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Women's decisions about having children and pursuing paid employment are seldom made
independently of each other. Use of family planning can improve a woman's prospects for
employment, which can result in both economic and other personal benefits, including
better self-esteem. Family planning can also allow women to seek a better education or
additional training, preparing them for better employment or to take part more fully in a
range of other desirable activities.
But significant barriers stand in the way of many women benefiting fully from paid
work, or ever obtaining work. Furthermore, employed women who have children must handle
the stress of juggling employment with childcare arrangements, and often continue to be
responsible for household chores.
Studies conducted in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and
the Caribbean as part of FHI's Women's Studies Project (WSP) illustrate some of these
situations in which women commonly find themselves as a result of their family planning
and work choices.
Working for pay
In several countries, WSP studies show that the use of contraception and resulting
decreases in fertility improve the likelihood that a woman will work for pay. This is
especially true when women begin contraception early in their reproductive lives. In
Zimbabwe, women who reported contraceptive use at first sex, at marriage and after first
birth had significantly fewer children than non-users, and these women were more likely to
be currently working.1
As South Korea's fertility fell dramatically, married women's work participation began
to increase. In 1960, Korean mothers with children under the age of six rarely worked
outside the home. By 1990, when most married women were rearing only one or two children,
48 percent of mothers with young children were working outside the home.2
Today, Korean women with young children often work, but the demands of caring for young
children tend to impede women's employment in other countries. In Cebu, the Philippines,
women with infants and preschool children were significantly less likely to be employed
outside the home.3 In a WSP collaborative study with Atma Jaya
Catholic University conducted in Lampung and South Sumatra, Indonesia, a woman explained:
"I could not work in the field when my children were babies. I felt pity for the baby
that I held. Once we did not have small children anymore, we could work to our
satisfaction. I am as strong as my husband. Man one spade and woman one spade. With family
planning we could easily complete our jobs."4 In one
Zimbabwean study, most men stated that women with young children should not work away from
home. "If children are still young, they need maternal care," said one man.5
However, women with small children are more likely to work if they are aided by members
of the extended family or have access to day care. In a study in Sri Lanka, the presence
of a mother or mother-in-law increased women's labor force participation when they had
young children.6 In South Korea during the 1970s, employed
women with children had difficulty handling their dual responsibilities because rapid
industrial growth meant many husbands had to work late hours and could not help in the
home. But for Korean women, the burden of working eased with the gradual development of
childcare services, sometimes offered by employers.
Family planning not only tends to give women a chance to work, but research in Cebu,
the Philippines, indicates that women with small families are more likely to have higher
total earnings than women with large families, in part because women with large families
tend to work fewer hours. In 1991, women with three or fewer pregnancies worked on average
nearly three hours per week more, and earned 54 pesos per week more, than women with four
to six pregnancies.
The higher total earnings of women with fewer pregnancies also were attributable to
higher hourly wages from work that required more skill and on-the-job training. In
contrast, women with more children tended to hold jobs with poor hourly earnings. Women
with larger families tend to seek jobs that are flexible, close to home, have shorter work
hours and are easy to enter and leave.
Generally, women who had to work to support many children could increase total earnings
only by working more hours, which made it more difficult to balance the demands of work
and family.7 In the Philippines, the same proportion of
high-fertility women (defined as having six or more pregnancies) as low-fertility women
worked for pay, but the high-fertility group had a lower mean weekly income.8
In a WSP study with the University of Indonesia, most working, contracepting women in
Jakarta and Ujung Pandang, Indonesia, said family planning enabled them to work more and
with greater efficiency, but few equated family planning with job advancement.9
In Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia -- where modern
contraception has been widely accepted and family sizes have declined dramatically -- the
proportion of working women who hold professional, technical and administrative positions
has increased in recent decades but remains low. Women tend to work in low-wage jobs in
the manufacturing sector, where they experience wage discrimination. In 1989, wages for
women employed in manufacturing in Singapore, South Korea and Japan were, respectively, 58
percent, 51 percent and 42 percent of men's wages. In addition, women may be particularly
vulnerable to job loss during economic crises.10
Gender roles
Although family planning is associated with an increased opportunity to work, women who
take advantage of this opportunity are still affected by gender roles that define their
primary purpose in life as caring for home and family.
