The Contribution and Challenges of Work Place Child Day Care Service
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Date
2021-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Globally women's engagement in outdoor income-generating activities is
increasing from time to time. However, many factors are affecting women’s
engagement in such activities. One of such activities is carrying for children. A
significant number of women are forced to quit their employment or their
effectiveness is compromised due to their dual responsibilities. One of the
mechanisms that can help working women to have productive work engagement
is establishing workplace child daycare centers. Without daycare facilities, the
quality of women’s life is undermined in every way. Hence the aim of
establishing the center is to address these growing gaps. Theoretically different
studies argued that nowadays, many families with young children must choose
between spending a significant portion of their income on child care or leaving
the workforce altogether to become full-time caregiver. In Ethiopia, specifically
in Addis Ababa, most of the young working parents need the child care service.
So parents prefer center-based care to other forms of non-family care because
they consider daycare centers as a better option. Therefore the purpose of this
study is to examine the contribution of workplace child daycare in reducing the
burden of work-family balance in general and increasing the performance of
working mothers in Addis Ababa General Wingate Polytechnic College and
Ministry of Industry care centers. These sites were selected because they have
played the leading role in establishing child daycare centers and are
experienced in implementing the services. Four major areas were analyzed
deeply in line with the objective of the study i.e. the contribution, the challenges
in the implementation process, the impacts of non –Parental child daycare
service out of the center, and performances of working mothers who are using
the service. The study used a purely qualitative research method through indepth interview, Key informant interview(KII), Focused Group Discussion
(FGD) and critical observation. The research findings indicated that the
contribution of child daycare services within two years of implementation
experience has a positive impact on children’s psychological growth and
secured child-rearing style, sharing caring activities and reducing the burden of
caring activities on mothers. It has also significantly contributed to employee parents in
terms of psychological relief, reducing responsibility, income earner opportunity, and
avoiding extended family management. Furthermore the daycare center service
creates an opportunity for the empowerment of professional women who were
deprived of working in the office due to cultural and social domination
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Keywords
Contribution and Challenges