EFFECTS OF WOMAN`S EMPLOYMENT ON FAMILY LIFE KADININ

EFFECTS OF WOMAN’S EMPLOYMENT ON FAMILY LIFE
KADININ ÇALIŞMASININ AİLE YAŞAMI ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİLERİ
Ass.Prof. Muhteşem TELSİZ
Hacettepe University
School of Home Economics
Ankara-Turkey
The more women share the responsibility of supporting a family with their
spouses, the less gender-bound the roles of the spouses are expected to be in twoprovider families. Nevertheless, the roles of men have been changing relatively slower
than those of women. In families with two-earners, the women, rather than the men, tend
to bear the housework. In well-educated families, on the other hand, women's
employment presents positive effects on marital satisfaction. Female employment makes
it possible for women to have a much greater say in decisions concerning financial
matters within the family.
Kadının aileyi geçindirme yükümlülüğünü eşiyle paylaşmasıyla birlikte, ailede
eşlerin rollerinin daha az cinsiyete dayalı olması beklenmektedir. Oysa, erkek rolünün,
kadın rolüne oranla daha yavaş değiştiği; kadının çalıştığı ailelerde, ev işleriyle ilgili
sorumlulukları çoğunlukla kadının üstlendiği görülmektedir. Özellikle eğitim düzeyi
yüksek olan ailelerde, kadının çalışması evlilikten memnuniyeti olumlu yönde
etkilemektedir. Kadının çalışması, ailede ekonomik konulara ilişkin kararlarda kadının
daha fazla söz sahibi olmasını sağlamaktadır.
Key words
: Working women, Family relations, Dual-Earner families
Anahtar sözcükler
: Çalışan kadınlar, Aile ilişkileri, Çift gelirli aileler
Today, as the educational level of women increases, more and
more women join the labor force. According to the 1992 Household
Labor Force Survey Results of Turkey, the level of working women is
42.8 %. It seems evident that the higher the level of education among
women, the higher the ratio of women in the labor force.
Among the women who are primary school graduates and those
who are illiterate, this ratio nears 30 % whereas it is 40.8 % among high
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school graduates and as high as 82.9 % among the women who are
university graduates (T.C. Devlet İstatistik Enstitüsü, 1995).
As more women begin to work, it is becoming increasingly
important how family relationships, the division of household labor,
financial decision making patterns and the use of money are affected.
In the past, the common belief was that a women's equal
employment at the same status of her spouse, would harm the marriage.
However, today it is widely believed that when both woman and man
work at similar positions, it will promote marital solidarity and the
happiness shared by the couple. This is due to the fact that spouses can
relate to each other's daily problems and assume similar responsibilities
at home. Thus women's employment provides spouses with common
concerns and experiences, encouraging the development of marital
solidarity (Spitze, 1988).
It has been claimed that women's employment would in fact
impede the couple's ability to communication due to scarcity of time and
lack of interaction, which would lead to problems in the marriage.
However, there are the studies investigating the differences between
dual- and single- earner families which maintain that there was not a
significant difference between those two groups when the time spent
together was concerned (Kingston&Nock, 1987; White, 1983).
The fact that the ratio of divorce among the families of dualearners is higher is not due to the incompatibility between partners when
compared to the couples of single-earner. It is the financial
independence of women in these families which tend to facilitate
decision-making concerning dissolution of the union (Hoffman, 1989).
Studies investigating the marital satisfaction among families with
working women in which the household responsibilities are shared
reflect that among the lower-income families, in which the women do not
work, there is more marital fulfillment. Among the middle income groups
in which both spouses work there is more marital satisfaction compared
to that of single-earner families especially when the woman is pleased
with her job (Moen, 1983). The couples of higher education status who
earn two wages maintain that despite the difficulties encountered, the
woman's employment seems to have improved marital stability and they
have not experienced problems of serious nature in their marriages. The
dissatisfaction due to the women's employment usually arises in
traditional families which hold the beliefs of traditional gender roles i.e.
the main role of the men being the family provider (Hoffman, 1989). This
is in part caused by the desire of men in lower-income status to solely
hold the power involved and to dominate in being the only provider for
the family. Thus, they are hesitant about their wives' working. The men
believe that when their spouses share the role of family providing, it will
reduce their dominance as the head of the family.
