Can workplace flexibility have an effect on women's lifestyles and work-life balance?

• Author: Subramaniam, Geetha
• Position: Report

1. BACKGROUND OF STUDY

   In the Malaysian economic development process, export-oriented industrialization policies and an increase in the educational attainment of women since the 1970s, have contributed significantly to an emerging pattern of dual career families. However, female labor force participation rates have stagnated at a constant rate of 46-47 per cent in the last three decades. Latest official statistics show that the labor force participation rate (LFPR) for women was 46.4 per cent in 2010 (a slight fall from 47.8% in 1990). This is considered low in sharp contrast to the neighbouring South East Asian countries of Thailand, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore where the corresponding figures are 66%, 60% and 56%, respectively.

   Statistics also reveal that more than 40 per cent of the women in Malaysia have worked before and a closer look reveals the existence of an inverted U shape for female labor force participation (FLFP) rates showing a decline in participation rates after the age of 30 years. Female labor force participation in Malaysia does not reveal evidence that women are leaving the labor market in large numbers to become homemakers. The issue here is that women in their 30s, who have a minimum of 11 years of schooling and married, are leaving the labor market to become homemakers to be replaced by foreign labor and the outsourcing industry.

   Malaysian women are still under-represented in the job market with the female labor force participation rate remaining at approximately 47 per cent throughout much of the past three decades". (UNESCAP, 2007). One of the possible reforms stated in the UNDP report was to have less rigid job arrangements to encourage more women into the workforce, thus boosting national productivity and economic growth. The main focus of this paper is to examine whether flexibility at the workplace may have an effect on women's lifestyles and their ability to balance work and family responsibilities. This is investigated in the context of whether demographic and socio economic factors have an effect on women's preference for flexible working arrangements at the work place. It finally concludes with discussions on whether child care facilities and other family friendly policies might have an effect on women's lifestyles and work life balance.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

   2.1 Why some women work and some don't?

   The neo-classical theory of household choice and resource allocation is useful to explain the factors which influence the female labor force participation of women. As the aim of all households are to maximise total utility by optimal allocation of resources, some factors will have a greater influence on women's decision to participate in paid work outside the home. Women work due to economic and social reasons. In the 1990s, Ariffin (1994) clearly spelt out that it was women from poor households in Malaysia who resort to wage labor to supplement family income and in the course were inadvertently affected by wage differentials and gender discrimination. While poor female-headed households who have very little access to alternative child care support systems have a high opportunity cost, working outside actually aggravated their dual-role burden.

   Not all women leave their jobs after childbirth (Kaplan & Granrose, 1993). Many debates and discussions on what causes women to exit the labor market point to family responsibilities either directly to dependent care or indirectly due to employer policies (Voydanoff, 1988). However, the fact remains that inflexibility at work place and inability to balance work life and home career are important factors why married women leave the labor force (Kaur, 2004, Ariffin, 2009).

   2.2 Flexible Working Arrangements (FWAs)

   The workplace of the future is one that will be driven by new energy and with vision and workplace flexibility and worker-friendly management strategies are becoming more important now. Flexible working arrangements (FWAs) are alternatives to the traditional "9-to-5" workday, the standard workweek, or the traditional workplace. FWAs are work practices (explained by the employer in employment policies and contracts) that allows the employees a certain degree of freedom in deciding how the work will be done and how they'll coordinate their schedules with those of other employees.

   There is no single definition of FWA but it encompasses working arrangements which are nonstandard and can be divided into two categories. Firstly, scheduling of hours worked, such as alternative work schedules which consist of flexi time and compressed...