Women in the Workforce and Creation of Stress and Conflict in Families - Term Paper Example

Women in the Workforce and Creation of Stress and Conflict in Families Name Institutional Affiliation This essay explores ways in which the increase in the rate of women working in Australia has created stress and conflict in the traditional family structure. It starts by providing a synopsis of the changing trends of Australian women in the workforce between 1950 and 2011. It also outlines the social and cultural impacts of women in the workforce, and the governmental policies that support women in the workforce. Before 1960, women in Australia were mainly homemakers and few were performing jobs that were predominantly regarded as for men. For example, as Strachan (2010) pointed out, in 1950, women were mostly homemakers, and if they were employed, they quit their jobs after they get married or after they gave birth to their first child. In 1950, it was regarded as an ideal situation for men to work most of the day at their respective workplaces (Firth, 2004). However, for women, the situation was not conducive because of the hindrances such as the legally orchestrated discrimination against them by the authorities (Strachan, 2010). In the workforce, women were not allowed to hold certain jobs. In fact, women were isolated into occupying certain jobs and posts in the workplaces. Moreover, they were earning less than what men earned in the same job (Strachan, 2010). In general, in the later years, specifically between 1960 and 1970 can be described as a period where overt discrimination against women was practised. However, as the decade worn out, this situation improved as legislation promoting women in the workforce were enacted. Before this period, particularly after the Second World War, women were greatly involved in the labour force. In many industrialised countries after the Second World War, many married women started taking jobs in record numbers. The most striking change in the labour force that was observed in this period pertains to the mobilisation of the female labour. In particular, this change was mostly felt in Australia as the labour activity of the women had been quite steady for over a hundred years. In fact, three out of ten women participated in the workforce and most of them were unmarried (Evans, 1996). After they got married, many of these women in turn became employers themselves by employing single and young girls as their household servants. A steady rise in the number of women in the workforce has been realised. This increase has created stress and conflict in the traditional families. The Second World War brought many effects to various economies all over the world. One of these effects was the shortage of labour. This was a blessing in disguise to the married women who had suffered long periods of discrimination in the labour force. The government turned to them and by 1961, forty percent of the female workforce were married women (Strachan, 2010). By the end of 1961, the percentage of women in the labour force was twenty-five per cent (Sheridan & Stretton, 2004). In spite of the increase in the number of women in the workforce of Australia, gender segregation was still a continuing feature of the labour market at the beginning of 1960s (Strachan, 2010). For example, in 1961, 4 percent of employed women were textile machinists, five per cent teachers, six percent nurses, eleven per cent shop assistants, and twenty percent stenographers and clerks (Sheridan & Stretton, 2004). Better times for women in the workforce were to come in the coming decades. Employment options for women were expanded in 1970s by the daughters of 1950-1960 women that were subjected to overt discrimination in the workforce. The proportion of women in the Australian workforce increased steadily due to change in the social attitudes against women that had salaried jobs (Lake, 1999). This can be clearly seen in the rise of women in the workforce, and by 1970, 38.6 percent of the women were working (Strachan, 2010). Removal of overt discrimination against women can be attributed to this increase of women in the workforce compared to 1960s. Australian Federal and State governments started enacting anti-discrimination laws in workplaces in 1975. Generally, the legislation aimed at improving the status of women in the workforce by treating them as equal to men. In 1980, legislation targeting improvement of women status in the workforce started to be enacted. In the middle of the 1980s decade, legislation targeting removal of overt discrimination against women in employment continued to be enacted. Industrial cases also sought to promote equal employment opportunities. In particular, Equal Opportunity for Women Act was enacted in 1986 (Strachan, 2010). The effect of this was an increase in the number of women in the Australian workforce. In May 1989, forty-one percent of the total workforce in Australia were women (Sullivan & Herne, 2013). The country saw an increased in part-time jobs with forty percent of the women employed as part-timers by 1989 (Sullivan & Herne, 2013). This group of women were mostly those that had young children. The upward trend in the number of women that participated in the labour force continued to be experienced in the coming decades. Organisations played some role in increasing the number of Australian women in the labour force that started in 1990. In this decade, ideas of managing diversity in an organisation appeared and it covered policies and practices in an organisation that maximises the use of employee diverse characteristics so as to benefit the business (French, Strachan, & Burgess, 2010). It was seen as beneficial to the organisation if more women were employed, and organisational policies that assisted in combining personal care responsibilities such as mother to a child, and paid work were developed. The earnings for women in the workforce also improved with the average earning of women who were working full time in 1990 were 83 per cent that of men (Sullivan & Herne, 2013). