The days when mothers stayed at home cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children and performing all of the household chores are long gone. Mothers are working outside of the home now more than ever before. Deciding whether or not to return to work after delivering a baby is still one of the hardest struggles that a mother has to face.
Statistics show that mothers with younger children are less likely to be in the labor force than mothers with older children. In 2012, the labor force participation rate of mothers with children under 6 years old was 64.8 percent while the workforce participation rate for mothers with children between 6 and 17 years old was 5.1 percent (“Employment”). No differences exited between the participation rates of married and single mothers.
It has been said that a large number of women began to join the workforce and work outside of the household for their first time during World War II. While the soldiers were away defending the country, women needed to work to keep the country running in patriotic support of the war (Goldin and Olivetti). Since that time, women with families have continued to join the workforce without being frowned upon or considered to be radicals.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force participation rate, or the percent of the population working or looking for work, for all mothers with children under age 18 was 70.5 percent in 2012 (“Employment”). The rates should working mothers who actually had a spouse present were less than the rates of working mothers who were either widowed, divorced, or otherwise unmarried.
Some mothers return to work out of necessity. They have to work in order to financially support their families and help ensure that the famil...
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There are several mothers that are extremely successful such as Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie and Maria Shriver. There are various advantages and disadvantages about working as a mother but which is better for the child's sake. This is difficult to determine.
Works Cited
Baum II, Charles L. Does Early Maternal Employment Harm Child Development? Tennessee: Middle Tennessee State University, Print.
Bernal, Raquel. "The Effect of Material Employment and Child Care on Children's Cognitive Development." In ternational Economic Review 49.4 (2008): n. pag. Print.
"Employment Characteristics of Families 2012." Bureau of Labor Statistics [U.S. Department of Labor] 26 April 2013: Print.
Goldin, Claudia, and Claudia Olivetti. "Shocking Labor Sup ply: A Reassessment of the Role of World War II on Wo men’s Labor Supply." American Economic Review: 257-62. Web.
During WWII, women took over the work force, and had such inspirations as Rosie the Riveter. This created a generation of women who wanted more out of life than birthing children, and keeping a nice home for their husband. The end of the war, however, brought with it a decrease of working women. In the 1950’s the rate of working women had slightly rebounded to 29% following the post-war decrease in 1945. These women were well rounded, working outside the home, and still having dinner on the table by 5PM.
In older times, many women had to leave their job due to newly motherhood and having to care for their child, but that number has dropped significantly.
Modern moms in western culture have a much different role to play than simply caring for their children and their house. According to statistics Canada, 72.9% of women with children under the age of 16 are participating in the workforce. This means that women have adapted a new role where they must balance work, social, and home life and face significant consequences if they are unable to succeed. However, this role shift is almost expected of women in our culture. With such a great majority of women in the workforce, those who have chosen to remain at home are questioned on their decision and criticized by their peers for not being an “independent women”. The idea of the modern mom is glorified in our society, but I’m asking you to think about this idea realistically. In reality, the life of a modern mom imposes more challenges on the mother and her children, therefore forcing society to increase its role in the upbringing of children.
“Four in 10 American households with children under age 18 now include a mother who is either the sole or primary earner for her family, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census and polling data released Wednesday. This share, the highest on record, has quadrupled since 1960.”
