Survey: Job issues hound mothers in PH

More than half of Filipino mothers feel they have “missed out on career opportunities” after having children, which is partly blamed on how unresponsive policies are to mothers’ needs, a survey showed.

The survey, done by online hiring firm Monster Philippines, showed that 59 percent of mothers in the Philippines felt they had missed out on job opportunities because they “chose to have a family.”

The survey, released yesterday, showed that there were a lot of issues that hound mothers in the Philippines.

The survey covered more than 2,600 respondents across the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, which aimed to identify challenges women and mothers face in the workplace.

In its statement, the company said it wanted to draw more attention to issues faced by women, for employers who “might want to consider more family-friendly arrangements.”

When new Filipino mothers return to the workforce, 49 percent said the benefits did not meet their expectations. On top of this, 47 percent said they felt “obligated” to work overtime.

Filipinas tap flexible working options more than their counterparts in Singapore and Malaysia, according to Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO of Monster.com for Asia and Pacific and Gulf.

The survey showed that 61 percent of respondents could use flexible working hours under their current jobs, although this flexibility did not include working from home.

“Although respondents in the Philippines had the highest number of respondents able to utilize flexible working options in Southeast Asia, there is still room for improvement to better support and manage the workloads for working mothers. This is reflected by the fact that over 50 percent of working Filipina women surveyed feel they miss out on crucial career milestones after having children,” Mukherjee said.

The company said this might have partly been because of “levels of discrimination in the workplace,” where 21 percent of women said they had been labeled “too emotional,” and 19 percent didn’t feel they were taken seriously in the workplace.

Moreover, 18 percent of women said they had been questioned about their desire or plans to have children during job interviews.