Working Mothers and Coping Strategies: A Study of Working Women in Port Harcourt City
1Nduonofit, Larry-love Effiong, PhD & 2Oyebade, Somina Cromwell, PhD
1Department of Sociology, University of Port Harcourt
2Department of Guidance & Counselling, University of Ibadan,
Email: larrylove.nduonofit@gmail.com; sominaoyebade@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Women’s entrance into the labour market over time has been a steady state graduation. New policies and global movement for women’s right to a large extent has enhanced this situation as the gender gap between male and female labour force participation has narrowed over time. Recently, there has been an influx of married working women with children into the employment space. These women are qualified as “working mothers”. The entrance of this group of people into the labour market is however confronted with a number of challenges that undermines work efficiency on the one hand and family on the other. The paper is therefore an examination of the coping strategies adopted by working mothers in bridging the gap between the family and work domains in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The study is a qualitative design. The population consisted of 30 working mothers in diverse professions randomly selected from a cluster of 5 zones. The instrument for data collection was a semi-structured interview (SSI) questionnaire, and data was analysed using descriptive statistics, such as percentage and frequencies. The results of the study shows that Day Care/Crèche services, Housemaids, as well as relatives/siblings are the most effective coping strategies adopted by working mothers in Port Harcourt Metropolis for mitigating work-family conflicts. It shows further that social dynamics in Africa and Nigeria in particular has given rise to a more payment-related approach to striking a balance between work and family compared to previous times when family/siblings was a rather more preferable approach. It is recommended here that organizational policies should pay more attention on providing supportive services such as day-care facility to assist working mothers to manage their multiple social roles. Organizations can evolve flexi-time for working mothers and even approach work for them on a part-time basis.
Keywords: coping strategy, working mothers, working married women, role-conflict, decision gates, labour market participation.
