in-between, while on the other hand; secondary data refers to those kinds of data which are received by the researcher from past records, researches and other journals (Savin-Baden and Major, 2013). They are of indirect nature and are not raw in nature. In this research, both of these would be used, for ensuring better grasping of the topic in hand.

It is promising to collect primary data from the respondents (which are the mothers in this case) by using a questionnaire based on the different issues concerning the main topic. In the case of the present study, various interviews can also be conducted by means of arranging for both the working as well as the non-working mothers, who are residing in Sydney. This could be done either visiting them or by arranging for a place for this purpose. If possible, the interviews of their husbands as well as their children (with proper permission) can also be conducted. This would help in providing a more robust and transparent picture of the issue in hand.

For conducting this study in a successful manner, certain amount of surveys and interviews would be conducted. A total of 20 women were surveyed, consisting of 10 working and 10 non-working.  The questionnaire consisted of 20 questions, of which 12were close ended ones and 8 open ended questions. The items in the questionnaire included various issues of urban working women concerning related to the amount of working hours, work pressure, amount of time devoted to the children and family, time specifically given to their children in the form of their school related issues and play time. They were also asked about their background comprising of age, education level, marital status, profession, years of experience, nature of organization etc. For the non-career women, questions were asked about regarding the time and the effort given to their families and children. The basic framework guiding this research is the success of the children of both the categories of mothers, which can be seen from the performances of their children in the different spheres of life.

Ethics play an important role in each and every research. The gamut of ethics plays a very important role in influencing various activities and cannot be ignored at all. They provide a definitive dimension to the research and ads more flare to the authenticity and influence of the concerned research. The issue of ethics crops up, in the context of motherhood, as the increased work pressure takes a toll on the motherhood aspect of the working women. Apart from this, it has been seen that better career opportunities, increased money earning needs have led the working women to ignore their families and children. This has led to the under-development of the emotional aspects of the children and the families. This has led to an increased amount of ethical dilemma.

For the successful completion of the project, both qualitative as well as quantitative methods have been used. Primarily secondary data have been used such as surveys and interviews have been extensively used.

Conclusion:

It has been observed from this extensive study that working women in the subcontinent of Australia and specifically in the case of Sydney find increasing amount of problems, while simultaneously juggling their professional and their personal life. As a result of which, it has been seen that they are not able to provide much time to their children and families as a result of which they suffer from emotional underdevelopment and various other kinds of issues. They also face a lot of problems as a result of the increasing differences between the two. On the other hand, it has been seen that the positive impact of the non-career women on their children and families has been overwhelmingly positive.

References:

Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2018). Parents working out work. [online] Available at: https://aifs.gov.au/publications/parents-working-out-work [Accessed 6 Jun. 2018].

Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2018). Parents working out work. [online] Available at: https://aifs.gov.au/publications/parents-working-out-work [Accessed 7 Jun. 2018].
Savin-Baden, M. and Major, C.H., 2013. Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice.

Blogs.tribune.com.pk. (2018). Working women do not make better moms. [online] Available at: https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/21289/working-women-do-not-make-better-moms/ [Accessed 6 Jun. 2018].

Dss.gov.au. (2018). Benefits & Payments | Department of Social Services, Australian Government. [online] Available at: https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/families-and-children/benefits-payments [Accessed 7 Jun. 2018].

Duberley, J. and Carrigan, M., 2013. The career identities of ‘mumpreneurs’: Women’s experiences of combining enterprise and motherhood. International Small Business Journal, 31(6), pp.629-651.

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Knight, M., Kenyon, S., Brocklehurst, P., Neilson, J., Shakespeare, J. and Kurinczuk, J.J.E., 2014. Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care Lessons learned to inform future maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2009-2012.

Koven, S. and Michel, S. eds., 2013. Mothers of a new world: Maternalist politics and the origins of welfare states. Routledge.

Mary Wentling, R., 2003. The career development and aspirations of women in middle management–revisited. Women in management review, 18(6), pp.311-324.

Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Startstoday.hsbc.com.au. (2018). Is a career after children possible? Working women share their stories. [online] Available at: https://startstoday.hsbc.com.au/career/is-a-career-after-children-possible-working-women-share-their-stories/ [Accessed 6 Jun. 2018].

Yelland, J., Riggs, E., Small, R. and Brown, S., 2015. Maternity services are not meeting the needs of immigrant women of non-English speaking background: Results of two consecutive Australian population based studies. Midwifery, 31(7), pp.664-670.

Yelland, J., Riggs, E., Wahidi, S., Fouladi, F., Casey, S., Szwarc, J., Duell-Piening, P., Chesters, D. and Brown, S., 2014. How do Australian maternity and early childhood health services identify and respond to the settlement experience and social context of refugee background families?. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 14(1), p.348.

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