El modelo teórico integrado

Linking to the discussion in the previous two chapters on private and public patriarchal relations in Malaysia, this section explores how women manage career and family in their daily routine. It focuses on the impact of marital status and family issues on women’s career advancement. When asked about work-life, the interviewees had a range of perspectives about what it meant to them. Working women, unlike working men, face the difficulty of participating in two activity systems that are not compatible. Empirical studies in the past (see Davidson and Cooper, 1992; Durbin, 2016; Marshall, 1995; Wacjman, 1998; Wichert, 2011) demonstrated that women who combined work and family paid heavy penalties; they were more susceptible to feelings of guilt, role conflicts and stress, and they were often forced to give up personal interests in their efforts to balance work and family responsibilities. Marriage and children are

generally associated with why women may have lacked career focus and or were less committed to their careers due to their roles as mothers as well as managers. Yet, not all married women have children. This is evident in Durbin’s study (2016) where two-thirds of private sector women interviewed had no children, whereas two-thirds of public sector women had children. This is more or less consistent with my research findings in terms of the number of children between public and private sector women interviewed.

Based on the interviews, public sector senior women are likely to have more children as compared to private sector senior women in Malaysia (see Appendix C for fuller details). All fourteen public sector women interviewed were married and had on average four children and one senior woman had seven children. The pace of the working environment might influence senior women when deciding whether to expand the number of their children. Working in the public sector can be seen as more relaxing and less hectic in comparison to the private sector. As commented by Cempaka, prior to joining the government, she worked in one of the biggest accounting firms in the world, during which time she had three miscarriages and no children. She now has four children after she joined the civil service and was convinced that a less stressful working environment improved the chances of her having children.

Meanwhile, in the private sector, the data shows that women were likely to have fewer children: five have two children and three children, respectively and the remainder have either one child or no child at all. Although most of the interviewees do have children, some senior women from both sectors either have fewer children or no children at all. Though this could be a personal and sensitive question, the senior women in this study explained professionally during the research interview. Ramlah, a Malay woman, had no children because she was single and openly confessed why she opted to be single,

“I am not married not because of my career. I am not married because of certain reasons that became history in my life. It was complicated to marry a non-Malay who does not want to convert into Islam. I wanted to marry a man who can guide me in the religion side. I have not found a person who I can tolerate. I received offers to marriage, but I refused to accept if the offer was to be the second wife” (Ramlah, Senior Vice President, Private Sector)

Like female managers in the UK (Davidson and Cooper, 1992), Ramlah’s statement indicated that being single for women generally, was far from easy and it affected Malay women more. Considering the religious culture in Malaysia where Malays are Muslims, it is evident that it is very difficult to marry someone who does not have mutual religious beliefs as a life partner (Aziz and Shamsul, 2004). In addition, three women in the sample who had only one child

mentioned it was unplanned and career was never a reason why they only had one child. Another private sector senior woman, Seroja, explained,

“I only have one daughter. One child. It was not planned that I only want to have one child because of the career. No. It is just I do not have anymore. I got her after 5 years of marriage. Quite late. But in a way … I should be thankful to Allah” (Seroja, Managing Director, Private Sector)

Late marriage is more common among professional women, which is confirmed by the participants in this study who had children between their late twenties and late thirties. Postponing marriage is necessary for women to ensure that they have adequate time and energy to establish their careers before taking on the responsibility of marriage and family. Senior women in the private sector appeared to marry later compared to senior women in the public sector. Private sector senior women in this study managed to enhance their career ladder faster than other colleagues. They admitted that having no child or fewer children was a career advantage in comparison to those who had more children. In terms of ethnicity, it seems that the non-Malay married women were likely to have fewer children than their Malay counterparts. Out of five non-Malay participants, two Chinese women had two children and one did not have any. This was Daisy, who had miscarried a few times until she did not foresee becoming a mother as she was already in her early-forties.

