Australian Women Workforce Participation and Childcare from 5 to 12 - Research Paper Example

Australian Women Workforce Participation and Childcare from 5 to 12 Introduction Expression Currently, in the social work market there is gender diversity experienced in the recruitment (Brady. & Perales, 2014). There are transition experiences of women balancing their work along with family responsibilities especially women with children aged five to twelve years. The study employs a qualitative approach that will have women telling their stories and understanding their living culture as they balance responsibilities. The research aims at filling the gap that exists between the Australian research on family issues and work focusing mostly on women. How do women cope up with both family and work responsibilities? What challenges do they get in their workplace or at home? Do the family responsibilities affect the women working capabilities? Thus, this brings up the research question; In what ways does a childcare responsibility of children between 5-12 years affect Australian women in their work? Problem statement: It is significant to research on the subject because there are few studies on the topic. Holloway and Wheeler (2009) argue that Australian women undergo various challenges as they take care of their children between the age 5-12 years and working at the same time. Thus, it is significant to determine the problems and prove the reason behind early resignation and lack of effectiveness in their working stations. The research's main objective is to express my understanding and knowledge of qualitative understanding methodologies along with social works professions giving the study basis. As a result, I will use interpretive and critical research methods to explore the research questions and create a suitable argument, underpinning every method philosophy along with examining the nature of the knowledge. METHODOLOGY Interpretive Phenomenology In this case; the research question will be; what is it to be a woman with childcare responsibilities while working in the social market? Presently, there is no appropriate literature that can improve our understanding of the experiences of women with both family and childcare responsibilities. It is because the knowledge on the experience presently is from the minor evidence of unguided past research and other prevailing practices. Thus, the inquiry process starts with the knowledge gap presented by the prior misguided research on the issue at hand. Women point of view may be that they provide quality services to the social work despite pressure from the childcare responsibilities. Hence, following that there are no evidence to support this view, an original research might contrast their opinion. Therefore, this methodology focuses on idiographic. Its objective is to provide insight to how women in the social works make sense in the phenomenon or if they effectively contribute in accomplishing their responsibilities. The methodology is appropriate because it relates to the experiences of some individual’s significance like life events or an important relationship development (Hays & Singh, 2012). Interpretive phenomenology is significant in the fact that it helps in understanding the people’s lived experiences and establishes the everyday phenomena’s meanings in their lives, ideas and thoughts. Observations or interviews can generate a rich description of individual’s lived experiences and providing a substantive data in identifying the key metaphors and main themes of the events and the phenomena in question. In this case, Smith’s (2011) philosophy of the phenomena will be appropriate for understanding their experiences. Smith argues that researchers should use the interpretation theory that concerns textual meaning, that is, techniques used in writing and speaking divulging the context and intentions of the speaker or the writer. Additionally, the researchers should have a double hermeneutic where they tend to make sense of the participant through making sense of their experiences (Smith, 2011). In contrast, Larkin et al. (2008) urges the researchers use the observation philosophy where they tend to observe the individual’s experiences. Smith and his colleagues (2009) argued that the observation philosophy is not appropriate due to participant’s change of behavior. Hence, it is appropriate to choose Smith’s philosophy to have the experiences of the writer on childcare responsibilities along with work responsibilities in the social work environment. Additionally, Smith’s philosophy exploration has been used in similar research issue by different researchers. For instance, Thompson and Chambers (2012) study of work and child care balance and D.C.A (2012) study on adjustments to the working environment, following the childcare responsibilities. Thus, describing the significance of the interpretive methodological approach. Holloway and Wheeler (2009) explains that interpretive phenomenological research is shaped by three key positions; hermeneutics, idiographic and phenomenology. The phenomenology position, in this case, will seek to describe the “how” and “what” of individuals experienced phenomena, creates essence descriptions of experiences, though it does not analyze or explain descriptions. Hermeneutics position explains the textual meaning, that is, the techniques used in writing and speaking expressing the speaker or writer’s intentions in the context. Lastly, the idiographic position analyzes the details of small cases that differ from the mainstream of the psychological studies, which are nomothetic in nature (Tracy, 2013). As a result, the underpinnings seek to examine the participant’s sense of embodiment, time, relationships and space. Smith and Collegues (2013) recommend that researchers should be open in adjusting their responsive and ideas to interpretations of data based on the responses of the participants. The understanding of the context within the specific context relates to the individual’s phenomena as hand. Aligning with the interpretive tradition, it is possible for the researcher include double hermetic. It is because readers are interested in understanding more about the philosophical underpinnings and the interpretive phenomenological development. Thus, there should be a clear focus providing details on the particular topic and have an interpretive and descriptive analysis that include both divergence and convergence in themes. Value: The research approach value is that it helps to determine the cause of the challenges that the Australian women face as they carry out their work and home responsibilities. The approach benefits the women as it aims at determining the cause and