◆A little under 20% of women experience a drop in their willingness to work after giving birth
With the social advancement of women and the shortage of human resources, there is a declining trend for women to stop work after getting married or giving birth, as was the case in the past. An increasing number of women are continuing work after giving birth to children. On the other hand, corporate awareness with regards to maternity or childcare leave and the employment of women who have returned to work presents some causes for concern.
“Willingness to work among wamama (“working mothers”)” is a survey (with 368 respondents) conducted by en Japan inc targeting women raising children who are also users of the company’s website: en tenshoku WOMAN. In response to the question: “How has your desire to work changed in comparison to before you gave birth?,” 46% of the survey participants responded with “increased (increased or remains high), 36% with “it has not changed (normal),” and 18% with “it has dropped (dropped or remains low).
From this survey, it can be observed that overall, a large number of women maintain their desire to work, even though there are some women whose desire to work falls.
◆What are workplace environments where motivation drops?
The company work environment has a significant impact on whether women who return to work are able to continue working or not. Looking at responses to the survey question (multiple answers permitted): “Please tell us about factors in your work environment that impact your willingness to work in comparison to the time before you gave birth.” and comparing the results of women whose desire to work increased with results of those whose desire dropped, the following was revealed:
“The evaluations of the people around me” (proportion of women whose motivation dropped: 46% and of those whose rose: 35%)
“Relations in the workplace” (42% and 32% respectively)
“Company expectations” (35% and 23% respectively)
Replies such as “they do not allow me to handle work that involves responsibility” and “I am not evaluated as highly because I work short hours” stand out for indicating that women’s impressions that the company and people around them have low expectations of them reduce their willingness to work.
◆Creating an environment that is satisfactory for both labor and management
In contrast, the survey revealed that women being given “consideration with regards to work hours” or having their “evaluations remain the same as before giving birth” are factors that impact on their increased desire to work.
Moving forwards, flexible responses combined with communication that produce a burden neither for labor nor management, together with a re-thinking of conventional work patterns appear to be desirable.