With respect to the ages of senior manager’s children, private sector women tended to have more grown-up children as compared to their public counterparts. Senior women with grown- up children appeared to have the least problem with balancing their family and working lives. Based on the findings, childcare was not important for senior women with grown-up children given their children’s capability to look after themselves. These women had achieved a pattern of equilibrium over the years and had learned to cope. Senior women managers with younger children experienced the most tension by way of balancing their lives and had little time for other social activities. Three public sector senior women had children under two years old whereas only one private sector woman had a child aged six-months-old. Some of them had either school-age children or under six and had a maid or full-time nursery place.

Gender differences in the public and private sector therefore seem to be influenced by the domestic sphere. For women to succeed at work, they needed instrumental support from their spouses either in terms of sharing of household chores or hiring outside help (Greenhaus and Powell, 2006). Table 7.1 shows a number of senior women managers who have hired a domestic helper to enable them to carry out their family obligations.

Table 7.1: Number of Senior Women Managers with or without Domestic Helpers Sectors Live-in Maid Part-time Maid Used to Have a Maid No Maid Total Public Sector Women 5 1 2 6 14 senior women managers Private Sector Women 10 2 1 4 17 senior women managers

Family commitments and responsibilities would require senior women to manage their time effectively and it seems that private sector women in the study had no difficulties in striking a balance between a manager and a mother role. Regardless of ethnic backgrounds, private sector women are likely to have either a live-in maid or a part-time maid to help with cleaning, cooking, doing laundry or taking care of their children. The majority of private sector women explained that their husbands did not help much with house chores and having a maid helped to reduce their family burdens, even though they still had to manage their maids at home. As it is so easy to hire a maid, most men are at ease with their light involvement in domestic commitments (Norzareen and Nobaya, 2010). Men prefer to hire a maid to carry out their tasks at home than to increase their own participation.

“I do handle house chores either I do it or I manage my maid to do it … but my husband does not cook at all ... No. he does not, he is not that type ... he does not clean up, he does not cook at all” (Teratai, Business Analysis and Reporting General Manager, Private Sector)

“At his level, he would not be doing any house chore. Having a maid at home, our role is of course to make sure the maid does her job. So I managed the maid … My husband will just monitor but in the event I got stuck, then only he will come in … so he does not interfere much” (Rose, Chief Executive Officer, Private Sector)

“Overall I manage the household a little bit more like making sure the gardeners are in, the maid is doing what she is doing, it is also a matter of managing the people and the things at home” (Iris, Head of Strategy Implementation, Private Sector)

Even when women managers have transferred the household tasks to the domestic workers, they are still responsible for ensuring that their home environment is well-organised and up to standard. For these women, having a strong support system such as hiring a maid was important in the Malaysian context as no nurseries or creches are necessarily available for working women, especially in the private sector organisations. Even though their children have grown-up, their maids were loyal and remained working for these women for many years to help with the household activities.

“I have a very strong support system at home … for example I have to fetch my children, I have a maid working for me for 22 years until today. You can imagine how my support system is. I have people who take care of my garden. So, they do not have to disturb my work. None of the family disturb my work” (Melur, Director, Private Sector)

“We have a maid. It is not too difficult. First few years, when we have no child, we do not have a servant, so we shared responsibility. Not so much cooking because only two of us … When we have a child, for two years sent to babysitter and then until now I have a servant. I am also fortunate, my current Indonesian maid has been looking for my child since she was in Primary 1. It also helps. Otherwise, all those bother you” (Seroja, Managing Director, Private Sector)

Four private sector women have no maid at all and only one senior woman used to have a maid who is now no longer needed as the children are grown-up. Interestingly, Kenanga from the private sector, mentioned that although she has a baby and could afford to pay the agency fees, she was afraid of the possibility that child abuse could be perpetrated by maids (Ochiai, 2008). She would prefer to send her daughter to a babysitter because she did not trust a foreign maid.