Both high- and low-fertility women in such countries as Bangladesh, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Egypt and Mali tended to use their earnings not for personal needs but rather
for their children's needs and household items. In Indonesia, most working women said
their salaries were pooled with their husbands' salaries to meet household needs. Working
women in North Sumatra and West Java said they only worked to help their husbands, even
when their incomes were greater than their husbands' incomes.11
In Zimbabwe, urban women reported that the common practice of using women's salaries to
buy essentials, while husbands tended to save their own salaries and often spent them on
their own relatives, was the most frequent employment-related argument women had with
their husbands.12
Whether working for pay gives a woman more power to control household finances or make
domestic decisions varies widely, as does the association with family harmony. In Northern
Mindanao, the Philippines, women were more likely to be abused by their husbands if they
worked outside the household, managed child discipline, had help from their husbands with
household tasks, or lived in poverty.13 In urban North
Sumatra, Indonesia, one husband noted, "On the average, my friends who have wives who
work, their lives are not harmonious, because their wives feel that they can spend money
from their own salary, so that they feel they are superior to their husbands."
In South Korea, where young working women tend to manage both their own earnings and
those of their husbands, some couples in a WSP collaborative study felt that a woman's
management of household resources could create tension. One woman commented, however, that
"this tension can be eliminated if a couple shares a full trust in each other. There
is no need to be conscious about who has a stronger power or authority. It is a matter of
responsibility and family well-being rather than a power game."
In Zimbabwe, women who both work and manage family money often must tell their husbands
how they spend money, and husbands tend to determine whether expensive items are
purchased. Urban Zimbabwean men thought discussing the household budget with a woman who
did not work was easier than with a working woman.14
Researchers from Central Philippines University in collaboration with WSP found that in
Western Visayas, the Philippines, working women were almost twice as likely as non-working
women to decide whether or not to travel; they also were more likely to decide for
themselves whether to have another child.15 In Jakarta and
Ujung Pandang, Indonesia, in-depth interviews of couples showed that husbands tended to
dominate decision-making about matters such as a wife's travel outside the community,
children's schooling or having another child, even when their wives were employed. Some
women, however, do make their own decisions. Said one working woman from this study who
had used family planning, "I am free to decide. My husband never forbids me to do
anything, like going out of the city with friends or choosing which school my children go
to."
Sharing domestic tasks
Almost without exception, women around the world report difficulty in balancing work
and family responsibilities.
In China, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea, women are primarily responsible
for domestic work. Cooking was the woman's responsibility 90 percent of the time in
Jakarta, Indonesia, and 83 percent of the time in Ujung Pandang, Indonesia. Childcare was
the woman's task 87 percent of the time in Jakarta and 71 percent of the time in Ujung
Pandang.
In developing countries, household tasks are often performed without modern
conveniences, such as running water, appliances, gas or oil heat. Furthermore, women often
are expected to serve inlaws and are likely to be responsible for the care of both their
own and their husband's elderly parents.
Some of this burden would be eased if husbands shared more domestic tasks. But a 1986
survey in Japan showed that married women with paying jobs spent an average of two hours
and 26 minutes a day on household chores, while married men spent very little time, an
average of seven minutes.16 In the South Korean study, young
working women reported that they would like to share household work with men, but often
found men unenthusiastic about the idea. One woman explained why, after only a few months
of marriage, she resigned herself to assuming nearly all household responsibilities:
"I was fed up with having to tell him every detail of housework and to repeat it
every day." In focus group discussions, young working Korean women said their
husbands and other relatives helped with childcare, yet childcare remained their
responsibility and the sharing of domestic tasks caused constant friction with husbands
and in-laws.
