Women and Work in Canada - Assignment Example

Assignment 2 Interview Report Nature of Report This report was made according to the assignment requirements for the “Work and Women in Canada”. The objective of this course assignment was to ‘Interview and Report a Woman about Her Paid and Unpaid Work’. There were no strict rules about the format of the interview and freedom was given to conduct a structured or semi structured interview. The person to be interviewed was also the total choice of the student so this made my task easier for finding the right person. This report will explore how the interviewee has combined and managed her paid & unpaid work and how she feels about it. This interview report will be designed keeping in the mind the topics covered in the course. Respondent’s Background The respondent I choose to be interviewed is a highly educated 40 years old working woman and a housewife. She completed her MBA in marketing 15-years back from a reputable university. After her graduation, she worked as a management trainee in an Instructional Designing department of a software house for 6 months. After completing her training she joined as an Instructional Designer in a multinational organization. Looking at her financial needs and market value she switched her job and joined as a Lead Instructional Designer in another multinational company. She then continued her career in different organizations and currently she is working as a Senior Instructional Designer in a health care unit. It was important to know that she did not work in isolation; she also got married 10 years ago and now lives with her husband and two children. Why this Respondent was Chosen This respondent was chosen for interview because of two reasons. Firstly she was fulfilling all the requirements that were required for the interviewee. For instance, she is a woman whom I have seen doing paid and unpaid work since last many years and she has an extensive working experience for doing paid and unpaid work. Second, I have always found her frank and cooperative so I was sure that she will agree for the interview and comfortably discuss her work conditions. Indeed she will be happy that I chose her for sharing her thoughts and experiences. Goals of the Interview I had clear goals in mind when I approached the lady for this interview. My main goal was to focus on her paid and unpaid work that she has previously done and doing today. I wanted to have detailed discussion with her in an informal manner regarding her work routines and responsibilities. Additionally, I was also interested in knowing her views about the issues that working women face in Canadian society: gender discrimination, equity and pay inequality at work. Narrative of the Interview I contacted the lady through phone and showed her my interest about her participation in the interview. I also explained her in detail the topic of the interview, purpose of the interview and the interview process. As predicted earlier, she liked the idea and invited me to interview her on coming weekend as she is always busy during the week days. She welcomed me on the day of the interview and meeting was conducted in her drawing room which was a peaceful sitting area. Initially I thanked her for giving her time and helping me out for this assignment. I assured her about the confidentiality and anonymity of her interview. She expected same and signed the consent forms giving me the written permission to conduct the interview. Her approval for recording her interview further helped me as it allowed me to give entire attention to her responses and discussion. Impression of the Interview My impression of this interview proved to be very positive. The lady not only answered my questions clearly but her replies were insightful and interesting. She talked naturally making a start from a small talk and easily moved to more substantive conversation about herself. She made a good eye contact and was very much engaged throughout the interview. She was confident about what she shared and her responses were very relevant with my goals. I was very pleased with her outcome and I was not expecting this discussion to be so useful and informative for me. I enjoyed every moment of it and was able to know, understand and collect lot of relevant information about her. Many times she identified herself as hardworking, responsible and serious about how actively she plays her role during work at job and home. In short, I was very much pleased with the results of the interview. Summary of Interview Interviewee’ Current Paid Work The interviewer responded regarding her current job that she is working as a Senior Instructional Designer in a health care unit. She shared a detail list of her job responsibilities that included analyzing on the job training needs of employees and planning their learning schedules. She also explained her role in conducting workshops, arranging training sessions and do lot of other work at her job. Interviewee’s Reason of Working When questioned about the reason of working, she responded that initially she started working just to gain experience and know practically about her field. However, after getting married she realized that one income is not enough for living a better life. Therefore, she continued job in order to financially support her husband and later to give better life to her kids”. When inquired if she is satisfied with her salary, she smiled and commented “Yes I am happy because but I think if a man was hired at my place, company would have paid him more”. Interviewee’s Feeling about Work She expressed that sometimes she feels she is overloaded with work. This is because she is the only Instructional Designer in the Health care unit and it becomes difficult for her to train so many employees. She shrugged her shoulders while saying “Some employees don’t want to learn so I have to motivate them and it is also my responsibility. I never knew this at the time of joining that I will be questioned if an employee does not take his online course on time”. Interviewee’s Satisfaction about Work In a detailed discussion regarding her work, the lady expressed that she often feels she is overloaded. She believes that she should not be held responsible if employees do not complete their courses and trainings. It is not at all her responsibility to force employees and she is not paid extra for it. This way she is also doing many unpaid volunteer jobs at work. She further added that she has several times plan to switch job but then she is worried if she will be given