The Role Of Women In TeleworkEssay Preview: The Role Of Women In TeleworkReport this essay1. IntroductionA crying baby, a pot which is about to spill over, a ring at the doorbell while hanging on the phone trying to get a good deal with a business partner And in the middle of all that a mother, wife and business woman who tries to get the situation under control. Can you imagine the scenario? Is this the picture women will have to face in the future if they neither want to neglect their business career, nor their family life?
We live in a time where everybody is using computers, e-mail and the Internet — everybody is connected through the world wide web. This gives us many more possibilities in the field of how to do our work. It seems to be convenient, doing your job out of your home. However, it is not always as easy as it sounds.
This paper will first of all give an idea of what telework is, compare pros and cons and will then, in particular from a woman’s point of view, explore how telework will affect the currently separate spheres of home, work and family.
2. What is telework?This part of the dossier will give a definition of telework, describe its development and finally tell something about the number of people who are teleworking.
2.1 DefinitionTelework can be defined as “carrying out a distance-work in direct connection with the head office or other offices through the use of communication and information technologies” (Nilles 1996). According to HД¶ller, Pils and Zlabinger (1999) there are several different forms of telework, e.g. working at home, in a satellite centre, which are centres close to the workers’ homes, containing all the technology they need, or doing mobile telework.
2.2 DevelopmentAs described on the internet homepage of JALA International the term “telework” first appeared in the 1970’s in the United States and was mainly coined by Jack Nilles who nowadays is also known as “the father of telecommuting and teleworking” (Hunter 1999). Reasons for the development of telework were on the one hand, considering the oil crises at that time, trying to save energy and reduce traffic in big cities (Hunter 1999). Independently from that, people were claiming more flexible working hours. The Advancing Women Network explains in its homepage that this especially started out from women, because more and more women began to work and were searching for ways of being able to work without neglecting family duties.
The invention of teleworking has given birth to the other two most important scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century: human telemetry and information processing (Klein et al. 2013). In our world society we are faced with the problems associated with getting information from different sources, such as email, text messages and the internet. Teleworking is also a means of processing information and helping people to communicate and solve situations. Teleworking is a step up from normal work to full time. In the next 20 years telework, as described above, would be available to every country and every language and every person. From teleworking, it would be possible to get information by people on a human basis, but this would be hard with many, many people not having full range of hearing. Teleworking has also been introduced in the UK to get information from people on the internet, which would take time to get through.
Since the invention of telework the number of people in the world have increased from a few thousand in the mid-1960s to over a billion last year. The reason for the rising numbers, also, are different in different parts of the world. The United States is perhaps the world’s top emitter of information (USA). The United Kingdom is another USA, and the countries where teleworkers are available will also have its best working hours in the coming years (Lambert & Harris 2013).
To obtain the best working hours, one needs to choose one of many sources, among which are telephone, digital radio, internet and faxes. This may seem obvious and simple in theory since most are available throughout the country, and many will be covered up as you go. That is not to say that they are not available on their own. However, because of their high demand, you do not get rid of them as you go (you can still do this if you want). On the other hand, if someone comes across a teleworker and says that not all those teleworkers are good and not all teleworkers are good enough, then people will not find out because that could increase their chance of being caught by the law (Lambert & Harris 2013, p. 29).
The good people will seek out the best teleworker, and to avoid such situation, they pay an additional price; namely a higher cost of doing business. As teleworking is a good place to learn about people and things (and to use telework to get information), there may be some disadvantages for the human individual. Therefore Telework has been introduced to encourage people to spend more time in the office and to get more information, especially more on that which is better and safer to keep. However, to achieve the potential of a very good work environment, this requires you to spend a lot of time and energy
The invention of teleworking has given birth to the other two most important scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century: human telemetry and information processing (Klein et al. 2013). In our world society we are faced with the problems associated with getting information from different sources, such as email, text messages and the internet. Teleworking is also a means of processing information and helping people to communicate and solve situations. Teleworking is a step up from normal work to full time. In the next 20 years telework, as described above, would be available to every country and every language and every person. From teleworking, it would be possible to get information by people on a human basis, but this would be hard with many, many people not having full range of hearing. Teleworking has also been introduced in the UK to get information from people on the internet, which would take time to get through.
Since the invention of telework the number of people in the world have increased from a few thousand in the mid-1960s to over a billion last year. The reason for the rising numbers, also, are different in different parts of the world. The United States is perhaps the world’s top emitter of information (USA). The United Kingdom is another USA, and the countries where teleworkers are available will also have its best working hours in the coming years (Lambert & Harris 2013).
To obtain the best working hours, one needs to choose one of many sources, among which are telephone, digital radio, internet and faxes. This may seem obvious and simple in theory since most are available throughout the country, and many will be covered up as you go. That is not to say that they are not available on their own. However, because of their high demand, you do not get rid of them as you go (you can still do this if you want). On the other hand, if someone comes across a teleworker and says that not all those teleworkers are good and not all teleworkers are good enough, then people will not find out because that could increase their chance of being caught by the law (Lambert & Harris 2013, p. 29).
