Not family-friendly at all
By Ramon Casha
I’m growing concerned about a number of statements made from time to time which seem to suggest that unless a woman is gainfully employed, she is inferior to other women.
The latest of these is a report by the Malta Employers’ Association to a parliamentary committee on the family, carried on Malta Today, about what was described as family-friendly measures. The emphasis, according to the report, is to “attract females to the workforce” and to encourage “presence at the workplace” as opposed to working from home.
Is it just me, or is this emphasis on keeping women working at the office not “family-friendly”? All the emphasis seems to be on ensuring that all women are working at a job (in this article, by “job” I mean employment with wages). The Malta Employers’ Association president Joseph Farrugia even speaks in demeaning terms of those women who “devote their lives to being housewives”. When did “housewife” gain these negative connotations?
This is not a family-friendly attitude or even a woman-friendly attitude. It’s a business-friendly attitude. A woman-friendly attitude would be one which respects the woman who makes a conscious choice to place her career on hold while she cares for her children. A family-friendly measure is one which does not try to discourage women from working from home if this is more convenient for them while trying to care for infants.
Another idea kicked around is “extended school hours”. Is this a family-friendly measure when its objective is to turn the school into a day care centre so that the parents “remain at work for longer hours”? By all means let’s introduce family friendly measures, make it easier for women to continue working while caring for children. For that matter let’s make it easier for men to do the same too.
However let’s not look down upon those women (or men) who make the choice to place their family and their children before their job.
- November 3, 2011 8 Comments Posted in: Something to say
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Malta has the lowest rate of female participation in the workforce amongst EU countries. Enough said.
The problem is mainly that financially it is impossible for both parents not to have a wage coming in, notwithstanding all the sacrifices one would be willing to do. I am a mother of a 3 year old. I managed to stay at home with my son for a year and a half … plenty of sacrifices but totally worth it. With a broken heart however I had to find a job because it is impossible to keep up with the bills and all the other necessary expenses needed for a growing child. It was truly heart wrenching and still is every morning. Most employers are men and therefore they do not understand that come a certain hour in the day i need to get home to spend at least a decent evening with my son, probably because they are well off enough that their wives can afford to stay at home or if they choose not to they can employ round the clock carers (something i would never consider – a child needs to be brought up by parents). All these so-called “incentives” you mention in the article have been adopted purely to facilitate the employers’ life … definitely not the mothers’ or fathers’ life – i agree with you on that. However, your last sentence “However let’s not look down upon those women (or men) who make the choice to place their family and their children before their job” is cruel for parents like myself who have NO choice but to work. It doesn’t in any way imply that my job is more important than my son – nothing will EVER be more important to me. Unfortunately it is not a question of choice, it is a question of having an answer to “what will i feed my son this month”. Though i agree that one should never judge a woman who stays at home raising her children, one should also never judge the (forced) choice of working mothers.
The way I see it if we want to keep our present level of social services or better without drastically increasing the taxes we have 2 options. The first option is that the participation rate in the workforce (the percentage of people of working age population who are actively in employment), which also includes women, has to increase drastically. More people working means more people paying taxes, more revenue for the government to pay for the social services. The other option, which I hasten to say I do not agree with, would be to cut social services like pensions health care and education drastically and allow many of these to be provided by the private sector, similar to the models adapted in the US and Chile.
What is for sure is that we cannot have a cradle to grave generous social welfare system, with low taxes, a huge shadow economy and an extremely low participation rate; the sums simply don’t add up.
I enjoyed your article very much. I thoroughly enjoyed being a housewife and caring for my children. I found the role fulfilling and rewarding. Many have this negative idea that being a housewife turns one into a vegetable. Well… if your entire day is spent cleaning the house over and over… this may be true.
The only point I did not agree with is the school hours issue. I agree with longer school hours… i.e. till 3:30.
Not to accommodate working mothers but to accommodate the ever-increasing and demanding curriculum PLUS giving the children a mid-day break long enough for them to eat their lunch AND play.
I went to school in england and the earliest i ever finished school was 3:50. Having said that, we had long breaks where we could participate in extra curricular activities if we wanted to. Some did sport, others music or art. whatever. Some chose to do homework. At least we had time to digest our lunch !
Well-written article Ramon…couldn’t agree with you more.
I agree. Men and women should both be allowed room to make decisions regarding their family so that both can be parents to their children. As it is, men are expected to work away from home and women may or may not stay at home to take care of the children. The decision to stay and take care of the family should be respected and honored, especially in today’s world where so many important values are fading or being brushed aside for newer, more exciting experiences. It is a fact that children need both parents to grow up healthy and secure. Both mothers and fathers need to be present for their children and authorities should make necessary provisions for this. We all agree that a healthy society is based on healthy families; that’s what experts say in the media. How about actually doing something concrete about this and become aware that moms and dads are BOTH important for kids ? Let’s support both of them so they can make the best decisions for their family, even to stay at home as housewives and/or househusbands for as long as their family needs them! Let’s practise what we preach!
Women have always worked. The key term here is ‘gainfully’ not the ‘employed’. I cannot remember when this government has really and truly legislated something in favour of the family, or ‘family friendly’, as fashion demands. Women are being called out, or rather kicked out, to work just for the government to meet EU statistics. It is a government which puts the economy first and not the family. You are right Ramon, Malta has become an economy based society. That the family doesn’t feature in the government’s agenda has long been seen since the days when they have taken away 4 days of holidays off the list. Where does the family feature in the environmental issues? Never in 25 years has the government actually created a space for families to enjoy some time together. Land has been given to developers or the government itself, to develop buildings and more buildings. The only spaces for families are shopping malls, notte bianca, and the like, again putting the economy first. The numerous child care centres operating, after school hours care, extended school hours, etc all witness the increasing perception that non-gainfully employed women are useless.
Even the adverts on the radio subtly but powerfully ridicule women who choose to work at home. The role model of the ideal woman is now that portraying a slim professional looking, expensively dressed woman with a mobile in one hand, driving a cabriolet supercar, with an expensive leather attache case on the passenger seat.
The problem with all this is that many woman cannot be gainfully employed. They have no choice. The government has made life so unbearable for families that one salary is not enough for daily needs let alone for some extra money for a rainy day. In spite of the cosmetic perfection they try to portray, women are being abused at work and outside of it. The fact that they don’t have a choice is already an abuse. They have to work. The fact that the only real option is to work outside their home is another abuse. They are abused in the promotion systems, they are abused by inhuman working conditions like for example working just below the 20 threshold so that they are unable to claim benefits, sick leave, vacation leave, etc. And what about the woman who work on the black market cleaning, without any sort of insurance, any sort of benefits. Has the government asked why they prefer to do so rather than work legally?
At the end of the day there’s only one thing left which the government has not stopped and asked. What is the impact of all this on the family? For example where do men fit in all this? Why it is still being assumed that children’s care is women’s responsibility, as are domestic chores? Who is educating both men and women to take on the new challenges that face them? Besides, all these changes are occurring in conflict with the teachings of the other most powerful institution in Malta, the Church. They still preach as if the only family in Malta is the traditional arrangement. This contradiction is only making things worse, with many woman being criticised even by the priest during the Sunday Mass for abandoning their children to go out to work for their ‘Kapricci’. This only leaves many women struggling with lots of guilt feelings, again being abused for being abused.
By the way, the trick was easy….confusing gender equality with equal rights to work and at work. It leaves a lot of womanhood out.