Perception on Career Barriers Among Working Women

Abstract:     
The roles of women are significant in any nation’s development. In Malaysia, one third of the total workforce is women with an increase of workforce participation from 37.2 percent in 1970 to 46.4% percent in 2009. Despite their vital contribution to the nation’s economic, social and political development, majority of working women face numerous individual constraints while working especially if they are married and have children. However, majority of existing studies on working women had been focusing on either single or married professional/white collar employees only. Thus, this study aimed to identify the perception of single and married working women on role conflict, work-life balance, and family support. This study employed a descriptive research design using self-administered questionnaires. Three manufacturing companies in Senawang Industrial Area had agreed to participate in the research with a population of 522 female employees. A stratified sampling was used to draw a sample size of 226 employees. A total of 176 female employees participated with a return rate of 78%. Using descriptive statistics, it was found that the most important constraints perceived by the single working women was role conflict (M=3.36, SD=0.319) followed by family support (M=2.98, SD=0.700), and work-life balance (M=2.89, SD=0.806). On the other hand, married working women perceived family support (M=3.30, SD=0.478) as the most important followed by role conflict (M=3.14, SD=0.452), and work-life balance (M=3.00, SD=0.530). Pearson correlation test indicated insignificant correlations among all constructs except the relationship between work-life balance and family support (r=0.582, p<0.001). T-test and ANOVA tests showed that working women’s perception on role conflict and family support differed according to their marital status and number of children. However, perception on work-life balance was not affected by either marital status or number of children. The findings of this study are important to enhance our understanding on the changing perception of working women on work constraint factors and to further elucidate the dynamic interrelationships among role conflict, work-life balance and family support between single and married working women.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 8

Keywords: Married and Single Working Women, Work-family Conflict, Work-life balance, Family Support

Accepted Paper Series