Family Support Perceived by Working Wives in Medan, Indonesia

Siti Zahara Nasution

, Muhammad Ridha Haykal Amal

, Reni Asmara Ariga

Cholina Trisa Siregar

, Widya Darayani Purba

and Muhammad Taufik

Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Faculty of Law, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Working wives, emotional, support, family.

Abstract: The family is an important factor in providing support to all family members, especially for working wives.

Family support will increase self-confidence and increase motivation for all family members in undergoing

all activities. The purpose of this study was to identify family support for wives working in Medan

Indonesia. In this study using a descriptive design with a study population that is a wife who works in

Medan and the number of research samples are 180 samples with probability sampling method with cluster

sampling type. The results showed that family support in the aspect of appreciation in the good category,

emotional support in the good category, information support in the sufficient category, and instrumental

support in the good category. This research is expected to be an initial reference material to conduct further

research related to family support for working wives.

1 INTRODUCTION

The process of industrialization and urbanization left

the most important impression on the status and role

of women. As a result of two processes, more people

are involved in work outside the home. This

situation clearly shows that employment

opportunities for women are also increasingly

widespread because female labour is needed to

accommodate workers in the labour market. With

this condition, the role of women changes from

being just a housewife to being more complex. As

family workers, women have made a truly radical

paradigm. Changes made by women also do not

reduce or change their parts and responsibilities in

the family. Women play the role of women who

work with them as wives and mothers with workers'

functions. Working well is certainly a challenge for

women who also have to carry out their functions

well in the family.

Based on data from the 2012 Central Bureau of

Statistics, women's participation in employment

increased significantly. At present, there are 43

million female workers who are helping Indonesia's

economic growth. That means, the number of

women workers is the same as male workers.

Underlying factors The higher the level of mothers

in the world of work is still studied and studied by

experts in the fields of economics, sociology, and

history. However, there are several factors that are

often used. First, an increase in the number of

mothers who often work with higher levels of

education. These factors are also by Almquist and

Nivea, that women who have tertiary levels will

issue for those who do not have education to tertiary

education (Matlin, 2012). Other things increased

with the increasing number of workers who were

forced to combine their traditional roles as wives

and mothers with the role of workers. Women who

combine two family roles and the role of workers

will face role conflict arising from the separation

between ties to family and ties to work.The decision

to take two different roles, namely in the household

and in the workplace, is of course followed by

demands from within yourself and fulfilment of

economic needs. This demand from yourself and

life's needs calls for the same thing, namely success

in these two roles. Ideally, every woman can do all

the roles well and perfectly, but this is not easy.

Many women play a dual role in recognizing that it

is operationally difficult to divide time for household

and work matters. The result that is often faced by a

woman having a dual role is the success of halfway

in each role or only succeeding in one role and the

other role number two then abandoned. Multiple role

350

Nasution, S., Amal, M., Ariga, R., Siregar, C., Purba, W. and Tauﬁk, M.

Family Support Perceived by Working Wives in Medan, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010182500002775

In Proceedings of the 1st International MIPAnet Conference on Science and Mathematics (IMC-SciMath 2019), pages 350-355

ISBN: 978-989-758-556-2

conflicts that are too large can threaten a person's

ability to deal with their environment, consequently,

a person will develop a variety of conflict role

symptoms that can interfere with the execution of

work, especially for women who are employees and

housewives.

Factors that are usually a source of problems for

working mothers are divided into two factors,

namely internal factors and external factors (Jacinta,

2007). First is internal factors, basically what is

meant by internal factors is a problem that arises in

the person of the mother, for example, the situation

requires that she work and help with household

needs. This condition easily causes stress because

their desire to work does not arise from themselves

but because they have no other choice to help the

family economy. In addition, there are also pressures

that arise as a result of implementing the dual role

itself. This arises because of the awareness of the

obligation to be a good, patient, and wise mother for

her children, and to be a good wife for her husband.

However, on the other hand, it also does not forget

that he still must have commitment and

responsibility for the work entrusted to them so that

they must show good work performance. The second

factor is external factors, namely husband's support.

