The impact of family friendly uptake on the career progression of women working in the Health Department of Malta

Abstract

The mam aim of this qualitative research was to find out whether family-friendly measures are impacting positively or negatively career progression of working mothers, employed within the Department of Health. The participants within this study revealed their continuous struggle to balance work and family life. The results of this study also show that the lack of support often originated from colleagues and superiors who had a patriarchal ideology, and that reduced hours and unpaid parental leave, although beneficial, could negatively affect the participants' career and their income. Nevertheless, though men still dominate the work-force, the results show that childless female employees are more likely to oppose family friendly measures. Besides this, it was also noted that working mothers face barriers from their husband's place of work as employers may not always support the adoption of family friendly policies by males, since they are not assumed to take a caring role approach. This shows that despite fathers wish to participate more in child care, they may be hindered from doing so. Moreover, the findings of this research show that when husbands are self-employed, they adopt a more flexible working schedule in order to involve themselves in family responsibilities. In addition the findings reveal that if flexibility at the place of work is increased, telecommuting is promoted more and outdated policies are addressed, women would not need to opt for reduced hours and unpaid parental leave, as these negatively impact their take-home pay and pensions. This will also allow them to keep their full time jobs, to enhance their career progression while breaking the glass ceiling and eradicate the gender pay gap. This change in work culture will also increase job efficiency as experienced and talented employees will be retained and it saves on new recruitment and training procedures.