For Working Mothers, How Important Is Work-Life Balance?

The role of working women in society has changed due to global economic conditions and social demands. As a result, when faced with balancing work and family life, women are placed under a lot of stress. Working women are being put under - pressure at work, leaving them alone with their problems and denying them the ability to devote time to themselves. Increasing job responsibilities and a constant sense of tension harm a working woman's personal and family life. Furthermore, it affects women's physical, mental, and social well-being. As a result, achieving a work-life balance is a must for women. Thesis: Working mothers' ability to strike a balance between work and family life is related. to certain challenges. The study is going to examine the problem from the theological and religious point of view.
Historical context and contemporary overview of the problem
Early centuries were characterized by the fact that women were engaged in the household works, while those who worked did it in factories, farms or shop works. Unfortunately, access to education was very limited for some women; therefore, they were forced to live at the expense of their fathers and husbands, who did not agree on the necessity of the women to work. The fast developing society and knowledge economy has provided more women with the place in the educational establishments, thus giving the opportunity to get education and start working to be independent from their husbands. Education empowered women and gave them robust careers. Taking into account that modern business and labor market’s major work requirement is brain power and knowledge, but not physical power and strengths, women-workers seem to perfectly fit into each industry on par with men. Although, it has become a good opportunity for women to change their financial situation, it has also become a tough challenge for women as they have to perform a lot of duties in home and office. After getting married, women have additional responsibilities and duties; they have to combine their motherhood with work. As working women get married, they have additional responsibilities and when they become mothers. Thus, they get under greater pressure in to continue on a career path and perform their duties as mothers.
Modern working mothers try to fulfill family responsibilities and remain fully involved in their careers, facing numerous challenges and demands of their multiple roles. Being mothers and successful workers becomes additional burden, with which working mothers have faced. The effort of working women to incorporate, organize and balance different problems and activities in their roles put them under incredible pressure. Finally, the family becomes an organizational stakeholder and this influential social trend became the start of the “work/life balance paradigm shift” (Mitnick 7). The survey, conducted by Richard Welford (23) demonstrates that work life balance causes huge health problems in high percentage of respondents. Moreover, high amount of mothers admitted that they experience constant feeing of stress and pressure at work, especially when they have certain difficulties at work. Health problems resulted from excessive amount of work at the working place and at home, are leads to lower productivity and effectiveness of workers.
Cherish Character
Working mothers is a topic that has been covered and actively discussed in literature of all types; therefore, theological perspective is one of the most popular. If to start discussing this topic, it is necessary to mention the definition of God and human being and what are His teachings and messages to humans. In general, it is hard to tell who is God and whether he exists, but one can tell for sure that God is a spiritual matter, in which people believe and whom they address, when they need help and support. God teaches humans to be patient and meet the challenges with dignity, therefore, the question of work-life balance of working mothers can be also considered from this point of view. It is obvious that one of the most important roles of the woman is to be a mother. It is her major duty and responsibility; therefore, her main tasks are to take of home and children. Holy Bible provides us with the teachings of God, who state that the role of woman is to be a mother, while the role of man is to be earner. However, modern life dictates its own rules and provides conditions for existence. In this scenario, women perform major roles in all spheres of life, as they have to combine work and family, career and motherhood. This balance is very important for them, as women should be satisfied in all spheres and not feel inferiority in any area of life. If woman wants to build a career or make any other important things for her society, Challenge Culture
It is clear that modern culture dictates new tendencies. Trends and fashion tell what is good, beautiful, convenient and appropriate. Speaking about the working mothers, this trend has become popular in modern culture and nowadays more and more mothers try to combine work and family or even make the choice in favor of work, leaving their children with baby sitters. If to consider this problem and define whether it is good, correct or incorrect, working mothers who work in the prejudice of their personal life and family, is incorrect, as there should be wise balance between their work and family.
Work-life balance is important and is an ideal situation, in which working mothers can occur in case they want to bring up children and build their career. The choice, made in favor of either of the issues, can become harmful for mothers, leading to depressions and sense of dissatisfaction in life. Therefore, having work and family coexisting in balance is very important for women, because it can give the opportunity for self-realization. Modern society states that working mothers are very popular and promote this trend, making more and more mothers to share their family with work. Most of them admit that they are satisfied, while the rest state that it is very difficult to combine work and family and create harmony in both. If to ask the question what is good for a mother, one could hardly give unique correct answer, as each mother and woman finds good in different things. If to relate it to work-family balance, some would reply that having such balance in life is a huge advantage, while the other considers that woman should wholeheartedly devote herself to family and children to avoid unnecessary pressure and stress.
Serve the world
From the point of view of Christianity, the only role of a woman is to take care of her family, children and serve her husband. That is why, if to discuss the issue of work-family balance from the point of view of Christian teachings, it would be more correct to say that women must be housewives and take care of homes and children. Old Christian teachings say that starting from the sin of Eve, she set herself and all women up for being a servant for her husband and children. Therefore, any manifestations of independence and self-realization are incorrect. However, with the flow of time, this view has almost lost its actuality and modern women are more likely to share their lives between family and work. They are successful in building careers and being mothers, even though it creates additional pressure for them.
As for the practical steps, taken by Christians to solve this issue, they can be the following: discussing all the peculiarities of the problem from the point of view of Christian teachings. It would be also useful to consult church representative and ask him for advice on how to balance work and family life for working mothers and in favor of what the choice can be made. God blesses aspirations and does not prohibit demonstrating talents that can help others, but women should not forget that their primary mission is being mothers and serve their children and family.
Conclusion
Christians believe that human flourishing depend upon the harmony of the person with the inner and outer world. If the person is able to find peace in life, it is his highest mission. In case, woman finds her happiness in combing family and work, she should have the right to do it, as having work-family balance in life of working mothers is very important. It helps her feel happiness from the performed work and a feeling of necessity and satisfaction. Although, work-family balance is hard to achieve, especially for working mothers, it can finally bring satisfaction to her.