Husband's support can be interpreted as an attitude

intended in the form of positive cooperation in

which the husband helps and contributes in

completing household tasks, helps caring for

children, and provides moral and emotional support

for his wife's career or job. While the lack of support

from the husband also makes the mother's role not

optimal and produces a sense of guilt because she

feels she is not a good mother and wife. Work is a

source of great tension and pressure for career

women. The higher the position in a company, the

more often stress arises. Starting from the rules of

rigid work, unwise supervisors, heavy workload,

injustice in the workplace, colleagues who have

difficulty working together, long hours of work, or

psychological discomfort experienced in the

workplace. Such situations will make mothers tired

and make them sensitive and emotional at home for

their husbands and children. This can also be added

if there is little support from children and husbands

to take turns taking care of household problems.

Various studies show factors that influence

family-labor conflict. Family-worker conflict can be

influenced by social support and family support

(Aycan & Eskin, 2005; Kim & Ling, 2001), support

from husbands who understand the condition of their

wives will reduce work-family conflicts experienced

by wives.

Multiple role conflicts that are too large can

threaten a person's ability to face the environment, as

a result, someone will develop various symptoms of

the role of conflict that can disrupt the

implementation of work, especially for women who

are employees and housewives. Efforts to reduce the

appearance of role conflict can be done by using

positive sources around individuals, one of which is

social support. Social support can reduce the burden

or problems faced by a person so that it can be said

that social support is a model of support that results

from personal interactions involving one or more

emotional aspects, assessment, information, and

instruments so as to reduce the burden received by

individuals (Santi, 2003)

For a woman who works as a factory employee

and a housewife, support from her husband can

make her feel peaceful and can reduce the burden

felt. As revealed by Yanita and Zamralita (2001) that

husband's support for his wife can make calm

thoughts and feelings of pleasure for the wife so that

the wife is more adaptable both in the family

environment and in the work environment.

Furthermore, the results of research conducted by

Budiman (2006) show that an important factor that

can reduce the dilemma between family and work

for women is support from husbands.

According to Stuart and Sundeen (Tamher,

2009), that family support is the most important

element in helping individuals solve problems.

Family support will increase self-confidence and

motivation to deal with problems. So it can be

concluded that family is an important factor in

providing support for working wives. The research

conducted by Triyani (2003) was titled "The Effect

of Policy Adaptation on Family Conflict on

Employee Absence and Substitution". It was found

that female employees were proven to suffer from

depression and experience stress more quickly than

men. When female employees face unpleasant work

situations because of the lack of adaptation needed

by them, stress will easily occur. Therefore, family

support for working wives is needed to minimize

stress caused by work.

2 METHODS

This study uses a descriptive research design, which

is a simple description of the phenomenon of family

support for wives who work in Medan, Indonesia.

This study uses a measuring instrument in the form

of a questionnaire. This study aims to identify family

support for wives who work in Medan City,

Family Support Perceived by Working Wives in Medan, Indonesia

351

Indonesia. The research sampling technique with

Probability sampling technique. Sampling in the

study using a Cluster Sampling technique. This

study was conducted on the wife population who

worked in Medan City, Indonesia. The number of

samples taken was 180 samples.

Table 1. Characteristic Frequency Distribution of working

wives in Medan, Indonesia

Age Frequency

n = 180

Percentage

100 %

Religion

Islam

Catholic

Protestant

Buddha

86.1 %

3.9 %

6.6 %

3.4 %

Ethnic

Mandailing

Javanese

Batak Toba

Batak Karo

Chinese

Nias

Aceh

38.2 %

29.5 %

12.2 %

10.6 %

3.3 %

2.2 %

4 %

Education

Elementary

School

Junior

High School

Senior

High School

College

2.2 %

17.7 %

47.9 %

32.4 %

Job

Teacher

Nurse

Doctor

Shopkeeper

Janitor

Police

Office

Employees

14.4 %

23.9 %

3.3 %

22.9 %

17.2 %

2.2 %

16.1 %

From the table above, the results of demographic

data of the majority of Religion are 155 respondents

(86.1%). Most tribes are the Mandailing tribe, which

is 69 respondents (38.2%). The majority of

respondents' education in this study was high school,

with 86 respondents (47.9%). Most respondents

have jobs as nurses as many as 43 respondents

(23.9%).

