In the Workplace and at Home
We ended the article of "Developed Countries- in Politics" with a clear verdict that we need more women politicians and law-makers as they are weakly represented. On top of that, societies, especially the women, need to have more confidence and faith in our potential female candidates. In this article, we will be exploring the struggles which both men and women face in the working world and in the family unit. Most certainly, we can classify politics as a subcategory of professions in the workplace. But this is not done so as we had wanted to talk about the unique trend happening in politics (it still being one-sided) which might not arise in other sectors of the working world.
Nevertheless, in this article, we have chosen to focus on two major problems which both sexes face. The women as breadwinners while the men as homemakers. Secondly, the common problem which both sexes face: Having a balance work and family life.
Retaining our Traditional Roles
We see that our traditional roles are here to stay even in our 21st century. When it is more acceptable for career women and family-oriented men to exist or even dual-career family units, we see that we are still conservative. Some of us want to retain our traditional roles, some of us do not. We see the men as breadwinners and women as homemakers. We should not make a value-judgment as it is a personal choice of the man or woman to choose his or her priorities and living style in life. But the problem is that when their choices are out of the "norm", we see roadblocks that come in the form of societal pressure, institutional difficulties and even unfair expectations and treatments toward them.
We Are Still Stereotyped
Picture in your head a doctor and a nurse. Most people would have a male doctor and a female nurse in mind. If you see a man sewing or knitting, would you raise your brows? Or if you see a woman drilling on the construction site, would you pause for a second? Unfortunately, even in our developed countries, we continue to judge and differentiate our professions to be "masculine" or "feminine" in nature. The medical field, the corporate world and the service industry are also heavily stereotyped.
Women as Breadwinners
Take for example the scientific and engineering world whereby it is still considered as a "masculine" field. Certainly, we have more women scientists and engineers than before, but these days, their struggles do not come from the lack of foundational education or financial support. It is the system itself that does not aid women to achieve their highest potentials in this arena. "From the US National Science Foundation (NSF) (2000) data it can be seen that only 20% of science and engineering faculty at four year colleges and universities are women; 10% of the full professors, 22% of the associate professors and 33% of the assistant professors in science and engineering at these institutions are women. 71% of men and 47% of women had tenure while at universities 75% of men and 47% of women faculty had tenure." A study conducted with 450 high achieving women scientists and engineers show that out of every 10 women, at least 7 of them find balancing their work and family life to be the greatest challenge. By far, 417 men and only 49 women went to space.
These statistics illustrate the fact that as some of us retain our traditional way of living, institutional and societal support follow suit. This should not be the case in our 21st century, especially after forming the ethos of openness, freedom, equality and rights. The society, especially academic cultures (in this case), has to make way to accept and even compromise to have systems and cultures whereby both sexes are able to work on equal grounds.
As more women choose to be both a career woman and a mother, society needs to respect this fact and do its best to assist them in doing their best in these two conflicting roles. Reassuringly, we do see this taking place. Programmes such as NSF Visiting Professorships, POWRE awards and ADVANCE grants have been put in place to remodel the scientific and engineering field so that it will be more flexible and receptive to women. And thus, it can be a more impartial working environment for both sexes. Therefore, governments need to put in place more policies which not only assist both sexes to work on equal grounds, but also relieve workloads of those whom choose to play both the breadwinner and caregiver roles. For example in Singapore, under the Employment Act, mothers are entitled to a 12-week paid maternity leave. Even though this was introduced in hope to resolve the falling birth-rates, it has helped the increasing numbers of working mothers (especially single mothers whom are also on the rise) to better balance their work and family life.
These policies need to resolve the pay gap as well. In 1995, for every dollar which a man earns, a woman earns only 75 cents. Even till now, Japanese and South Korean female manufacturing workers earn less than two-thirds of what their male counterparts earn. Partially, this has to do with women's greater role as a homemaker which has placed them in a more economically disadvantageous position.
Lastly, "superficial" jobs such as secretaries, clerks, manicurist and foot massager etc should not be "restricted" to women only. We have to learn to not perceive the "top chefs" and "top hairstylists" to be men. This is something which society and not merely government policies can resolve. Until the day we stop seecing women as subservient to men, the workplace would still retain airs of patriarchy.
The Men as Homemakers
A lot has been discussed to give more rights and power to women as society is changing or has changed from a patriarchal one to a more egalitarian one. Feminism came and swept the world, altering society and definitely the course of history. We have this awareness that there are still missing gaps which we can fill in for women, but what we fail to realize is that even though men have been so-called taking the "front-seat", they have yet to be able to move comfortably into their new social roles.
Men's movement sprung up in response to these problems. Some men want to retain the patriarchal lifestyle while others want to be less dominating and take the back seat. In a nutshell, the signal is simple - men are trying to find their social places in this new age as well. This means to say that as our society finds the need and focuses on helping women to achieve a healthy work and family balance and to allow her to work on equal grounds with him; we need to help the men to succeed in these aspects as well.
The greatest challenge which most men face today is to bring home the bacon and at the same time, meet the new demands of a father. These days, women expect men to do the dishes and laundry, have a fair share of taking care of the kids and even be at home to look after the family. The best part of it all: society view men as "success objects", they are dominating, assertive and active. Therefore, they will be successful in both their jobs and families. The issue is that most people take for granted the fact that men can cope with the new demands or expectations easily. This is where the Men's Movement comes in. They serve as a support group to ease men into their altered or re-defined social roles.
Some men even feel that men themselves are not doing enough in the family. They feel that for a child to grow up optimally, he or she needs love and active involvement from both parents. They see that fatherhood is as important as motherhood. In fact, for boys, they need father figures whom they can imitate and model after. Majority of criminals grew up in families with absent fathers. Therefore, as much as it is important and natural for mothers to be at home, it goes the same for men too.
Perhaps, something which we can all be more aware of is to take men as humans and not just merely men. The gender struggle is more complicated than it looks as different men and women are trying to figure out what is best for them. And in fact, men are having a harder time. Women are trying to gain more rights to be on par with men and to better handle old (family) and new (work) priorities. But men are treading on new territories. What kind of rights do they need or want now? To what extent does it mean to be on equal status with women? Do they even want to be on equal grounds with women?
Conclusion
"Most economies in Asia are booming, so now is a good time to invest in equality," said ILO gender specialist Nelien Haspels (Asian Women Struggle in the Workplace—UN, INQUIRE.net)
Equality cannot be achieved. We can only hope for a more equal society. Let us just hope that he does not need to give up his role as a father to be a great lawyer and she does not need to give up her role as a businesswoman to be a great mother. And that, as each sex tries to search a good balance in his/her work and family life, the other is not compromised.