The stress level between working and unemployed mothers in kajang

Currently, we live in a constantly changing world. The pace of change nowadays is the most rapid that it has ever been. Development of modern technology has created more stressful living conditions for humans and many people experience stress due to the busy schedule which requires continuous action and no rest. Additionally, in this modern life, human’s main priority is to get money which equals to a happy life. That is why everyone struggle burning the candle at both ends to earn the successful title which then finally result in severe stress. Since the turn of the century, the status of women has been changing. Due to this growing urbanization, women have started to reach the highest level and perform more roles than men. It is because they believe in order to achieve a stable financial and happy social life, they must have a successful career.

On the other hand, from a recent study by Swati Chhabra (2017) has concluded that women have to step out of the home and find a job as she cannot fully depend on the husband because the family cannot survive only on a single wage. That is why women nowadays prefer to work than being a housewife due to today’s mentality which requires women to be more independent. With the benefit of education, some of the working mothers have achieved the highest positions in their work and due to their busy schedule, they have to balance their roles which are as an employee and a mother. Both of the office work and essential duties can create a stressful situation for these mothers. This is because they are not only been exposed to the same work environment as men but they also will feel the pressure due to the multiple roles and conflicting expectations.

L. Krishnan (2014) indicated that women who choose to combine between marriage and carrier will face a situation of helplessness because they will have a hard time to allocate time between these two major responsibilities. This statement was also supported by Paterson (1978) where he stated that job taken by women created more conflicting situations for them due to multiple roles they have to balance and also the inability to tolerate the whole burden. Balancing family and job responsibilities is difficult, particularly for working mothers who practice breastfeeding. On the other hand, there are lots of benefits of working besides being a housewife where the working mother can enhance their self-esteem, self-confident and sense of satisfaction. These mothers can utilize their abilities and skills not only for them but for their family and society as well.

Non-working or unemployed mothers are those married women who choose to stay at home either by personal choice or were compelled to do so. The number of these unemployed mothers has increased substantially over the past decade. Many people will view a working mother as a successful mother, but the reality is a mother who chooses to stay at home is quite challenging too and they are often feeling depressed. It is because these mothers are not bringing any income home and they have to fully depend on their husbands. Without the income of the mother, the family may find themselves living at a poverty level, especially for the big number family. Along with financial distress, these mothers also may experience the problems such as lack of satisfaction, boredom and feelings of worthlessness. On the other hand, this unemployed mothers also showed more depressive symptoms than working married women when comparing their work conditions, demographic and family characteristics. M. Fatima (2016) also concluded that working women are in better physical and psychological health than housewives because having a job has a positive effect on women’s health.