In Zimbabwe, men approved of their wives working, but thought a woman's first priority
should be domestic responsibilities. Again, the domestic burden placed on women depended
greatly on husbands' attitudes. In Jakarta, Indonesia, the husband of a working woman who
used contraception observed that "women are more tired than men. They look after
children, wash clothes and dishes, prepare meals for us and the children. We just
appreciate what they have done for us. I realize that, so I help her by washing the
dishes."
Women's specific concerns about fulfilling both work and family demands vary from one
culture to another. But women, in general, feel ambivalent about their dual roles and
worry about how to ration their time and energy. In Egypt, for example, a study of women
who worked in family planning programs revealed that the women generally were proud of,
and satisfied with, their jobs and experienced greater autonomy in their homes. Yet, they
said they lacked time both for their families and personal needs.17
Working women said competing demands on their time caused them to function
unsatisfactorily at home and at work. In the South Korea study, working wives reported
feeling incompetent in housework, especially cooking, compared to older housewives. They
also reported they felt they had to choose between children and work.
Other young, working Korean women regretted not having enough time to spend with their
babies and worried when others cared for their sick children. In Central Java, Indonesia,
rural women often worked, but were judged neglectful if they didn't care for their sick
children.18 In the FHI-sponsored survey of 800 women in
Lampung and South Sumatra, Indonesia, working women felt better able to meet the economic
needs of their families, but expressed lower satisfaction with their family's welfare and
felt they lacked time for themselves and others.
Because working may give women new skills and enhance leadership qualities, working
women may be better prepared for, and take more interest in, civic activities. However,
other time-consuming responsibilities, as well as constraints associated with community or
gender norms, can prevent women from using such opportunities. In Zimbabwe, despite
greater contraceptive use and education, women participate little in community activities,
due in part to societal norms. In focus group discussions, Zimbabwean women with five or
more children unanimously agreed that men generally thought women's involvement in
community activities, such as knitting or sewing clubs, gave women an opportunity to
engage in prostitution, just as Zimbabwean women are often suspected of engaging in
extramarital affairs if they work.19
In South Korea, most women today are relatively free by their early 30s to participate
in activities outside the home. However, women's participation in politics is among the
lowest in the world. South Korea's strong patriarchal family tradition discourages women
from political activity. Instead, younger working women, from both middle and upper
classes, spend most of their free time taking care of their families and homes. In Egypt,
women who were employed in family planning reported that the demands of work and family
left them little time for participation in community activities.
Deciding not to work
Many factors influence a woman's decision whether or not to work for pay. A woman using
family planning may not be able to take advantage of work opportunities because she is
illiterate, unable to speak the country's dominant language, or lacks marketable skills,
training opportunities, transportation or childcare. In Zimbabwe, women wanted to work,
but only 32 percent did so outside the home, in part because job opportunities for both
women and men were limited.20
Some family planning users are unable to work because their husbands or other family
members prohibit it. In Mali, the husband's family generally did not oppose a woman's
working, but most women needed their husband's permission to do so.21
"If the husband says it's okay to go to work, yes, she may," said a woman from
North Sumatra, Indonesia. "But if he says no, don't go, then she better not go."
Ninety-one percent of women in Jakarta, Indonesia, and 58 percent in Ujung Pandang who had
ever worked said they had asked their husbands if they could start or continue working.
Some experts speculate that some women using family planning may feel unable to work
because of contraceptive side effects, although there is little research on the topic.
Headaches, dizziness and irregular menstrual bleeding associated with some methods could
affect women's ability to work.
If household finances permit, many women prefer not to do paid work even if they have
the opportunity. Not working, they feel, is better for the family. Women in the FHI
studies valued motherhood as an important -- and often the most important -- role in their
lives. For many, it represented the pinnacle of personal fulfillment.
