How Motherhood Impacts On Womens Career Choices Social Work Essay

How Motherhood Impacts On Womens Career Choices Social Work EssayIn most contemporary industrialised nations, womens participation sites overhear been rising. Since the 1980s, womens employment has become much continuous, even among mothers with children. (Lewis, 200927) However, despite of the optimistic rising employment pace among women, the course rise due to motherhood still has a major impact on womens charges. Some women opt for part- sentence jobs after giving feature to child/children small-arm some might snuff it the labour till their children reach school ages. This essay aims to examine the impact of motherhood on womens life in wrong of womens work and care finale and type of works mothers do below different contingencies. As Windebank (2001269) points out that there are big variations in mothers employment participation rates and career patterns across countries, this essay mainly focuses on mothers career choices and patterns in two countries, namely Swed en (a generous benefit country which striving for womens equality) and the United Kingdom. The outset part of the essay briefly talks about the general impacts of motherhood on womens career followed by the descriptions of womens career choices (e.g. work or care decision) and career patterns (e.g. regular VS. part-time, types of work mothers do) in the two countries menti 1d. In the final part, the possible explanations to the patterns order in both countries exit be addressed, such as the economic incentive, kindly norms, institutional context, and womens education take aim. And the essay will be concluded by summarizing the impacts of motherhood on womens career and discussing its implications for policy grantrs.Motherhoods Impact on Womens CareerThe evidence (Vlasblom and Schippers, 2006335) shows that motherhood could have impacts on womens participation rate both before and after the childbirth. In their article, the pistillate participation rates in all three countri es, namely the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, have declined since 12 months before the childbirth and never dedicate to the original level 24 months after the childbirth. Hewlett (2005) in addition states that 37% of women take some kind of break from work to achieve appropriate work-life balance. Although 93% of those women who taken a break after found a birth to children want to re-enter the job market, honest now 74% are successful, among these lone(prenominal) 40% return to full time work. The statistics suggests that motherhood does propel womens career to a different degrees and it could last over a long period of time.In general, motherhood itself presents four choices for women. setoff, women could remain in their full-time jobs after giving birth to their child/children. Second, they could choose a to a greater extent(prenominal) flexible job or a part-time work to achieve work life balance after becoming a mother. Third, women could choose to exi t the labour force permanently for their families. Forth, women could leave the labour market temporarily and return to work after a while (e.g. when their child/children reach school age) (Vlasblom and Schippers, 2006330). However, women who take the last option might find gruelling to return to the labour market. As Joshi et al (1996) point out that losing of tie with the labour market due to the complete exit could depreciate womens human capital and make future entrance difficult. Therefore, the longer a mother is out of the labour force, the harder it is for her to return to work.Mothers Career Choices and Patterns in SwedenBeing one of the most generous public assistance states, Sweden is often regarded as a fictitious character model in terms of striving for equal women rights. In fact, most Swedish women work fulltime prior to give birth and the majority of women do return to paid work (either long part-time or full-time) after the motherliness leave. tally to the Stati stics Sweden (a leading Swedish functionary statistics website), there are more than 80 percent of Swedish mothers in the labour market by the year of 1999. The higher(prenominal) return rate is in all probability attributed to its long paid parental leave. According to the Swedish Law, all parents (employed prior to give birth) are entitled to 12 months leave with approximately 3,600 Pounds income reliever (up to 80% of their income before childbirth) plus 90 days of Guaranteed days with 6 pounds per day. Besides, parents rights to return to labour market are guaranteed by Swedish labour regulations. (Bjornberg, 200234) These policies not sole(prenominal) admirer women to reconcile the work and care balance during the most difficult period (with small child under 1 year old), but also encourage women to take part in workforce after maternity work by ensuring them better chances of being employed. As a result, child under 1 year is usually taken care at home by their parents ( mainly mothers). And among children older 1-6 years, institutional care instead of home care is usually chosen by Swedish parents as that most mothers could return to their jobs afterwards. The statistics (Statistics Sweden, 2008) shows that 86% of children aged 1-6 years are in municipal day care in the year 2007. Based on the observations, Bjornberg (200239) suggests that the traditionalistic potent breadwinner model with mothers as housewives is not supported in Sweden rather a dual-earner model is more normal and acceptable in Sweden.The high return rate does not occur among mothers with one child but among mothers with more than one child as well. As the Swedish policy states that the parent is able to respect the same insured income level if the next child-birth is within 30 months of the previous child. Thus, it makes possible for mothers with more than one child to return to labour market after maternity leave without worrying about the costs and losing their workings rights.It is interesting to note that many returned mothers in Sweden choose to start work as part-timers. Traditionally, part-time work often associated with characteristics such as low pay, no benefits and low status, however, part-time