Figure 1. Frequency Distribution of family support

Perceived by working wives in Medan, Indonesia

Figure 1 shown the frequency distribution results of

family support for wives who work in Medan City,

Indonesia, that is as good as 79 respondents (43.8%).

Figure 2. Frequency Distribution Family support Award

Perceived by working wives in Medan, Indonesia

Figure 2 shown the results of the frequency

distribution of family support for wives who work in

Medan City, Indonesia are as good as 88

respondents (48.8%).

Figure 3. Distribution of Frequency of Emotional Family

Support Perceived by working wives in Medan, Indonesia.

Figure 3 shown the frequency distribution of

Emotional family support for wives who work in

Medan City, Indonesia, namely both 92 respondents

(51.1%).

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Figure 4. Distribution of Frequency of Informational

Family Support to Wifes Working in Medan City,

Indonesia.

Figure 4 shown the frequency distribution of

informational family support for wives who work in

Medan City, Indonesia is 78 respondents (43.3%).

Figure 5. Distribution of Frequency of Instrumental

Family Support Perceived by working wives in Medan,

Indonesia

Figure 5 shown the frequency distribution of

instrumental family support for wives who work in

Medan City, Indonesia is as good as 84 respondents

(46.6%).

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Family Support Perceived by

Working Wives in Medan,

Indonesia

In this study, the frequency distribution of family

support for wives who work in Medan is good, 79

respondents (43.8%). Family support is

encouragement, motivation, encouragement, and

advice from family members at home that builds

one's character. family can be obtained through

verbal or nonverbal. Family support is also

influenced by economic and social factors and the

environment. Family support is very important when

a person is affected by illness because family

support provided can prevent the development of

problems due to the pressure faced. Family support

plays an important role in making relationships good

interpersonal. For employees, social support is

needed to reduce role conflict. Because the greater

the social support received, the lower the level of

dual role conflict and vice versa. Women who work

as teachers and wives and mothers hold a great

responsibility in domestic life. Because women are

the main actors who play a role in the service

performed at home, which is taking care of the home

and children (Chopur, 2011). By acting as a teacher

as well as a wife and mother, women bear a

workload that often creates pressure when trying to

fulfill the demands of roles in work and household.

This allows the profession as a teacher to experience

high job stress (Nikmah & Mahnum, 2011; in

Nurmayanti, Thoyib, Noermijanti & Irawanto,

2014). In fact, some researchers also state that the

teaching profession has been internationally

recognized as one of the professions that have the

highest stress levels (Hakanen, Bakker & Schaufeli,

2006; in Wafula, 2010). Social support is meant here

is the social support that is obtained from the

immediate family environment such as husband. So

many cases indicate that employees who experience

multiple role conflicts are those who lack support

from family, especially their husbands. Support

originating from husbands directly or indirectly

directly play an important role in maintaining the

psychological and physiological state of the

individual (Rustiana, 2006). Working women often

face problems in carrying out their responsibilities at

home perfectly looking at them also have tasks at

work that must be completed. This task becomes

heavier if they have children young children who

must be given more attention and care.

3.2 Family Support Award, Perceived

by Working Wives in Medan,

Indonesia

In this study, the results of the frequency distribution

of family support for wives who work in Medan

City, Indonesia are good as many as 88 respondents

(48.8%). Support for awards occurs through positive

expressions of respect (appreciation) for that person,

forward encouragement or agreement with ideas or

individual feelings and positive comparisons of

people with others, such as people who are less able

or worse off (increase self-esteem). In this study, the

majority of respondent religions are Islam, where in

Family Support Perceived by Working Wives in Medan, Indonesia

353

Islam itself it is recommended to strengthen and help

one another when one of the other Muslims is facing

a problem. Most respondents get good support from

their husbands and families.

3.3 Family Support Emotional,

Perceived by Working Wives in

Medan, Indonesia

In this study obtained the frequency distribution of

emotional family support for wives who work in

Medan City, Indonesia, which is good as many as 92

respondents (51.1%). Emotional support includes

empathy, caring and caring for the person concerned

such as feedback, affirmation. serves as a place to

restore feelings and help in mastering emotions.