In the public sector, although eight senior women have no maid, they received help from different sources, to minimise their family burden. For instance, six public sector women mentioned that their husbands were helpful, the government has provided a day-care centre for them to put their children in while they are at work or they send their children to a nanny. This has enabled them to occupy leadership posts without having a live-in maid

“To be honest, my husband helps me a lot on the housework like taking care of my children. He does the cooking sometimes. He does the cleaning, washing, ironing as well” (Anggerik, Principal Assistant Secretary, Public Sector)

“my husband was helpful … he can do all except for cooking” (Sakura, Assistant Director, Public Sector)

“Husband is helpful. We share responsibility. He can cook. He even cooked during my confinement days. But now my children are grown up so less burden” (Widuri, Senior Assistant Director, Public Sector) “My husband also can help me to wash the dishes, to help me cooking. He is very helpful. Because you need to have more understanding … be flexible between each other … Harmony life at home leads to productive works” (Mawar, Principal Assistant Director, Public Sector)

This finding substantiates the claim by some Western researchers that female managers in the West have been enabled to carry out multiple roles simultaneously because of the help they received from their husbands (Marshall, 1984) or their organisations (Davidson and Burke, 2011). The analysis of the data demonstrates that senior managers from both sectors hold similar family responsibilities and obtained the support of either their maids, helpful husbands or extended family. This helps senior women to encounter the challenge of combining work and family commitments. Yet, given the fact that public sector women have more children, the commitment of bringing them up may slow down their career development as compared to private sector women.

In terms of ethnicity, non-Malay women in the study were also juggling dual roles as career women with or without a maid. Xiu Ying, a Chinese interviewee, confessed that her maid does the house chores, but she is in-charge of education such as homework or school activities. She did not want to miss any of her children’s performances. If she had to travel, she would write a to-do-list on schedules and routines, and on what food to prepare for her husband, children, maid and driver. She would also take the last flight out and the first flight back in, sleeping on the plane in order to minimise the time away from home. Another Chinese woman interviewee, Mei Feng’, says her husband is also helpful as they do not have a maid at home. An Indian woman, Madhuri, also mentioned that her husband helped in everything although she has a maid. She further explained that her husband is not the type of Indian where husbands are God and expect wives to treat them like the Lord.

“He does not expect me to cook and feed him every day. He does not expect me to wash and iron his clothes. You know, in Indian, husbands are God. He is not like that” (Madhuri, Director, Private Sector)

Generally, women from both sectors still wanted to maintain the traditional perception of themselves as women by performing some primary household tasks over the weekend. They believe that a woman is not a good mother and wife if she abandons her primary

responsibilities in the family. Although these women have made some adjustments and accommodations between their situation and social beliefs, they still hold strongly to their roles in the family as a wife and as a mother. For Malay women, when they act according to Islamic teachings and please their husbands and children, they believe that they will gain the blessings of Allah. This is despite the changes in terms of private patriarchal relations where women are now allowed to participate int paid employment. The family is still patriarchal, and women are still confined by the societal expectations of their roles, despite engaging in full-time careers. This reflects, it seems, that they are condoning the private patriarchy themselves to some extent.

In summary, public sector women have more children in comparison to their private sector counterparts. Women are well aware of the implications for their careers when they have children where they need to juggle between career and family. This clearly indicates that the division of labour at home is still determined by gender, with women maintaining their responsibility for household management. For instance, although women interviewees hire domestic workers, they are left to organise how the work is carried out. Also, unlike in the West, using domestic workers to provide household services at home is the most popular option, particularly amongst the middle-class and upper-class households in Malaysia. Some senior women from both sectors in this study employ a live-in maid to reduce their domestic commitments and alleviate their household duties. Nevertheless, some women themselves are still tempted to perform all the household duties as they consider those tasks to be their responsibility even with help from their maids. For women without a domestic helper, they either have a helpful husband or send their children to nursery. A woman’s position in the family has not really changed in relation to household duties even though their economic positions have improved. The next section looks at the conflicts women encounter while working in senior management.