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (1996), the proportion of women that had jobs apart from their family responsibilities were fifty-three percent. This is a considerable increase in comparison with 1980s numbers. Women in the workforce increased considerably in 1996. Disparities in salaries between men and women were also significantly reduced in 1990s. However, a high degree of occupational segmentation was still evident. In this period, over 50 percent of the women in the workforce found employment in sales or clerical jobs. Moreover, 89 percent of receptionists and telephonists in the workforce were women, along with 77 percent of clerks and 63 per cent of sales and personal service workers (Sullivan & Herne, 2013). By 1990s, the model of the family unit where the male was regarded as a wage earner for the family while the wife is a home carer as in 1950s and partly 60s had been broken down, as more women were in the workforce. The matter of how family units would manage both work and home responsibilities created stress and conflict. The increase in the rate of women working is good for the Australian economy, as women have a special set of skills that men do not have. They also increase diversity in organisations. This increases the time taken in solving organisational problems because of the presence of different knowledge, skills, and abilities. Nevertheless, this increase causes destabilisation to the family unit which can lead to divorce. Divorce was rare and difficult many decades ago in Australia (Evans, 1996). As more and more women joined the workforce, a gentle rise in divorce rates was witnessed in late 1980s and early 1990s. This pattern has continued with an upward trend. In Australia, women who are in the workforce are more likely to divorce as compared to the homemakers (Breacher, Santow, Morgan, & Trussell, 1993). The risk of divorce is substantially increased by full-time working women. It is not clear whether employed wives are the source of conflict and strain in the family or if it reduces commitment as a wife in marriage. Moreover, it also remains unclear whether employment acts as a feasible way for women in unhappy marriages to leave, or provide them with an alternative to marriage (Evans, 1996). The possibility of a divorce due to divided attention and responsibility of a working married woman creates stress in the family. Stress and conflict in the family have the greatest potential to occur when there is the presence of young children in the family (Evans, 1996). The wife has to balance work and family commitments, and imbalance leads to conflicts. It is for this reason that the participation of women in the labour force in Australia is greatly deterred by the existence of small children in the home. Multiple jobs, weekend work and extra hours all have an impact on family life in Australia (SafeWork SA, 2012). Women are taking multiple jobs, hence, they have less time for their families. Working extra hours every day also limits the time they spend with their families as well as the weekend work. Managing the competing demands of family and work becomes a big problem which creates stress and conflict in the family. As the rate of women in the Australia workforce increase, women also tend to experience an emotional impact from their jobs. Most of them feel pressured, exhausted and have a higher tendency to be in conflict in comparison with men (SafeWork SA, 2012). The reason for this kind of pressure is an attempt by the working women to balance family and work. This kind of pressure affects the family as the wife is exhausted and thus cannot effectively perform the duties required of a wife. Moreover, the conflict and pressure at the workplace transcends into the family hence creating stress and conflict. The potential conflicts between career demands and family are increasing as a rise in the number of dual-earner households are being realised. There have been big changes concerning women’s participation in the labour force, but only minor changes have been achieved in sharing the responsibility of domestic chores (Gyllesten & Palmer, 2005). In fact, women are still responsible for most of the domestic chores. They, therefore, experience stress in their pursuit to cope up with the double jobs in a single day, work and family related responsibilities. The number of Australian women in the workforce has been significantly realised in the last four decades. Different governmental policies and legislation can be attributed as one of the reasons for this increase. A policy platform relating to Australian women, their families as well as their work has been established in the country to support women in the workforce (Baird, Williamson, & Heron, 2011). For example, in 2011, Sex and Age Discrimination Amendment Act became law. There were also changes to the Fair Work Act that improved the status