work in Sweden has a different meaning. The long working hours (e.g. 30 hours per week) gives part-time a non-marginalized feature in Sweden. And part-time working mothers are generally treated similarly to their full-time colleagues and able to have more autonomy in their time (Sundstrom and Duvander, 2000). Fagan and Lallement (200045) indicate that part-time workers have integrated into Swedish labour market and original equal treatment in labour law and wage structures.Mothers Career Choices and Patterns in the United KingdomPursuing to be a liberal offbeat state, the U.K. government has also come up with explicit policies to reconcile paid work and family life in terms of childcare assistances, childcare leave and flexible working hours s ince 1997. (Lewis and Campbell, 20074) Evidence shows that the newly introduced family-friendly initiatives do have certain effects in changing the British labour market situations. The mother participation rate in the market has increased from 24% in 1979 to 67% in 1999 (Dench et al., 2002) although among returned mothers, many engage in part-time rather than full-time jobs. Statistics (Social Trends, 2005) shows that 40% of women aged sixteen to fifty-nine with children are in a part-time job. However, the part-time work has a different definition in UK compare to that of Sweden in terms of the working hours. Part-time mothers only work about 16 hours per week in U.K. (Bishop, 2004) which is much shorter than 30+ hours in Sweden. In the aspect of public childcare system, it is not as popular as that of Sweden due to the poor qualification of childcare staff in UK and a lack of funding. (Lewis and Campbell, 2007)In general, instead of the traditional male breadwinner model or Swedi sh dual-earner model, Britain parents are taking a one-and-a-half earner model, which fathers work long hours (48+ hours per week) while mothers work short hours (about 16 hours). (Christine and Tang, 2004) Therefore, abnormal job (e.g. part-time work) and shift parenting are common in UK. (Lavalle et al., 2002)Explanations to the Patterns FoundBased on the findings of both Sweden and UK, it is clear that motherhood affects womens career not only in the form of career breaks during childbirth but also in terms of the after-effects on balancing work and childcare. There are several similarities found among working mothers in both countries, for instance, both countries have a relatively high mother return rate. However, part-time mothers in Sweden are seemingly to enjoy a better benefit coverage, status and pay compared to mothers in U.K. In the following part of the essay, the reasons account for the different patterns observed will be discussed and whether the high return rate ref lects womens true preference amid work and family will be explored.According to Hakim (2000), the difference in work and care decision made by mothers is determined by each fair sexs preference. However, many researchers criticize Hakims statement by showing other meanss which restricting womens decisions, such as the income level of the household, institutional context, social norm and womens education level.Household Income LevelHousehold income level directly limits mothers decision on work and care. According to Vlasblom and Schippers (2006), mothers are more likely to go back to labour market if the benefit for participation is larger than its opportunity costs. For instance, most mothers in Sweden choose to work as womens income in a household is as important as their partners in order to maintain a high living standard as close as possible to those of households without children.( Bjornberg, 200236)In the case of U.K., the decrease in family subsidy in tax system during th e 1990s has made childcare more costly, (Sainsbury, 1999) as a result, many British mothers chose to return to workforce during that time. However, unlike Sweden, high quality and makeable public childcare is not widely spread in U.K. According to Taylors survey (2003), there are only 8 % of organizations offering financial assistance with childcare costs and 3% organizations providing childcare for their employees. Thus, the lack of childcare service and the high costs associated with childcare outsourcing for working parents has explained the increasing turn of part-time working mothers and the shifting childcare arrangement between parents in U.K.Social Norms low the traditional male breadwinner model, mothers are expected to become housewives while fathers will be the only income source for the household. However, as time passes by, the social norm has been changed and working mothers are more acceptable in both countries (Vlasblom and Schippers, 2006). And in Sweden, women to have a gainful employment before childbirth is essential as the replacement income during 12 months maternity leave is determined by womens salary level prior to giving birth. Those mothers who were housewives do not receive any income benefit during the first year of child care (Bjornberg, 2002). Such policies, to a certain extent, have reinforced the womens importance in the job market and increased the acceptance of womens role as workers in general.However, in both countries, the increasing in women participation rate and social acceptance of working mothers does not match the changes in their male spouses behaviours. Gershuny (2000) points out that mens participation in unpaid work is much lower than womens participation rate in paid work. According to Elvin-Nowak and Thomsson (2001432), fathers work schedule is considered as fixed and unalterable and mothers concern about childrens well-being more than fathers do, as a result, the negotiations come to rest between the woman an d her conscience rather than between the mother and the father. Uneven distribution of domestic chores, especially childcare is still prevalent nowadays. In U.K., the long working hours of men has left the childcare to mothers mainly. Without the help from their spouses, it is more difficult for mothers to combine the work and childcare and thus, full-time work is often not an available option for many British mothers. The situation in Sweden is relatively better than that in U.K. due