the solutions to the issue (Howitt, 2010). Child care poses a great challenge to women working; hence they need a solution offered by the research approach to overcoming the challenges. Classical exploratory ethnographical Question: What are the Australian women culture with family and work responsibilities? This method deals with studying the human culture’s diversity in their specific cultural settings. In this case, it is significant to understand the Australian culture of women that have both work and childcare or families responsibilities (Kellett, 2010). In past years, workforce based on male individuals and women did not actively contribute to the workforce in employment environment due to home responsibilities such as childcare. Women workforce is evolving in today’s social works services (Gong & Breunig, 2012). It is as a result of increased opportunities to women in different professions, the economic necessity to support their family, increased and expansion of higher education access and governmental equal rights passage. A study of women workforce culture in this social work environment to understand their beliefs, customs and behaviors based on the research topic. Therefore, classical exploratory ethnography refers to a description of a certain individual’s culture that comprise of beliefs, behaviors and culture (Borbasi, 2010). Hence, it is an art of describing a culture or a group. Therefore, this method is appropriate to explain the culture of women with responsibilities of taking care of children at the age of 5-12 years along with social works responsibilities. Therefore, the research will be studying the cultures in the social works and in the family along with their procedure in balancing their responsibilities AS Compton & Pollak (2011) suggests. From the interpretive point of view, classical explanatory ethnography method is significant in this research question because it focuses on providing an understanding to personal experiences. It also relies on the experiences and possible participation in providing a clear view on the subject. In this case, the study focusses on the women's experiences on the workforce and their relations tothe childcare responsibilities to give more insight to the issue at hand. A study by Productivity Commission (2013) used the ethnographical approach to studying women workforce culture as it utilizes their behaviors of their day to day practice. The authors determined that the women used the culture to balance their responsibilities both at home and in their working environment. Another ethnographic study by WGEA (2014) of the culture in Australian women in workforce defines the working environment realities of culture change. The study's main aim was to determine what changes in the environment or culture would enhance their performances of their responsibilities. The main focal point may comprise intensive culture and language, intensive single field study and a blend of observational, historical and interview methods (Stake, 2010). The classical ethnographical method is useful in giving a new paradigms and variable, for a further empirical testing on the Australian women working and family environments. The researcher should also be neutral and avoid natural setting disruption to get an inside view and a limited culture view of context and time. The ethnographic method taps the local point of view as a means to identify the significant elements of the human experience of personal and close. The method widens and enhances top down view and enriching the inquiry process and generating new analytical insights through engaging in team exploration. Moreover, the main underpinnings of the study include naturalism, understanding, and discovery. The method aims at capturing the individual’s natural occurring behaviors, which gets achieved through first-hand contact. As a result, the research should be in natural settings such as the workplace on in their house. Additionally, in this naturalism aspect, the researcher in then supposed to minimize their effects on the individuals behavior being studied. The understanding central point is between the arguments of human actions differing from physical objects behavior. Thus, there are no fixed responses but involve stimuli interpretation and responses construction, hence, the need to study individuals’ culture. Lastly, the discovery feature is the research conception as discovery-based or inductive instead of being limited to hypotheses. It is because one may fail to discover the phenomenon’s true nature. In this case, the real culture or behavior of Australian women working in social works with childcare responsibilities. Value: The explanatory ethnographical approach is effective in answering the research issue (Gong & Breunig, 2012). It acts as a study of the subculture emergency on the social work services where women work. Thus, its interpretations are true and give insight into the complexity of the topic. Critical Participatory Approach Question: Will reduction of workplace pressure improve women effectiveness in work? The aim of the critical participatory action research is to reduce the key challenges that women Australian women face as they handle their responsibilities. Workplace overworks and harassments has been a key issue in the women delivery services in prior years. The Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey found that women home responsibilities, poor morale, harassments and workforce overloads leads to great stress for the women both at work and home. Furthermore, it was established that the additional childcare responsibilities leads to inefficient services in their workplace and leading to early retirements (Howitt, 2010). Therefore, this kind of action is significant providing a practical strategy and skills to assist women in overcoming their issues. Participatory research get geared towards conducting and planning the research process with individuals whose meaningful and life-world actions are under study (Herman, 2009). The everyday practices establish themselves as the subject of inquiry, introducing their perspective such as the way individuals deal with existential challenges of the daily life. Therefore, the participatory research helps the researcher to step back cognitively to the familiar routines, power relationships and interactions form. It aims at having the researcher to rethink fundamentally and question the established interpretations of strategies and solutions (Hayes & Redmond, 2013).Expression In this research, researchers tend to collaborate with participants and develop an action that takes place in setting where change should occur. Action research originates from social psychology and