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Many of today's working women admit that assuming the
burdens of work and family life simultaneously would constitute a
considerable source of stress. In families with working women, fulfilling
both the responsibilities of the roles involving work and parenting and
daily activities of life leads to scarcity of time, excessive work load and
exhaustion, which all together create dissatisfaction in family life (Gonen,
Hablemitoglu & Ozmete 1998). In view of this, one of the most important
issues in the lives of dual-earner families is the division of household
labor. Within the dual-earner families in which the division of labor is less
traditional men are more involved in housework and child care than in
families with a single-earner even if the woman assumes much of the
responsibility.
To yield a better understanding of basic characteristics of the
Turkish Family structure, the State Planning Institution (DPT) has
conducted a nationwide study. The study confirms that in the case of
working women, the participation of men in household labor is not one of
sharing. Rather, it is one of helping their spouses with the household
tasks (Atalay et al. 1993). While men are still considered as the main
provider for the family, for women who are responsible for housework
and child care, employment is seen as a secondary role (Moen, 1983).
Caring for the home and the children is regarded as the natural role of
females. Hence, they are also expected to smoothly combine this
''natural and main role'' with working-life (Imamoglu, 1995). This arises
as a result of imposed gender stereotypes of the community on women
and men since their childhood. In Turkish society, for instance, the
female children are given some household tasks whereas the male
children are given no such responsibilities. On the contrary, the male
children are provided with most of the household services by their
mothers, and this is considered as natural rights of male children. As a
consequence of this, when Turkish men get married they also regard
their wives taking the burden of housework very natural.
Women's employment out of home has also affected the
economic power equity between the spouses and increased the female
power over decision making in financial matters. In a study conducted by
Terzioglu and Safak (1988), they have found that more than half of the
working women have been participating in planning how and where to
spend their money with their spouses. Similarly, Bayraktar (1989) has
shown that about half of the working women have more say over the
spending of family income and are more independent in their personal
spending.
As the educational levels of women increase, they get more selfsatisfaction from work; thus be more competent in their jobs. If women
are satisfied at work, the tasks at work decrease their daily stress. As a
result, their contentment with work and their roles as a mother
contributes to effective parenting (Hoffman, 1979). Since employment
out of home induces self-happiness for the mother, it provides a higher
quality of communication between the mother and the child. When the
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quantity of interaction between the child and the working mother is
concerned, however, it is also seen that the working mothers, in
particular, those of preschool children spend less time with their children
when compared with non-working mothers. Therefore, most working
women tend to create time at weekends and off-work hours to
compensate for the scarcity of communication with children (Hoffman,
1989).
The mothers of preschool children face the problem of child care.
Dual-earner families arrange solutions such as day-care facilities, hiring
baby-sitters, or having a family member take care of the child. If they
have no relatives who are able to take care of the child, paying for the
day-care facilities or hiring baby-sitters bring an additional burden on the
family budget.
The difference between the expenses of dual- and single-earner
families does not only lie within the spending on child care. As the free
time of working women is more limited than that of non-working women,
they can spare less time for housework (Foster, 1988). Consequently,
working women tend to benefit more from time and energy saving
devices and convenience foods; thus they decrease their work load
(Reilly, 1982). Yener and Hincal (1992) have found that in addition to the
expenses of home cleaning and care, dual-earner families spend more
money on eating out, personal care, and other such necessities.
In conclusion, although the family life of working women is
negatively affected in some aspects, working out of home usually
provides women with more life satisfaction. This, in turn, provides the
other members of the family with opportunities to develop healthier
family relations. Furthermore, the employment of women contributes to
the change in the traditional gender based attitudes and opinions of the
family members and individuals of the society alike. Thus, it helps to
promote fair judgment of gender roles among the members of society on
behalf of women.
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