The traditional family model, with men supporting the family and women caring for the household, is no longer realistic. Women today most often share the role of provider with men. Yet, men have not taken on an equivalent share of responsibility for domestic tasks. In Mexico, for example, in families where both partners have paid jobs, men spend 52 hours a week on paid work and 12.5 hours on domestic chores, while women spend 37 hours at work and 38.5 hours on domestic chores.
A recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “Work and Family: Towards new forms of reconciliation with social co-responsibilityâ€, suggests that reconciliation between work and family has to happen through social co-responsibility: “redistributing care responsibilities between men and women, as well as among the family, the State, the market and society as a wholeâ€.
The report proposes measures ranging from alternating the time between work and family life (paternity leave, flexible working hours and work place), shifting tasks originally performed in the family sphere into the market and public services, and redistributing roles between women and men by fostering cultural change during primary education and within the family.
What is the situation in your country? Which measures, if any, are be used to encourage a work/family balance?
Like so many gender issues, this issue is as much a cultural one as it is a logistical one. Changing traditions, whether they are related to religion, ethnicity or society as a whole, is very difficult, and requires a long-term strategy.
What I have observed in the USA, is that many women of my generation and education raised their sons with the same expectations as for their daughters. Learning as a child that it didn’t matter which gender one is, any and all household tasks would be done by anyone. Today, there has been a growing trend for fathers to stay at home with the children, especially if the mother’s pay is better, but also because they want to experience the nurturing. It is no longer odd to see men volunteering at the school during the day — as was the case for my husband when he was the primary caregiver for a couple of years. Slowly, the sharing more equally in the tasks that are needed in any family, is getting to have less of a stigma for males.
In pakistan,We still have more or less traditional family model.Seventy percent population lives in rural areas where men are resposible to financially support the family and women to look after kids and household chores.In urban areas social setup is changing as females are becoming well-educated and adopting different professions.Women are sharing financial burden with their husbands as well as playing their traditional role of a resposible wife and a mother but unfortunately men have not been able to change their mind set.They still want women to cook and clean the house and change baby’s pampers.Its very sad that they do not realize the fact that women are doing office work with equal responsibility as men do and helping them to have a reasionable living then why don’t they help their wives in discharging responsibilities at home.Time has changed now and they should better acknowledge the role of a modern.educated and resposible woman and help her to maintain a balance between work and personal life.
I agree with Laurila that one of the most effective ways of changing this situation is for parents to bring up both their sons and daughters to share domestic work in the home. The role modelling of fathers is very important in shaping both sons and daughters attitudes about what is the appropriate role for fathers. In patriarchal societies like Rwanda, women still do most of the household work, even when working outside the home. But as men become more aware of the importance of women’s role in the nation’s development, and the importance of their own support for their partners, this should slowly change
Like so many gender issues, this issue is as much a cultural one as it is a logistical one. Changing traditions, whether they are related to religion, ethnicity or society as a whole, is very difficult, and requires a long-term strategy.
This issue of combining family and work was taken up on a panel at the World Conference on Higher Education in 1998 – a panel led by former IFUW President Elizabeth Poskitt. Since then some countries have implemented measures,including the extension of maternity leave as in Britain, but it seems few have implemented the suggested measures
Combining family and work has been an political issue in Norway in a drive for equality. Paternity leave is obligatory and accepted now by most. At present there is a drive to extend paternity leave and give women less (at present 42 weeks of which the father has to take 6.) Flexible working hours have been introduced in many public and private offices and firms, especially when the children are at nursery school, but for many it is a balancing act to take children and collect them. The weakness of the system becomes apparent when the children start school at the age of 6, as though there are facilities after school hours – (young children have a four-five hour day from 8.30), these only last for a couple of years. So in some ways one might say that the concentration of helping parents with young children has overlooked the needs of those from 9 years on.
The Norwegian model is certainly something to be aimed at but does need some adjustment.