Who sat and watched my infant head When sleeping on my cradle bed, And tears of sweet affection shed? My Mother.
When pain and sickness made me cry, Who gazed upon my heavy eye, And wept for fear that I should die? My Mother…
Ann Taylor, ‘My Mother’.
Until the middle of the 19th century, women and girls had little involvement in formal schooling. Education wasn’t prioritized back then, and they end up getting married. Fortunately, Malaysian women are also not much spared the role conflict that women in other countries faced, like India since Malaysian women have made significant progress since Malaysia gained independence in 1957 in being involved in education, health, the economy, and in power-sharing and decision-making. Despite the struggle with limited literacy, having fewer opportunities in the labor market for women during those times, they are now the champion of education for their children as what mattered most to them is someone else was given an opportunity she was denied. We are given education; with it, we should use it to empower others. There are mothers out there, who never became the doctor or anything they wanted to become, but the opportunity is passed to us.
World’s Toughest Job – Head of Operations: Moms
If you ever think your job is the most challenging and stressful, you haven’t thought of a mother. Indeed, being a mother was the toughest job in the world. Motherhood is the most challenging of any job on the market and it involves the most work. Billions of women across the world are made to sacrifice their needs and desires as a mother. There are no words to describe how much they struggled to choose between family, children, and financial stability or juggle and manage all of them simultaneously without any compensation or remuneration. Mothering roles to care for, discipline, teach, raise, guide, and nurture their children has given an impact on the real world and changed our society. Did you know, parenting can be translated into worthwhile job skills such as time management, communication, people management, and problem-solving. You can even put these skills on your resume after becoming a mum!
Working and Motherhood
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we acknowledged how messy and overwhelmed mothers out there are working from home. In fact, they spend hours on cooking, cleaning, childcare, and other domestic duties at home. The struggle for them to juggle in between housework and their day job is undeniably unexplainable since having kids means having to do more work inside the home. Women workforce is also struggling with motherhood and pregnancy stigma in the workplace. TalentCorp Malaysia found that while Malaysian women are as educated as Malaysian men and show a labour force participation rate of just over 54%, they tend to exit the workforce in their late 20s to early 30s, mainly due to family commitments. Employers will need to invest in policy changes that can increase talent retention rates in the long run. They should enable a more flexible in-office schedule while still getting work done remotely by workers from home.
Empowering Women at Work
Many companies can hire women for entry-level roles but lose those women during their childbearing years. If women are underrepresented at the top, it can be a self-reinforcing problem. Moreover, policies implemented without female input may not be as friendly to work mothers. The modern work environment needs to consider the special needs of this working population, changing its orientation from male dominance to gender neutrality and parenting-friendly behavior. Along with motherhood, a successful career adds to the completeness of being a woman.
When we were little, we celebrate Mother’s Day by preparing gifts, handmade adorable cards written inside some heartfelt wishes. As we grow up, things have changed, and we are starting to get busier by day with our own commitment and responsibilities especially during this pandemic. Spending time with mothers should not be so hard. Give her your time. Wherever you are today, you can still celebrate this meaningful day via phone calls or virtually. They must be so proud to be hearing their grown-up children who have entered careers and able to stand with their own feet. It is an honor for us, Recruit Hero to be one of the jobs finding platform as a career ladder to anyone out there in discovering their professions so that they can also make their moms proud! There is no role in life that is more essential than that of motherhood, appreciate them, and happy Mother’s Day!