ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT, JOB COMMITMENT AND WORK- FAMILY CONFLICT AMONG WORKING MOTHERS IN UNIVERSITIES IN LAGOS STATE

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
Women in many cultures are seen as basically responsible for taking care of their children and husband. They give birth to children, rear them and provide the necessary comfort for the man. It is believed in most cultural settings especially in Nigeria that the man as head and bread winner should go out to fend for his family while to woman is to treat him as a king when he comes back. Some cultures especially in developing countries still believe that it does not worth training the girl-child in western education. This is because of the archaic notion that a ‘woman’s education ends in the kitchen’. The girl-child of today becomes the mother tomorrow, so the training and preparation given to the girl-child today determines who the mother of tomorrow will be. The holy book, the Bible in Genesis 3: 16 says that the desire of a woman shall be of her husband and he shall rule over her. Therefore, many people see a woman as somebody that should not be ambitious and does not have a life of her own. Women were seen as second class citizens and as such were not given their rightful position in the society. In some organizations, they were not employed into some key positions because they were seen as being weak.
Women were predominately house wives until the World War II, when they were needed to fill the gap in the industries (Acemoglu, Autor and Davis 2004). Even after the war, when men came back to the industries, women continued to be engaged in organizations. Again the western education of the girl-child has brought women to the limelight. It became obvious that women could favourably compete with their male counterparts. However, the facelift in the representation of women in the different walks of life comes at a high price and sacrifice paid by mothers. The responsibility of taking care of the home, husband and children is seen as the sole responsibility of the woman in many cultural settings today. This gives the woman more responsibilities than necessary. The economic and social changes in the contemporary environment have brought additional responsibilities and a new dimension to the roles played by women.
This change in the predominant role of women in the society also has great impact on their husbands. In Africa, before the education and entrance of women into different careers, some house chores were the exclusive preserve of women. Unfortunately, times are changing, in most homes; some men now take up those responsibilities in order to keep the home moving. Although, this is not still accepted in some cultures but it cannot be compared with the situation before the twenty first century.