Home working mums and information technology
Technology has become a vital tool in the day-to-day activities as its impact on the economy is being felt. Of all the advantages it has had on the population, technology has made life even better for women who are able to manage the numerous tasks they have by a click of a button. A woman is most probably the busiest in the current society. This is because of the domestic responsibilities at hand as well as the need to supplement on the family income. Technology has however come in handy and hence enabling a woman to manage both household chores as well as office work. In this proposals, we shall lay our focus on home working mums and how new information technology is helping them achieve this.
Home working moms has become a common trend in the current society as living rooms are transformed into offices. With computer technology and wide internet coverage, a woman can actually coordinate and work without necessarily travelling to a specified office. The computer provides various platforms, which enable women to find flexible working times that also enable them attend to their household chores. With many men and children who have been complaining of being neglected by their wives and moms simply because of their tight working schedule, information technology seeks to solve such issues where a woman is able to give maximum attention to her family as well as her work (Wajcman, 2004).
This works for them in several ways by ensuring they plan for their time. Even though working hours may not change, working at home minimizes on the time and stress that a woman faces having to commute to and from work on a daily basis. While at home, she may also not need to be official and hence saving on the grooming time. She is hence able to wake up, prepare her children and husband for their day and immediately embark on her work. In between her work, even as she takes a break, she is also able to clean up and prepare meals for her family without much strain (Huyer &TatjanaSikoska, 2003). This has also improved on the health of nursing mothers and their babies as they get the needed psychological attention
Information technology enables home working mums to communicate with their clients and only move out when they need to engage in physical interactions. They are able to take care of all other logistic issues such as delivery of goods and services through constant communication. This has also seen better relationships as a woman has fewer worries on how well the caregivers are taking care of the home and the family while she is away (Webster, 1996). While working at home, she is able to supervise and monitor other domestic workers and therefore experiencing productivity both at her work and home.
New information technology has transformed a good number of women into freelance workers who are able to make money while taking good care of their homes and families. In my opinion, this is the best that technology has done to women. A woman being the pillar of her family, she is able to multitask and hence minimizing on the blame from society where women have neglected their marital and domestic responsibilities because of work (Schwartz, 1976). Depending on the kind of work that a woman does, she can also give herself some leave or holiday just to attend to some urgent matters. In new information technology, quality of work delivered matters more than the environment where the work was done. As long as a woman is able to balance on this, she will build her family and career.
Reference list
Huyer, S. and Tatjana S. (April 2003), “Overcoming the Gendered Digital Divide: Understanding ICTs and their Potential for the Empowerment of Women.” INSTRAW Research Paper Series No. 1 (April 2003), 1-36.
Schwartz Cowan, R. (1976) “The ‘Industrial Revolution’ in the Home: Household Technology and Social Change in the 20th Century.” Technology & Culture 17.1 (January), 1-23.
Wajcman, J. (2004) “Virtual Gender.” Technofeminism. Cambridge: Polity,. 56-77.
Webster, J. (1996) “The Terrain of this Book.” Shaping Women’s Work: Gender, Employment and Information Technology. New York: Longman Group, 1-10.