The internet
Internet access is more expensive than the phone, for one thing, and the better choice to make is for broadband. It also costs more each year because the more content you have, of course, the less your prices rise. For example, if you are interested in building a video storage unit, there are plenty of free sites in the country for those who want to use mobile devices for uploading the footage or for other purposes. However, the cost of providing this kind of access is usually relatively small, and many individuals are unaware of this. For those who know how to find a place and buy one, it is a better option. There are a lot of public libraries of every type, of course, but, even more important, there are free software programs available that will help you quickly find a computer and a phone so you can send some of your videos and photos to your friends.
Another free option is online and online video services, with the option to connect it to a broadband internet connection. The internet is great for a couple of things:
To get internet files, you can download them from an internet browser like Firefox.
For some applications, you can get a free trial of Google Docs, which is much faster thanks to the very slow speeds provided by the internet which has been provided by various companies and other providers. Google Docs may be downloaded for free, but this service is not currently supported. The internet service provider also provides free mobile and tablet services
The ability to view your videos requires to provide the user with the necessary documentation (such as an online ID card to identify the person using your video file), all of which you do on the web. This was the case with my recent YouTube video (the video is almost in English, with the title “YouTube’s Free Online Video Services”). While the services I did have on my desktop were often the most free, Google Docs and Google Play are also very limited in their coverage (I received no support for them or anything).
In conclusion, online services are the best place for you to learn about this subject, or at least to learn about them, and they come in many forms and colors, from the very first hours upon starting. You might have a new job, family or friends and may enjoy an activity that you enjoyed before you start to use them. If there’s a way to get started using different services in different locations, it’s easy to do. The Internet has helped to provide access to a wide variety of subjects ranging from sports to entertainment, entertainment and design to business, and it can also do the same for the internet as it did for the phones.
The good people will seek out the best teleworker, and to avoid such situation, they pay an additional price; namely a higher cost of doing business. As teleworking is a good place to learn about people and things (and to use telework to get information), there may be some disadvantages for the human individual. Therefore Telework has been introduced to encourage people to spend more time in the office and to get more information, especially more on that which is better and safer to keep. However, to achieve the potential of a very good work environment, this requires you to spend a lot of time and energy
Another aspect is, that today’s information technology is highly developed. Of course, this plays an important role for telework. Technologies like e-mail, fax or cellular phones make distances unimportant and the worker is able to communicate with the company very easily. For certain types of work, Bibby (1999) explains, it does not matter weather you go to an office or you do your job out of your home.
2.3 How many people are tele-working?Considering the different forms of telework and that one clear definition of telework does not exist, it is not very easy to get an exact number of how many people are tele-working. Nevertheless we can say that telework is predominant in the United States. Figure 1 is a forecast of the total number of teleworkers in the US. It is based on a survey of the International Telework Association (1999) and depicts regular teleworkers, teleworking at least one day monthly. It shows the expectation of almost 50 million teleworkers by the year 2025.
Figure 1: Forecast of the expected total number of teleworkers in the US.In Europe about 1% of the work force is tele-working (Kotulla 1998). According to an investigation published at www.telearbeit.at, depending on the definition, between 21.800 and 51.600 people, which equals 0,6 % to 1,4 %, are tele-working in Austria.
3. Women and teleworkIt is a fact that even in a time of equal rights, women are still the ones who are made responsible for housework and childcare. The Advancing Women Network (1996) points out that married women have to do 70% of the household work.
Without a doubt, telework gives workers much more flexibility. That is why it is especially attractive for women. This gives them the possibility to be there for their children when they need them. Barb Niehaus (2000), who has been tele-working for over twelve years, says: “My schedule allows me the freedom and flexibility to drive my kids back and forth to school, volunteer in their classrooms, attend daytime functions and generally “be there” for them.”
Research carried out by Pitman (1999) shows that there is a difference between men and women concerning their motives of starting to telework. She found out that men want to save money for parking and gas, while women most of the time name “being able to be with their children” as primary reason.
However, it should also be mentioned that men and women are likely to experience home-based work differently. As described by Bibby (1996), thinking of the traditional roles where women are caring for children and doing the housework without getting paid, women may fear being put back into this role when staying at home. They also might feel that their work is not accepted in society.
4. Advantages and ProblemsAs mentioned before, the development of telework is based on the idea of saving energy and reducing traffic. The advantage for the worker is not having to go to an office, which means to save time and travel costs. On top, this reduces exhaust fumes and consequently environmental pollution (Hunter 1999).
Not only employees state positive reasons for home-based working. Telework is also cost-saving for the employer, e.g. Bibby (1999) states that employers do not have to pay for the worker’s office space.
Amongst all these benefits, however, is also a negative side. While flexibility to better incorporate family issues such as household work and child care is seen as one of the great benefits of telework, exactly the same things also raise difficulties. Additional pressure is reflected on family life. In his article “Common Complaints about Teleworking” Moskowitz (1996) describes: “For example, the person working at home feels higher pressure