It is hard to be a working mother
The results of "the working mothers" questionnaire answered by 64,418 women revealed the current problems encountered by mothers in Turkey. According to the comments made by the working mothers who took part in the questionnaire, prejudiced job interview questions, an insufficiency of maternity leave, lack of flexible and partial working opportunities, an insufficiency of lactation rooms, difficulties with babysitters and also unemployment were just some of the problems they faced.
Most working women are indecisive about going back to work after they have children. Their wishes to build a career, achieve economic independence and contribute to the family budget along with the guilt they felt about leaving their children while at work leads to uncertainty. According to the participants, it is hard to be a mother working in the private sector in Turkey and there is next to no place for mothers in the business world.
The results of the questionnaire answered by both employers and employees indicate that they agree a one-year period of maternity leave should be available to new mothers. However, only 2 percent of women benefit from one-year maternity leave, while 12 percent leave their jobs after giving birth and 40 percent can only use two to four months of leave.
One of the mothers commenting in the questionnaire said that women cannot use long-term leave after having given birth since long-term leave jeopardizes their job status and they often end up working in a different position. Even when they take leave without pay, they lose their titles and positions.
According to the results, only 36 percent of the women can take leave without pay after their legal maternity leave ends. Participants also stressed the need for the flexible working hours, working from home or part-time working opportunities.
One of the participants says if a grandmother looks after the children, there is the chance of a career; if the babysitter looks after them, there is no career or there is only guilt.
One of the biggest problems for working mothers is an inability to find babysitters. Even though nurseries and kinder gardens can be life savers when the kids reach a certain age, the family sees the provision of such assistance as uncertain. The results indicate that grandmothers take care of the kids for 58 percent of working mothers while the percentage of working mothers with babysitters is 33 percent. Seven percent prefer nurseries and 1 percent the nurseries at their workplaces.
This might be because very few workplaces in Turkey have nurseries. Mothers stated they would prefer to have their children in nurseries at their workplace if they were available. Only 3 percent of the participants said they had nurseries at their workplaces, while according to one of the mothers, it is hard to find a trustworthy babysitter, and therefore cannot go back to work. Clearly, mothers will be more at peace and it will be easier for them to go back to work if the number of nurseries at workplaces was increased.
The questionnaire also revealed the importance of establishing lactation rooms at workplaces so that mothers can breastfeed their children in comfort. Out of 2,000 participants, 77 percent said that their company had no rooms for mothers to breastfeed their children. One of the mothers said that by the end of the first month when she went back to work she had stopped lactating, yet she experienced lactation in a meeting and described it as the most embarrassing episode of the process of returning back to work.
Of all the working mothers, 31 percent state they combine their lactation leaves and use one full-day off in a week, while 28 percent leave work early and 20 percent cannot use their lactation leaves at all due to workload. With the legal regulation made in early 2015, the parental leave for only civil servant fathers is now valid for all employees. In accordance with the law, fathers whose wives give birth have a five-day period of paid leave. Most of the participants say their husbands have parental leaves in their companies while 31 percent said their partners did not.
Most working women are indecisive about going back to work after they have children. Their wishes to build a career, achieve economic independence and contribute to the family budget along with the guilt they felt about leaving their children while at work leads to uncertainty. According to the participants, it is hard to be a mother working in the private sector in Turkey and there is next to no place for mothers in the business world.
The results of the questionnaire answered by both employers and employees indicate that they agree a one-year period of maternity leave should be available to new mothers. However, only 2 percent of women benefit from one-year maternity leave, while 12 percent leave their jobs after giving birth and 40 percent can only use two to four months of leave.
One of the mothers commenting in the questionnaire said that women cannot use long-term leave after having given birth since long-term leave jeopardizes their job status and they often end up working in a different position. Even when they take leave without pay, they lose their titles and positions.
According to the results, only 36 percent of the women can take leave without pay after their legal maternity leave ends. Participants also stressed the need for the flexible working hours, working from home or part-time working opportunities.
One of the participants says if a grandmother looks after the children, there is the chance of a career; if the babysitter looks after them, there is no career or there is only guilt.
One of the biggest problems for working mothers is an inability to find babysitters. Even though nurseries and kinder gardens can be life savers when the kids reach a certain age, the family sees the provision of such assistance as uncertain. The results indicate that grandmothers take care of the kids for 58 percent of working mothers while the percentage of working mothers with babysitters is 33 percent. Seven percent prefer nurseries and 1 percent the nurseries at their workplaces.
This might be because very few workplaces in Turkey have nurseries. Mothers stated they would prefer to have their children in nurseries at their workplace if they were available. Only 3 percent of the participants said they had nurseries at their workplaces, while according to one of the mothers, it is hard to find a trustworthy babysitter, and therefore cannot go back to work. Clearly, mothers will be more at peace and it will be easier for them to go back to work if the number of nurseries at workplaces was increased.
The questionnaire also revealed the importance of establishing lactation rooms at workplaces so that mothers can breastfeed their children in comfort. Out of 2,000 participants, 77 percent said that their company had no rooms for mothers to breastfeed their children. One of the mothers said that by the end of the first month when she went back to work she had stopped lactating, yet she experienced lactation in a meeting and described it as the most embarrassing episode of the process of returning back to work.
Of all the working mothers, 31 percent state they combine their lactation leaves and use one full-day off in a week, while 28 percent leave work early and 20 percent cannot use their lactation leaves at all due to workload. With the legal regulation made in early 2015, the parental leave for only civil servant fathers is now valid for all employees. In accordance with the law, fathers whose wives give birth have a five-day period of paid leave. Most of the participants say their husbands have parental leaves in their companies while 31 percent said their partners did not.
Last Update: May 08, 2016 21:41