Mothers in Business MiB published 18.3.2022
Long working days and demands for flexibility challenge mothers’ opportunities to integrate work and family. Over a half (60%) of the respondents to the member survey conducted by the Mothers in Business (MiB) stated that they have been expected to work long days. MiB calls for a more family-friendly culture in workplaces to speed up the progress toward equality in managerial and specialist positions.
The member survey of MiB was carried out in December 2021 in cooperation with the Gender STI research project of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. A total of 475 mothers responded to the survey. Results showed that especially those working in managerial and specialist positions faced challenges when integrating family life and a demanding job.
“Career advancement often requires long days and brings increased responsibility with it. The constant demand to work long hours challenges the integration of work and family life. The answers reveal that the working days of many specialists and managers drag on, and when their children fall ill, they try to work in the evenings”, says Annica Moore, MiB’s CEO.
The open answers to the survey reveal that some respondents considered working overtime as necessary due to the employer’s needs. Others felt that the need to pick up their child from day-care in time was not understood at the workplace. One of the respondents says that they felt a pressure to abandon their career in their field if they could not work long hours. Working part-time in a managerial position was also considered difficult.
“For this reason, those with families may have to exclude managerial positions from the options of advancing in their career. Family-friendliness could help shatter glass ceilings in working life and enable equality in progressing to managerial positions”, Moore says.
According to Moore, prolonged working days are problematic especially for women. In addition to work, women carry most of the responsibility for childcare and housework. According to the latest study by Statistics Finland, the time spent on housework and childcare was on average 221 minutes per day for women, and 153 minutes for men.
“Despite their demanding jobs and long working days, women take more responsibility for childcare and housework than men. The woman should prepare the annual financial statements, pick up their child from day-care in time and keep their house clean, all at the same time. In a family-friendly working life, you can achieve your goals within reasonable and flexible working hours”, Moore says.
Inequality can be caused and maintained by work culture
Researcher Riina Bhatia from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has studied those working with science and technology. Bhatia states that, besides the requirement for long working hours, also negative gender stereotypes, competitive working cultures, or repeated fixed-term contracts of employment can cause inequality in working life.
“A working culture where thick skin and toughness are appreciated may lead to a situation in which sensitivity and empathy are being seen as incompetence”, Bhatia says. “A competitive working culture, which has been linked to toughness and resilience in the start-up communities, for example, may challenge the integration of family and work. Such a culture, combined with gender stereotypes, may lead to the discrimination of female start-up entrepreneurs in funding decisions.”
77% of the respondents to MiB’s member survey had encountered gender-based stereotypes in working life. 70% mentioned that the work community had required toughness or a thick skin. Unfortunately, discrimination in working life continued to prevail. 45% of the MiB survey respondents mentioned that they had encountered gender-based discrimination and 36% had encountered discrimination based on family situation.
“The survey results prove that in Finnish working life, women continue to face structural and cultural factors which create inequality”, Bhatia states. “It would be important to recognize these factors in work communities to be able to genuinely promote equality.”
A family-friendly culture promotes equality
Annica Moore from Mothers in Business highlights the importance of making sure that both employees and managers can combine family and work.
“Investing in family-friendly practices is not only about fostering soft values. It is also about efficiently promoting equality. Family-friendly management can help to ensure that all employees can advance to demanding tasks regardless their situation in life.”
Good management can ensure that everyone’s workload remains at an appropriate level. Even if the workplace’s official instructions refer to normal working hours, the culture in the workplace may steer employees towards working longer hours. If there is a lot of work and the performance targets are high, people may try to cope with their workload alone. Working long hours may even be idealized.
“It is vital that workplaces have an open culture of dialogue, so that employees can review their workload with their supervisors and if needed, prioritize their work”, Moore says.
Moore encourages work communities to develop their organizational culture towards a more family-friendly direction. It’s important that supervisors and managers themselves set an example for combining work with everyday life. “A manager who leaves work on time to pick up their kids from day-care and does not send emails late at night gives the message that it is acceptable to have a balanced everyday life.”
Employers have a statutory obligation to promote equality, but instead of something compulsory, promoting equality should be considered an opportunity.
“Challenges in well-being at work and coping are a modern plague. When every member of the work community has the opportunity for a functioning everyday life and effortless integration of work and family, exhaustion and burnouts can be avoided, and the work becomes more productive. This benefits the employer as well”, Moore says.
More information:
Results from the survey (only in Finnish): Esitys tuloksista pdf:nä
Annica Moore, tel. +358 44 705 7333, annica.moore@mib.fi
Riina Bhatia, tel. +358 50 401 0701, riina.bhatia@vtt.fi
Mothers in Business (MiB) is a nationwide network that supports career-oriented mothers in balancing work and family. MiB’s aim is to provide opportunities for skills development, networking and career advancement. Currently, the network has over 4000 members and hundreds of volunteers throughout Finland.
MiB International is a project that aims to develop MiB’s modes of operation to meet the needs of international career-oriented mothers living in Finland and to engage in societal advocacy towards a more inclusive and equal Finnish working life.
