Women, Work and Family: Emerging Social Issues and Their Implications on Social Work Education

Abstract

Increases in women's labour force participation, including that of married women with young children, have led to changes in family patterns. The traditional family model with the husband as breadwinner and the wife as homemaker, is not as common today as it was before the Second World War. These are several concerns arising from this change: (i) the effects of occupying work and family roles simultaneously on women's own mental health; (ii) the effects of women's employment on the mental health of their spouses; and (iii) the effects of women's employment on society. Social work education and practice can also play an active role in this respect (i) by making society more aware of the changing role of women, and subsequently their rights as workers, wives and mothers; and (ii) by urging organizations to stop rewarding the traditional role distributions and to change the work environment to make it easier for women to pursue a productive and challenging career and for men to contribute more fully to their family's development.