Work/care regime - Essay Example

ed social and institutional support to control work/family conflict (Doherty, 2004, Emslie & Hunt, 2009, Gray & Tudball, 2002, Grönlund, 2007, Karatepe & Magaji, 2008, Villegas, 1990, Wood & Newton, 2006). A wide variety of approaches and analytical frameworks have been developed to examine the impact of this participation and policies. While many of these frameworks have attempted to take into account macro and micro levels and institutional and cultural differences, most have been developed around Western industrialized countries’ interpretations of work and family commitments.

In this paper, we critique existing frameworks for analysing women’s participation and the work and care balance in order to develop a framework that is more suitable for the Omani cultural and institutional contexts. Before 1970, the Sultan of Oman isolated the country from modern development in the world, especially Western technology, even though he was loyal towards the British monarchy. At that time only traditional Islamic schools were available for both men and women Oman-wide. These schools focused on teaching literacy, numeracy, the Holy Quran and Mohammed (the Prophet of Islam’s) legacy.

Most of the students graduated from these schools at young ages; between nine and fifteen years old. While most of the young men who graduated involved in field training to pursue work, a number of women got married and turned to family life and work in the family businesses such as trade, farms and fishery, etc. However, few of these female students pursued independent works like owning a business or working with someone else apart from family members. On the other hand, a few of these students, mostly men, continued their educational journey for further Islamic study.

Despite the isolation, there were three modern elementary schools. These schools were opened only for a certain strata of the population. Nonetheless, at that time in Oman, gender was not a decisive factor in the