has evolved from natural sciences, psychology, social planning, organizational science and education (Carlson, Grzywacz & Kacmar, 2010). In this research, researchers tend to collaborate with participants and develop an action that takes place in setting where change should occur. The action research procedure gets defined as four steps of planning, action implementation, observing and evaluating. The process gets repeated throughout the research duration. Underpinning: Critical research approach underpinning recognizes that individuals are constrained by the political, social and cultural domination (Gong & Breunig, 2012). It seeks to determine the power relationships and remove the domination and alienation causes. In this participatory methodology, the justification and unit or participation is regarded as methods in favor of possibilities and usefulness in involving research partners. In practice, the participatory research method manifests itself through diverse participatory research strategies. Due to self-determination and individuality of the researcher in the process, these strategies cannot get canonized in the form of cohesive, single methodological approach. Hence, data is mainly collected through qualitative content analysis and narrative interview. The orientation dictum process and the appropriateness of the method towards the subject of the study are much more important compared to other qualitative methods. Essentially, the action research participants should create knowledge that empowers and lead to individuals having enhanced management over their lives (Herman, 2009). An example of the knowledge type given by Gong &. Breunig (2012) into the stress on the responsibilities they get and the challenges in their workforce due to the issue. The Cultural change action research process in the workplace got used by Willig (2013), and he successfully developed a culture that supported and valued workplace learning. AWCCI (2013) action research taken addressed the overwork and horizontal violence in Australian nursing context, following the varying success degrees in enhancing nurse-nurse relationships along with the given care quality. Moreover, a significant critical research underpinning recognizes that individuals get constrained by cultural, social and political domination and critical research aims at identifying power relationships. The research also seeks to eliminate the causes of domination and alienations. Value: Action research benefits the researcher by actively bridging the gap, in theory, to practice. Following contributing to the theoretical knowledge on the research question and assisting the participants in the research, one can bridge the gap effectively (Brady & Perales, 2014). The research uses the newly found knowledge to implement positive changes and improve the working and child care conditions. Conclusion This paper manages to express my understanding and knowledge on the research methodologies and provide a deeper overview of their significance in qualitative research. Basing on research of women with work and family responsibilities in Australia, the paper shows the key application in explaining a research question or topic. References list AWCCI (2013). Closing the gap on child care in Australia. An issues paper on how to strategically increase Australia's national productivity, 2013, Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry: Sydney. Australian Government (2013). Childcare and Early Childhood Learning. Productivity Commission issues paper, 2013, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra. Borbasi, S. (2010). 7018NRS Qualitative Research Week 5 Lecture. Retrieved from https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/ileci-Lecturebb_bb60/studentLinkView.do?linkID=111560537&course_id=75361_&content_id=_1167037_1 Date of Access 22nd April 22, 2015 Brady, M. & Perales F., (2014), Hours of paid work among single and partnered mothers in Australia: How childcare package matters. Journal of Family Issues, in press. Compton, J & Pollak R., (2011). Family proximity, childcare, and women's labor force attachment, in NBER Working Paper Series, 2011. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER): Cambridge, MA. Carlson, D., Grzywacz,J & Kacmar K., (2010). The relationship of schedule flexibility and outcomes via the work-family interface. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2010. 25(4): p. 330-355. Diversity Council Australia (2012). Men get flexible! Mainstreaming flexible work in Australian business, 2012. Diversity Council Australia: Sydney. Gong, X. & Breunig R., (2012). Estimating net child care price elasticities of partnered women with pre-school children using a discrete structural labour supply-child care model, 2012. The Australian Government the Treasury: Canberra. Hays, D. & Singh, A. (2012). Qualitative inquiry in clinical and educational settings. New York: The Guilford Press. Herman, D. (2009). Basic elements of narrative. Maldon: Wiley-Blackwell. Howitt, D. (2010). Introduction to qualitative methods in psychology. Harlow: Pearson. Howitt, D. y Cramer, D. (2011). Introduction to research methods in psychology. Harlow: Pearson. Hayes, P. & Redmond G (2013), Could a universal family payment system improve gender equity and reduce child poverty in Australia? A microsimulation analysis, 2013. NATSEM: Canberra. Holloway, I. & Wheeler, S. (2009). Qualitative research in nursing, (3nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Joffe, H. (2012). Thematic analysis. En D. Harper y A. Thompson (Eds.), Qualitative research methods in mental health and psychotherapy: A guide for students and practitioners (pp. 209-223). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Kellett, U. (2010). 7018NRS Qualitative Research study guide. Retrieved from: https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=coursea&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=75361_&frame+top Date of Access 22nd April 22, 2015 Stake, R. (2010). Qualitative research: Studying how things work. New York: The Guilford Press Smith, J., Flowers, P. & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretive phenomenological analysis: Theory,method and research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications Smith J., (2011). Evaluating the contribution of interpretive phenomenological analysis. Health Psychology Review, Vol 5, No. 1, pp 9-27. Tracy, S. (2013). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. Willig, C. (2013). Introducing qualitative research in psychology. Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill Education. WGEA, (2014). Women in the workforce: by industry, 2014. Commonwealth of Australia: Sydney. Read More