Women Juggle Several Roles and This Is How They Can Cope

More than six months ago, I did a survey to a small group of women with the intention to understand their perception on the life roles that they play, the challenges that they encounter in fulfilling such roles, and what they do to cope.

This curiosity stemmed from a cartoon sketch that went viral in social media last 2019. The sketch shows a group of men and women lined up on a race track getting ready to run. In front of the women shows the household chores that stand in their way, while the men seem to be chore-free.

Looking at it, I think the cartoon was portraying the reality that working mothers have to face when it comes to managing their careers and their homes. When I saw the cartoon, even I can relate to it. Although my husband and I agreed early on in our marriage that we should share the responsibilities of taking care of household chores, there’s still this mental burden in terms of taking care of my family that I have to face such as reminding myself about the children’s next doctor’s appointment, or planning the next meal, or thinking what activities should I prepare for my children’s school.

However, for the survey, I wanted to make the topic a little bit broader. Instead of confirming whether chores do get in their way, I have asked women to think about what life roles they identify with (as a sister, daughter, career woman, etc) and how they feel about performing them. Although the survey I did was only conducted for women, it would also be interesting to get the perspective of men about the same topic.

Out of the 33 women who responded, 4 was the average number of roles they have identified with, wherein most have identified themselves as daughters. When asked about the challenges that they usually encounter in terms of fulfilling their roles, their responses show that the bulk of the challenge was how to divide their

time, attention and energy in fulfilling their several roles at once. This was even more heightened because of the pandemic wherein the line between work and home has been blurred. In their responses, 30% of the women mentioned that time management in performing the roles was most challenging, followed by the lack of energy and motivation, and ability to balance each role.

Although such challenges are present for the respondents, 73% of them are able to manage and cope with the challenges brought about by the mindset that they have in facing challenges – the need to let go, to pause, to focus on the good, and the belief that they are able to pull through.

What helped them the most was being able to reach out and communicate effectively to friends, families, or mentors (30%). Some of them shared that planning ahead or having a plan on hand helps them to prioritize and set their schedules (10%) and so does taking a break or pause (10%) when they feel tension building up. 21% shared that they were somehow coping and 6% sharing that they are not able to cope with some stating reasons not within their control such as not having an extra hand to help in the house or outputs given by coworkers at work.

Lastly, when asked about what kind of support will they need to continue to cope with any challenge that they will be facing, majority responded that social, emotional support is important to them, with 45% responding with support from family and 16% responding with ‘being able to talk to someone’.

In summary, in looking at the results of the survey, it shows a glimpse that women do juggle several roles; and it has been a challenge recently managing and fulfilling them all at the same time because of the work-at-home set-up which majority of us are experiencing. But, however challenging it is, as long as women have the opportunity to connect with someone, especially with people very important to them, and give them the emotional support they need, they will be able to rise up to the challenge and serve those who they care about the most.

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