Minjeong Lee / Part 5 A-3 / Wed 1-2

How can we solve the conflict of working mothers? In other words, what should society do to help women balance work and family if they must or want to work?

 

 

Working Mother's Dilemma

 

There are a lot of working moms since the more and more women are educated and participating in the society. However, there are still dilemma that many women form a family and raise children. If they stop working because of their children, they would have monetary problems or be depressed if they want to work. To solve this conflict of working mothers, the family and the government should help the mothers to balance the life in workplace and home.

 

First, the family members must help the mothers at nurturing. The dilemma of balancing between working and nurturing is made because she has to do the two excessive compulsions at the same time. Educating and nurturing should not be the part that only mothers take responsibility; fathers and grandparents–if capable of caring— should participate in nurture the children and taking care of household chores. By dividing the work at the house, mothers would less burdened than when she does everything at once. For example, my mother was a working mother, too. She was a high school teacher so she often stayed late at the schools. My father knew and understood the situation, so he did the domestic chores when he comes back early from the work. My brother and I did domestic chores, too. Mother once told me that she was less burdened than her peers because other family members helped her a lot. Also, members of family should understand her willingness to work, and be supportive to her work. They should not coerce the women to stay at home and be submissive wives whose work is all about taking care of other family members.

 

Secondly, the government should help mothers who work to make balance between work and home. The government should invest on co-nurturing system such as building more kindergartens, and encourage schools to have more after-school classes. The government can regulate the workplace, too. A lot of South Korean companies force women who recently get married or have babies to quit the job. This is unfair for women because bearing child is a part of reproduction and keeping the society. Therefore, the government should enforce entrepreneurs not to fire female labors due to her private life, and to have welfare system for their female labors having children. They can regulate over-work, so preventing mothers from giving up the dream to nurture their children, too. For example, my mother worked as teacher for more than 30 years, and she said what enabled her to work that long is because she was hired by the government, and her maternity leave was ensured. She also had regulated vacation, so she could spend time to take care of young brother and me. Due to the welfare and guarantee that she could work, she did not have to quit the job and neglect her children. In other words, she could balance the work and family because she worked for government, which ensures maternity leave and regular vacations.

 

For many mothers, it is dilemma to focus equivalently on work and family. This is a huge dilemma. However, as long as it is not the matter of individual but the problem that the society solve, every member of society should make effort to solve the question of dilemma. Especially, the working mothers need help of the family members and the government. The family members should participate in nurturing and domestic chores not to burden the mothers. On the other hand, the government should regulate the companies to ensure the mothers to take care of work and family simultaneously.