women in their respective workplaces. Most of the legislative and administrative obstacles to female employment in jobs traditionally considered to be men’s have been removed. In turn, affirmative-action policies have been introduced by the government. Furthermore, antidiscrimination laws against employment of women have been introduced. This has resulted in the representation of women across most occupations. Parental paid leave (PPL) is an arrangement started by the government that entitles working parents an opportunity of taking care of their new-born child by taking paid leave (SafeWork SA, 2011). PPL is an entitlement that is contained in the Fair Work Act 2009 and it covers workers who have the responsibility of caring for a child or will have in the future. This kind of parental leave policy has supported women in the workforce as it incorporates flexible and innovative arrangements that assist women in the period before, during and after leave. Today, women have formed a concrete part of the Australian workforce. However, in general, women are paid relatively lower than men, and are undervalued. Notwithstanding these issues, women have had both social and cultural impacts in the workforce. The number of women in employment has steadily increased over time and it has undermined the homemaker conception and the financially dependent view of the role of women in the family. A decline in marriage has been realised due to the growing economic independence of women and the related changes in people’s social attitudes. In fact, the rate of marriages is currently lower than at any given point in time, in the 20th century (Hayes, Qu, Weston, & Baxter, 2011). The single parent households have increased. They are mainly composed of women as the head of the family. In general, the rise in the percentage of women in the Australian workforce has changed the social and cultural life of many people in the country. In most cases, provisions for family responsibilities in the workplace are not easily accessed. Most of the parents that are having jobs have been forced to address their family responsibilities by adjusting their work plans (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2011). In case child care is available and accessible, it is often unaffordable and is present in areas that are unsuitable and at unsuitable hours (Boyd, 2011). This is caused by a massive decline in family units that depends on the father as a single breadwinner while the mother takes care of the children. Currently, few families are composed of a breadwinner father and care provider wife with children that are dependent on him. Women are currently a major and permanent part of the Australian workforce. Women have been employed massively in the last sixty-five years and this has affected men and women relationship. In addition, it has undermined the traditional stereotypical model of a family unit where a man is the single breadwinner while the woman is a homemaker. The role of women in the workforce has significantly changed and they now have a collective power. The probability of them joining their own unions is high. In addition, they are likely to involve themselves in paid work for most of their lives. This has increased the possibility of stress and conflict in the traditional families. Notwithstanding this, women in the workforce have had significant social and cultural impacts. References Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011). Childhood Education and Care Survey, cat. no. 4402.0. Canberra; Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1996). The Labour Force, Australia. Catalogue No. 6203. Canberra; Australian Bureau of Statistics. Baird, M., Williamson, S., & Heron, A. (2012). Women, work and policy settings in Australia in 2011. Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(3), 326-343. Boyd, W. (2011). Maternal employment and childcare in Australia: Achievements and barriers to satisfying employment. Australian Bulletin of Labour, 38 (3), 200-. Bracher, M., G. Santow, S. P. Morgan and J. Trussell. 1993. Marital dissolution in Australia. Population Studies 47:403-425. Evans, M. D. R. (1996). Women’s labour force participation in Australia: Recent research findings. Journal of the Australian Population Association, 13(1), 67-92. Firth, A. (2004) ‘The Breadwinner, his Wife and their Welfare: Identity, Expertise and Economic Security in Australian Post‑War Reconstruction’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 50 (4), 491–508. French, E., Strachan, G. and Burgess, J. (2010). Approaches to equity and diversity in Australia: Conflicting beliefs and competing ideals. In G. Strachan, E. French and J. Burgess, (eds), Managing Diversity in Australia: Theory and Practice (pp. 41-56). Sydney: McGraw Hill. Gyllensten, K., & Palmer, S. (2005). The role of gender in workplace stress: A critical literature review. Health Education Journal, 64(3), 271-288. Hayes, A., Qu, L., Weston, R., & Baxter, J. (2011). Families in Australia 2011. Sticking together in good and tough times. Retrieved from Australian Institute of Family Studies website: http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/factssheets/2011/fw2011/fw2011.pdf Lake, M. (1999). Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Sydney: Allen and Unwin. SafeWork SA, 2012. Flexible Work Arrangements-Parents and Work Life Balance, Retrieved 26 April, 2014, >https://www.safework.sa.gov.au/uploaded_files/Parents_Work_Life.pdf Read More