to the introduction of compulsory Daddy month policy. However, Even in country like Sweden, fathers only spend just half the time in taking care of children as their partners do (Gornick and Meyers, 2008318).Institutional ContextInstitutional context is one of the most critical factor in shaping womens work and care decision. Often, the change in mothers behaviour is as a result of change in institutional policies, such as the reduced in family subsidy mentioned above. Both British government and Swed ish government are aiming to promote waged labour through its policies, like extension of maternity leave, childcare provision or flexible working-hour practices, in order to attract mothers into workforce and to increase the labour supply and tax base (OECD, 2005). However, these two countries have varied degree of success in obtaining the goal.The difference in institutional policies explains why the part-time mothers in Sweden could focus on their work better than those of U.K. First of all, the public childcare is well-developed and widely used in Sweden, therefore, most Swedish women are able to work long hour part-time or full-time job without worrying lack of proper care for their children. Besides, the introduction of Daddy Month in Sweden has increased the fathers participation in childcare task and thus, reduces the core group from mothers. According to the statistics, 77% of father in Sweden took up the whole month leave in 1995.However, the formal childcare is either to o expensive or poorly organized in U.K. which forces most British mothers to care children privately and restricts their career development. Besides, the long working hours for British fathers makes sharing private childcare more difficult and often mothers have to change their working hours in order to suit their partners more rigid schedules for childcare. Thus, mothers career in U.K. is more likely to be disturbed than their counterpart in Sweden.Womens Educational LevelBesides the differences in external factors, such as the policies, income and social norms, the educational level among women also affect the degree of motherhoods impacts on their careers. The educational level here not only refers to the initial education (Portela, 2001), but also the working experiences and personal capabilities a woman possesses. Elvin-Nowak and Thomsson (2001407) suggests that mothers with different social background have different motherhood experiences and interpreted the meaning of the mot herhood differently.In general, low-skilled female workers are more likely to exit the labour force for their children than those high-skilled workers (Cantillon at al., 2001). And Hofferth et al.s (1996) study is consistent with Cantillons findings, showing that high-skilled women tend to use formal childcare while low-skilled women tend to provide childcare themselves. As a result, high-skilled women are more likely to commit themselves into their work without worrying about the childcare. At the same time, with the high earnings gained from work, they are able to afford the formal childcare while for the low-skilled women who cannot afford the formal childcare with the low earnings, staying at home to look after their children becomes the only option for them. In UK, 75 percent of highly educated women with children aged under 5 years old are actively participate in paid work while only 24 percent of women without qualifications are in workforce. (EOR, 2001) Similar results are f ound among Swedish women too.Besides, Sundstrom and Duvander (2000) found that parents with higher educational level are more likely to share the domestic tasks including childcare than couples with lower educational level. Therefore, it confirms the view that women whose level of education is high is more likely to take part in work.ConclusionThis essay has examined the motherhood impact on womens career choice and patterns in Sweden and the U.K. The findings show that both countries have an increasing mother participation rate. save despite of the optimistic rising working mother numbers in both countries, working mothers careers are still affected by the motherhood. Not only that full-time work option is no longer available for many mothers due to the burden of childcare, part-time working mothers are generally more difficult to concentrate on their jobs, especially in the U.K where formal provision of formal childcare system is not well-developed. Besides, possible factors, suc h as household income level, social norms, institutional policies and womens educational level, which restrict mothers work and care decision, are explored in the essay. However, there are many other factors which could shape the motherhoods impact on womens career, for instance, the number of children. Women with smaller family size have less career breaks and spend less time on childcare, thus they have better opportunity to channel their zipper into paid work (Gill et al., 2000). Besides, the rising divorce rate and high teenage pregnancy rate result an increase in singe-mother families. Motherhoods impact on unmarried mother family could be different from normal families.After analyzing the possible factors which affect working mothers careers, how their accessibility to the labour market and status could be increased is the fall upon challenge that should be addressed. Based on Sweden and the U.K. cases, it is clear that institutional policies could a powerful tool for creat ing a better environment for working mothers. For instance, the Daddy Month introduced by Swedish government has been successful in tackling the unequal division of work among men and women and this policy could be learnt by other countries too. In sum, in order to increase working mothers full-time participation rate and achieve better work-life balance in the society, governments should invest more on the institutional policies. In another word, following the concept of diversity/mainstreaming, government should change the focus from trying to fit working mothers into the society to changing the society/organization/ stopping point to embrace differences by making working mothers issue central to every aspect of the policy.Word 2930