The mothers with children of preschool age find it difficult to combine career and family life. But the situation changes when the children grow older. Most often, the mothers return to work out of the need to earn money. To be able to balance work and family life, the women with children say they need more flexibility at work and better conditions at the kindergarten, including more educators so as to be able to leave the children in safety there, shows a study presented by the Center for Demographic Research on June 27, IPN reports.
According to study author Inga Chistruga Sinkevici, the last steps taken in Moldova in support of mothers are welcome, but these were taken in the absence of a developed infrastructure in preschool education institutions.
The study reveals that the mothers want to resume work before the children turn three. Most of them return to work because they need money or because they tend to self-accomplishment. 65% of the mothers combine work with care for children. Over 28% of the mothers aim to build a career. These women usually hold administrative posts and admit that they devote more time to work than to the family. Fewer women said they want to be housewives. The women who want to be housewives usually have more children.
The conflicts between work and family become more accentuated when the professional responsibilities interfere with the family responsibilities and vice versa. Mothers with children said the professional requirements are different when they resume work and most of them thus need additional training.
The fact that the children get sick often prevent the mothers from working uninterruptedly when they return to work. The mothers also mentioned the necessity of working after hours owing to the shortage of staff or the heavy workload. Some mothers said they were refused employment because they had small children. In other separate cases, the women were not promoted to higher posts because they were pregnant or had small children.
The mothers are not satisfied with the fact that they are not offered the possibility of working part time so that they could look after the children. Many of the mothers said they had to work even if they needed medical leave for caring for children or even if their salary was cut. The women with small children said the legislation concerning the flexible working program is not very clear.
According to mothers, the quality of preschool education services is an important element, but there are not enough services for children younger than three. The work program of preschool education institutions does not coincide with that of parents. The places in kindergartens that provide good conditions are limited. The closing of kindergartens in summer and the collection of illegal taxes for improving the conditions at the institution were mentioned as drawbacks of the system.
As to the involvement of fathers, Inga Chistruga Sinkevici said these play a very important role, but their involvement consists of only supervision, education and less care that should be a daily activity.
The study authors recommend the responsible authorities to improve the conditions in kindergartens by increasing the number of employees and by providing decent salaries to these and also by assessing the kindergarten in accordance with particular indicators, and to regulate the aspects concerning flexible work programs and work done from home. Gender equality should be promoted for mothers and fathers and subsidies should be given to one-parent families.
