90% of women with young kids want to work

Yomiuri

More than 90 percent of women with children of primary school age or older would like to work outside the home, but only half of them do, according to a survey released by the Cabinet Office on Tuesday.

According to the online survey on support for women's life planning, 42.2 percent of married women said they thought the time when their children are up to 3 years old was the best period to find a job, while 72.3 percent of respondents said they would like to work when their children are aged between 4 and school age.

The survey also found 90.6 percent of mothers believe they should work when their children are in primary school, while as many as 95.1 percent of those surveyed said the best time for them to work is when their children reach middle school age or older.

However, on the other hand, the same survey discovered only 37.4 percent of those with children aged 4 and 5 actually work. As for those whose children are aged between 6 and 11, 44.1 percent of the mothers have a job. But even if their children are aged 12 or older, only 54.7 percent are able to go to work.

According to the survey, getting a part-time job is the most common employment pattern for women whose children are 4 years old or older, while those who work full-time accounted for less than 10 percent of the respondents.

The Cabinet Office's Gender Equality Bureau, which analyzed the survey results, pointed to companies' reluctance to accept women who hope to reenter the workforce after having children and the gap in working conditions between part-time and full-time workers as reasons why women find it hard to get work after raising children past the toddler stage.

The office also said various forms of employment, such as working flexible hours for a short time or working at home, should be made easily available to those who wish to go back to work, adding that their husbands need to be more supportive of their desire to work.

The survey, entrusted to a private company, was conducted online on 3,100 women in their 30s and 40s.

April 4, 2007