Couples in public service enjoy longer, more stable marriages, says survey

Portrait of senior African American couple

Nairobi; Kenya: You are more likely to get married if you are working in the public sector than if you are on the payroll of a private organisation, a new government survey shows.

The study conducted by the Ministry of Labour indicates that there are more single workers in the private sector than in public agencies.

In what appears to be a damning indictment of the work environment in private companies, the study conducted by the Labour ministry shows that these firms have a higher number of divorced and separated workers compared to public institutions.

According to the National Manpower Survey released by Labour Secretary Kazungu Kambi recently, eight in every ten workers in government-affiliated agencies are married. But the number drops to only six out of ten in private organisations.

A total of 443,625 workers in the public sector and 1.2 million in the private sector responded to the questionnaire. The study partly sought to take an inventory of characteristics and distribution of the country’s manpower in various sectors of the economy.

The report showed that Nairobi, Nakuru and Mombasa have the highest number of private sector employees, while Mandera, Tana River and Wajir have the least.

According to the report, “the work environment in Kenya is littered with the fights for productive employment, rights at work, social protection issues and matters to do with social dialogue”.

The report indicated that government workers have a higher chance of being in life-long marriages than their private sector colleagues, who posted a 60 per cent probability.

“More than 82.98 per cent of the public sector employees are married while 12.77 per cent are divorced,” noted the report.

In fact, for every two cases of separation or divorce in the private sector, there is only one such case in the civil service.

“More than 30 per cent of workers in the private sector aged between 18 and 47 are single.”

Furthermore, according to the report, men employed in the private sector have double the chance of meeting death faster than their colleagues in the public sector. Consequently, women getting married to men in the private sector contend with a more than double the risk of being widowed.

Relationships expert John Gacheru attributes the findings to socio-political and economic factors.

Gacheru criticises the long working hours in the private sector which barely allow partners critical bonding time.

“A family that prays together stays together,” he says. “This is more of a privilege than the norm among private sector workers compared to their counterparts in the public sector.”

His sentiments are supported by Shadrack Kirunga, another relationships specialist.

“The private sector is man-eat-man, all about money-seeking, bonuses, promotions and so on,” Kirunga says.

In his opinion, most private sector players rarely recognise the need for family time.

“It is in the private sector that you find issues such as carry-home work and fights for recognition,” he says. “Pressure in the private sector leads to psychological breakdowns akin to a slow engine knock that kills you slowly, tearing apart the family fabric.”

However, Federation of Kenya Employers executive director Jacqueline Mugo points out that government institutions have in recent times become busier working environments.

“We now have targets for government workers, which translates to more pressure. Therefore, the key things is how one organises their life,” she says.

Mugo calls for a more focused approach in pursuing work-life balance which will lead to happy marriages and closely knit families.

According to relationship expert Chris Hart, the finds raise more questions than answers.

“This is a total shock to me unless there is something peculiar happening that we are not aware of,” Hart says.

He says there were more successful marriages in the private sector, and calls for further scientific study on the matter. The Manpower Survey was, however, a scientific study carried out with the help of the Kenya National Bureau of Standards.

Family lawyer Judy Thongori is of the opinion that mastering the art of work-life balance leads to a successful union, no matter the circumstances.

“Unless there is a serious problem, or the working conditions are extreme, couples can still manage some time to be with the family and by themselves for adequate bonding,” Thongori says.

However, she adds that although work policies in the private sector could be a more stringent, the Government has introduced performance contracts, meaning that its workers also experience some pressure.

Higher risk

Most marriages in both the public and private sector are also between couples who have at least secondary level of education, according to the report.

Generally, previous studies have shown that women with low levels of education face a higher risk of getting into early marriages compared to their male counterparts.

One of them, released last year, Kenya Population Situation Analysis, said cases of early marriage among women occur mostly below the age of 21.

However, the trends have been changing as women become more socio-economically empowered. Nowadays, many women are more than 30 years old by the time they get married, according to the report from the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD).

Of the latest marriage trends in Kenya, the report said, is that overall, most marriages remain stable between the ages of 45 and 49.

Generally, women get into unions leading to marriage at the age of 19, while the average age for men is 24.

“The pattern reflects the fact that women enter into marriage earlier than men,” the report said.

“At age 30 and below, the proportion of women in monogamous marriages is higher than that of men in similar unions.”

The marriage patterns indicate that after age of 50, there are more men than women in marital unions.

“The higher proportion of men in marriage compared to women at older ages could be due to the practice of polygyny and the fact that men may quickly remarry once a spouse dies,” said the NCPD report.

Source: INB – AFRICA NEWS