respect and treated well at new job place. She was very scared of being discriminated on the basis of gender or harassed by the new employer. She pointed out that “This is common in Canada and my several friends have faced gender and equity issues at work places. They are not treated well and suffer from violence which severely affects their personal lives”. Interviewees relationships with Employer and Co-workers The lady was satisfied with her with employer and co-workers as she said “My boss appreciates my hard work”. She is often in touch with the senior human resource manager, discussing the issues and problems of employees. This helps her in planning the training and education needs of employees accordingly. She also admitted that except few colleagues, majority of the co-workers cooperate with her and appreciate her efforts. She further added that “The positive attitude of senior employees and co-workers helps me in efficiently working and handling the work load”. Interviewee’s Unpaid Work at Home When questioned about the unpaid work at home, the interviewee confirmed that she does hundreds of tasks at home for which obviously she is not paid. She laughed while saying “I cannot count these tasks but I do cooking, laundering, dish washing, bringing grocery, teaching son and daughter, dusting , vacuuming , ironing, taking care of husband’s money plants, making food for husband’s friends on weekends and many other jobs”. She further added that she is loaded with all this work but she manages well because her family is very supportive. Her husband often does ironing and daughter helps in washing dishes. She blushed while expressing “My husband knows that I do job to provide him financial support so he appreciates and helps a lot”. Interviewees Experience of Balancing Paid and Unpaid Work The lady expressed her views saying “Well, the work done outside home cannot be compared with the work that we wives and moms do at homes”. According to her, at home women do unpaid work for their loves ones but at jobs they don’t want to do any work that is unpaid. She focused on the point that “At home we women do not need money as a return of our efforts but we want support, recognition, appreciation, cooperation and love”. She added that at times it becomes difficult to handle paid and unpaid work but in case of unpaid work at home women have relaxation and freedom. While in case of paid work at your work place, you need to be more careful, punctual, responsible and answerable. Therefore, she finds working at home much easier than working outside. She said that working outside is more difficult so women should be given justified salaries and they must not discriminated on the basis of gender. Interviewees Views on Position of Women in Society and Changes Needed The interviewee expressed her views on this issue saying that women experience the effects of social, economic and political change differently than men. Therefore is necessary to examine the differences in men’s and women’s positions in the society. She commented that “Lot of work has been done by governments and other organizations to help women but we still need to broaden our vision regarding the role of women in our society”. She highlighted the issue by giving example of health care sector that the healthcare sector is considered as one of the higher paying female-dominated sectors. Unfortunately, even in this sector women are paid low especially in nursing and home care. She emphasized saying that it will be difficult to move ahead if we discriminate fifty percent of our population on the basis of gender. Policies should be made that include women in decision making at levels, improve the access of women towards education and training, encourage women to work as entrepreneurs and support the old age women. She further suggested that increasing the participation of women in these rapidly aging economies can help in boosting the growth. Moreover, providing better opportunities and improving working conditions of women will also result in better performance of women. Interview’s Impact on my View of Working Women in Canada This interview helped me in understanding that women are an important part of our society. They do several volunteer unpaid works not only at homes but also at their jobs. They are hardworking at jobs and loyal with their families but still suffer from violence at work places, difficult working conditions, sexual harassment and inequality. The working conditions and pay structure for women has improved in Canadian society but still they are discriminated on the basis of gender, offered lower salaries and sexually harassed. Therefore, governments and other organizations should make strategies to further solve this problem and change the thinking of the men. Canadian society will further prosper if women are given equal rights, respect and honor in the society. Interview Experience In my opinion, this interview was very successful. I got opportunity to explore more about the women of Canada by conducting interview of this bold lady who was intelligent enough to represent working women. I found many similarities between her thoughts and the contents that I read in the study guide. I believe that I better understood the problems of working women of Canada who do several paid and unpaid jobs. I got to know about the problems and burdens faced by Canadian women in a live session; it was full of emotions and real life experiences. Appendix Interview Questions 1. Please tell me about your education and trainings that you attended before you started working? 2. Please tell me about your career; the different jobs that you have done so far and why you switched jobs? 3. What type of work you do at your job and are you satisfied with your current salary? 4. How is your relationship with your boss and co-workers at job? 5. Are you happy with your job? What satisfies you more about this job and what is least satisfying? 6. What about working hours and at what time you return home? 7. Please tell me about your unpaid work that you do at home? 8. How you organize and manage your household work and does anyone help you? 9. Is it easy to manage your paid and unpaid work that you do at your home? 10. Why are you working when you are also loaded with unpaid work at home? 11. What type of problems you think women are facing at jobs in Canada and issues like inequality of women, less recognition of unpaid work and government policies? 12. What changes you believe are needed that will improve working conditions of women in Canada? Read More