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Mentalk about family and work

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Title: Mentalk about family and work

1
Mentalk about family and work

2
FIONA Foundation for Young Women

Goals supporting equality between men and women
to achieve a more complete democracy to increase
young womens self consciousness, legal
information awareness raising of the younger
generation
Tools research and data collection, information
and training activity , counselling,awareness-rais
ing programs, publishing

3
Mentalk about family and work research

January March 2007
Goal to analyse the opinion and attitude of men
in high positions regarding harmonization of work
and private life
Questionnaire based on a focus-group interview
Background study about the social and political
background of work-life balance
Guided interviews with men in high positions
Evaluation and analyses of interviews
Preparation of study, suggestions for policy
makers

4
Work life balance why is it important ?

To achieve equality between men and women both
parties have to contribute
The involvement of men in gender equality
programs is very important
One of the main areas of cooperation is the
labour market, work at home
Involvement of men and work-life balance are key
policy areas for EU in gender equality policy

5
Subjects I.

Political decision makers middle and top
management of government and legislative bodies
who have been or are responsible for policies
regarding work-life balance and gender equality ,
the Family- Friendly Workplace Award (17 men)
Top managers of companies, organizations that
have won the Family friendly Workplace title
(19 men)

6
Subjects II.

Middle and top managers
Average age lower in case of political decision
makers
Bp. countryside
Mostly married with 2 or more children (in most
cases the wife provides for the safe family
background)

7
Methodology

Guided interview small sample, we wanted to
have narratives
Unified, standardized interview schemes
Focus group 2 managers with family-Friendly
Workplace title, Budapest Corvinus University
professor of the Human Resources Department

8
Questions

I. General questions family, definition of
family-friendliness, list of family-friendly
actions, responsability of work-life balance
II. Personal questions work-life balance in
their personal life , conflicts, devision of
tasks in the family
III. advantages / disadvantages of
family-friendly actions on individual and on
company / social level
IV. role of the manager regarding family-friendly
actions, harmonization of family and having a
leading position
V. company managers questions regarding the
Family-Friendly Workplace Title

9
Analysis of the interviews of political decision
makers

Generally positive attitude to the topic (no
disadvantages mentioned) mainly talked about
social advantages
Definition of family in theory lot of types, in
practice nuclear, heterosexual (marriage) , 2
parents 2 children is the average
Doubts regarding the role of the state and their
personal role and influence
Different level of knowledge of the topic
(eg.list of family-friendly actions)
Very similar experiences much overtime and bad
conscience about the family
No family-friendly actions at the workplace
informal agreements

10
Analysis of interviews with company managers

Concrete knowledge and practical experience
regarding FF actions but critical attitude (in
particular regarding the award )
Definition of family traditional, 2 parents, 2
or more children (in their life, too)
A workplace providing normal, orderly conditions
is usually considered family-friendly
Most important family-friendly actions flexible
work time, company programs, financial benefits
and benefits in-kind, cafeteria services
Subjects of actions all employees in
practice rather women (traditional division of
tasks)
Manager cannot live with the FF actions himself,
has a role in the introduction
Question of the traditional division of tasks is
handled separately from the question of gender
equality

11
Correspondence between the answers of the two
groups

Generally positive opinion about
family-friendliness
Overwork, overtime is general in both groups
Differentiation between work private life ,
work family concepts is not typical ( mostly
refer to people with family)
Definition of family in theory politically
correct language, in practice traditional family
model
Work life balance is a permanent problem (with
small children the division of tasks is more
even)
Flexible work hours for managers they do not
live with most of the Family-friendly
possibilities
Proposals regarding family-friendly actions, the
Family-friendly Workplace Award

12
Differences between the answers of the two groups

Difference in general knowledge of the topic
awarded companies and those working directly with
family-friendly actions know more about the
possibilities and solutions
Differences in knowledge about gender equality
Difference in the judgement of company events
Political decison makers (there are no FF
actions) non formal agreements managers task
Company managers more responsabilitity ,
managers role in introduction of FF actions
politicans feel that they do not have influence

13
Priority topics I.

Evaluation of Hungarian society, social policy
Wild capitalism as excuse the political and
social situation is not family-friendly
Fatalism regarding (social)-political actions,
processes and decisions
Mentioning of state socialism nostalgy or the
desire to secede

14
Priority tpoics II.

Main obstacle mentality of society
(traditional, conventional, conservative)
interviewees sense of being outside society and
not part of it (personal stories do not show
separation from the traditional models )
Impossibility of managers showing the good
example supporting family background,
two-person carreer
Difference between theory / idea and practice /
reality
Family-freindliness, family-friendly workplace,
actions
Division of work at home
Double load on women who needs help? Risks of
help
Dilemma of making the first step the starting
point is the idealistic or the realistic one ?
(Risk to confirm traditional division of roles)

15
Proposals to policy-makers

Deliberate concept (employment policy,
demography, childbirth, gender equality)
Complex changes ( the role of workplace,
education, media, family, social policy)
Unequivocal guidelines from government to
economic environment
Legal support to family-friendly actions
Support to introduction of alternative work forms
(e.g. job-sharing)
Support and motivation of fathers on political
level
Media campaign about the tasks of fathers
Individual family-friendly workplace contract to
accompany company contracts
Integration of gender equality and famil
y-friendly topics in management and HR trainings

16
Proposals regarding the Family-friendly Workplace
Award

Analysis of the system of the competition,
elaboration of monitoring system, confirmation of
renewal
Verification of the evaluation criterias of the
award ( at the moment too broad or disputed
categories)
Auditing of the FFWP award, elaboration of a
quality assurance system
In case of other tenders, advantage to companies
with audited FFWP award
Improvement of the communication of the award
increase the prestige of the award
Collection and publication of Hungarian and
foreign experiences, good practices

17
Thank you for your attention !