Many women simply did not value the autonomy and empowerment that participation in the
paid labor force might provide. "It is good if [a man] is capable of fulfilling the
basic needs -- clothing, food and housing," said a woman from urban West Java,
Indonesia. "That's why if he has satisfied all that, it is nicer to stay at home.
Actually, working is tiring, isn't it?"
-- Kim Best
References
- Mhloyi M, Mapfumo O. Zimbabwe: Impact of Family Planning on Women's
Participation in the Development Process, Summary Report to the Women's Studies Project.
Research Triangle Park, NC: Family Health International, 1998.
- Lee H-S, Kong S-K, Cho H, et al. A New Look at the Korean Fertility
Transition: Its Impact on Women, Final Report to the Women's Studies Project. Research
Triangle Park, NC: Family Health International, 1998.
- Adair LS, Viswanathan M, Polhamus B, et al. Cebu Longitudinal Health
and Nutrition Survey Follow-up Study and Final Report, Final Report to the Women's Studies
Project. Research Triangle Park: Carolina Population Center, University of San Carlos,
and Family Health International, 1997.
- Irwanto, Poerwandari EK, Prasadja H, et al. In the Shadow of Men:
Reproductive Decision-Making and Women's Psychological Well-being in Indonesia, Final
Report for the Women's Studies Project. Research Triangle Park, NC: Atma Jaya Catholic
University and Family Health International, 1997.
- Wekwete N. The Mediating Effects of Gender on Women's Participation
in Development, Draft Report for the Women's Studies Project. Research Triangle Park,
NC: Family Health International, 1998.
- Malhotra A, Degraff D. Poverty, marital status and young women's work in
Sri Lanka. Presented at the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population
Seminar on Women, Poverty and Demographic Change, Oaxaca, Mexico, 25-28 October, 1994.
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- Polhamus B. A profile of high-fertility women in the Philippines.
Unpublished paper. Carolina Population Center, 1996.
- Hidayati Amal S, Novriaty S, Hardee K, et al. Family Planning and
Women's Empowerment: Challenges for the Indonesian Family, Final Report to the Women's
Studies Project. Research Triangle Park, NC: University of Indonesia and Family Health
International, 1997.
- Westley SB, Mason A. Women are key players in the economies of East and
Southeast Asia. Asia-Pacif Popul Pol 1998;(44):1-4.
- Adioetomo SM, Toersilaningsih R, Asmanedi, et al. Helping Husbands,
Maintaining Harmony: Family Planning, Women's Work and Women's Household Autonomy in
Indonesia, Final Report for the Women's Studies Project. Research Triangle
Park, NC: Demographic Institute, University of Indonesia, and Family Health International,
1997.
- Wekwete.
- Cabaraban MC, Morales BC. Social and Economic Consequences of Family
Planning Use in the Case of the Southern Philippines, Final Report for the Women's Studies
Project. Research Triangle Park, NC: Research Institute for Mindanao Culture, Xavier
University, and Family Health International, 1998.
- Wekwete.
- David F, Chin F. Economic and Psychological Influences of Family
Planning on the Lives of Women in Western Visayas, Final Report for the Women's Studies
Project. Research Triangle Park, NC: Central Philippines University and Family Health
International, 1998.
- Westley.
- El-Deeb B, Makhlouf H, Waszak C. The Role of Women as Family
Planning Employees in Egypt, Final Report for the Women's Studies Project.
Research Triangle Park, NC: Cairo Demographic Center and Family Health International,
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- Hull A. A Women's PlaceSocial Class Variations in Women's Work
Pattern in a Javanese Village. Yogyakarta: Population Studies Center, Gadjah Mada
University, 1979.
- Wekwete.
- Mhloyi.
- Konaté MK, Djibo A, Djiré M. Mali: The Impact of Family Planning
on the Lives of New Contraceptive Users in Bamako, Summary Report for the Women's Studies
Project. Research Triangle Park, NC: Centre d'Etudes et Recherche sur la Population
pour le Développement and Family Health International, 1998.
For more information, visit Family Health International's Website at www.fhi.org
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