Each role has its own consequences, one side of the

career demands to be able to devote energy, time

and mind to work. on the other hand, families,

especially children, are in desperate need of

attention and affection from a mother. Workers who

have two roles at once, namely as housewives and

working women tend to be vulnerable to mental

health threats such as anxiety and other negative

psychological consequences. Therefore, direct and

indirect assistance from the closest people in the

family, especially husbands, is an important factor to

foster a sense of optimism in the lives of women

who work. Social-emotional support given by

husbands to wives, for example in the form of

listening to the wife's stories, saying words love, can

increase self-confidence both at home and at work

(Parasuraman, Purohit, & Godshalk, 1996; in Aycan

& Eskin, 2005). This makes the wife less susceptible

to stress which is the impact of multiple role

conflicts. It was proven in the research of Jex and

Bliese (1999), that individuals with high self-

confidence are better able to develop effective ways

to cope with stress than individuals with low levels

of confidence. As revealed by Yanita and Zamralita

(2001) that husband's support for his wife can make

the mind being calm and feeling good in the wife so

that the wife is more adaptable both in the family

environment and in the work environment. In this

study, the majority of respondents have jobs as

nurses, where this work focuses on nursing care to

patients as a whole both to patients and families, so

it is vulnerable to stress. In the study of emotional

family support, the majority of respondents 'families

gave positive reinforcement and encouragement to

the respondents in the form of encouraging words

and praise to the respondents. In this study, most of

the respondents' religions were Islam where the

family always strengthened and reminded them to

always worship and remember to Allah SWT.

3.4 Family Support Informational,

Support Perceived by Working

Wives in Medan, Indonesia

In this study, the frequency distribution of

Informational family support for the working wife is

78 respondents (43.3%). Informational family

support includes giving advice, instructions,

suggestions, or feedback. In the family exchanging

information is very important and reasonable for

done because then the communication between

family members can run well so that the relationship

between family members is also good. Therefore, it

will affect when there is one family member who is

sick or afflicted by accident, the other family

members will care about the family member who is

affected by the disease or the disaster. Informational

family support is a collection of advice, advice,

guidance and providing information that is useful to

suppress stressors. Then, the husband who gives

advice, advice, and evaluation to the wife to be the

wife's consideration in making decisions is a form of

information and assessment social support. This can

give impact, the wife has more choice means in

making more decisions than those who do not get

information support from their husbands. With so

many choices, the wife does not have to devote more

time, thoughts or energy to think of decisions that

must be taken, so the possibility of conflict because

of work disturbing the family or vice versa will

decrease. In this study informational family support

for wives who work found enough results due to

communication good and smooth but sometimes

families cannot provide the desired information due

to different types of work but even so the husband

still listens to the wife's complaints.

3.5 Family Support. Instrumental, for

Wives Working in Medan City,

Indonesia

In this study, the frequency distribution of

Instrumental family support for working wives is 84

respondents (46.6%). Instrumental support is a form

of direct and tangible support. The support provided

can be in the form of material that can provide

immediate assistance such as loans, goods, food, and

service. This support can help individuals reduce

pressure because it can be directly used to solve

problems related to the material. Instrumental

support includes direct assistance such as husbands

helping with homework if it is easy to do to help his

wife when she has to work overtime. instrumental

social support provided by the husband to help the

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wife's work at home for example by washing dishes,

taking turns taking care of the child when the child

is sick, and so on, very clearly alleviates the burden

of family responsibilities and allows the wife to give

sufficient time to for his work (Parasuraman et al.,

1996; in Aycan et al., 2005), the likelihood of

conflict arising because the family interferes with

the work will be very small. In this study

instrumental family support for the wife who works

well. Even though the respondent works but the

husband continues to provide suitable income to the

respondent, when the respondent is overtime

working then the husband is willing to replace the

role of the wife at home for a while, such as picking

up children at school and supervising children's

activities at home.

4 CONCLUSION

The results of this study found that family support

for the wife who works is good. Based on family

support, the appreciation of the wife who works is

obtained good results, emotional family support for

the wife who works, namely good, informational

family support for the wife who works that is

enough, and instrumental family support for the wife

who works that is good.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge that the present

research is supported by Ministry of Research and

Technology and Higher Education Republic of

Indonesia.

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