With no pay and the risk of losing their jobs--if additional time is requested--parents return to work in as little as two weeks after the birth of a child. This results in the absence of one or both parents during the most crucial part of a child’s life—the first year of life. Ultimately, it is the children who will suffer. The events that take place in the early years of a child life, as well as the people that surround, will influence who they become. Children need love and guidance from their parents. Babies can learn so much, parents have the time to teach them and watch them grow. It is their duty as well as their rights as parents to enjoy the first moments of life with their children. Susan J. Douglas says, “The first five years of life are so crucial to cognitive and emotional development” (Douglas Par 8). Parents often send their babies to daycare at too young of an age because they are expected to return to work and have no other choice. Others quit their job because they do not want their babies to go to daycare. This creates a financial strain on families and has lasting effects on the newborn and other young children in the home. Sharon Lerner says, “Paid parental leave frees mothers and fathers from choosing between their careers and time with their infants” (Lerner 20). Paid family leave alleviates a great deal of stress for parents who are expecting. It makes starting a family less frightening because families have enough money and time to adjust with their new lives before returning to work. This makes workers less likely to call out of upon returning and more likely to be focused on the
Men are likely to get hired if they have children and tend to get paid more. In contrast, women are less likely to get hired even though they have more quality and children. This is when the gender inequality come in. In this article “The Motherhood Penalty vs. the Fatherhood Bonus” the author presented the role and the impact between the roles of the genders. Michelle Budig, a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst put it this way, “The inequality of gender role reveals when men get paid high for having children and women pay the biggest price for the low income” (Qtd. in Miller). According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71 percent of mothers are with their children working at home and 40 percent are the primary bread winner (Pew Research Center). In this perspective of women working at home and men working in career shift the qualification between them. The inequality is that employer sees the father as a commit worker and a mother as a distraction in workplaces because women have extra hours of work to do at home with their children and house chores. Claire Miller states that, “one of the worst career moves a women can make is to have children” (Claire Miller). As for the women in the United States, there are a lot of negative impact for them if they decide to have babies. The quality for them shrink to the corner while men hold the advantage of having
It is easy to see that we no longer live in the traditional world where mothers stay home with the children while fathers go out and work to provide for the family. When looking at statistics, we can see that the rate of working mothers has actually gone up drastically in the last couple of decades. In 1940, only 8.6% of mothers worked outside the home (Hoffman). However, by 1996, over 70% of mothers worked outside the home (Hoffman). This significant increase in the number of mothers entering the
It is shown that women are less likely to receive an offer for health insurance, retirement savings, or paid leave (Stevenson, 2015). Companies are also weary to give women compensation packages because of the responsibility of children that come along with being a mother. For maternity leave women need a couple months to recuperate and nurse the baby. Companies don’t like to give maternity leave because they believe it hurts their capital and efficiency. When a child is sick or needs a parent the mother is usually the one that stays home with her child or goes to help. Mothers need to have paid sick days for her and her children which doesn’t make the company happy because it screams money loss. These situations and factors influence the employer’s decision on whether to hire women, and how much pay they will get. An experiment was conducted and analyzed in 2009 by two men, Gangle and Ziefle. They looked at motherhood and the wages associated with it. The results ended in a penalty for mothers’ careers between 9% and 18% per child with Germany at the higher end of the range and Britain at the low end. The United States placed approximately in the middle of that range. It was determined that for British and American mothers work interruptions and mobility into mother-friendly jobs account for the mothers’ wage losses (Gangle & Ziefle, 2009). The median wage penalty for American mothers comes out to be around $11,000 (Pew, 2012).
In a society with the muajority of mothers joining or returning to the workforce, there is a growing body of research documenting the demands placed on these women and what can be done to help their transition into this new role. According to the United States’ Department of Labor, in the year 2012, 70.5% of mothers with children under the age of 18 were a part of the workforce; of these women 73.7% were employed full-time, working over 35 hours a week, and 26.3% were employed part-time, working less than 35 hours a week (United States Department of Labor, 2012). Given this information, it is becoming more important to further research how this new role as an employee affects the role of parenting and what can be done to help this transition. The intent of this paper is to compare the experiences of a working mother to the current research on the topic of working mothers. Moreover, this paper addresses the demands placed on working mothers as well as the factors that ameliorate their transition into this new role.
Change in work patterns more mothers are part of the working force making households where both parents are working
The wage gap between men and women is widely recognized, however there also exists a gap between mothers and women without children. While full-time working women without children earn 7 percent less than their male colleagues, mothers earn 23 percent less (Nelson 20). Even after controlling factors such as education, work commitment, and timing of return to the workforce after giving birth, working mothers earn 3% to 5% less than women without children (Miner et al. 60).
The workforce can be a hard place, but for single mothers, it seems to be a much more threatening area. Women have been turned down from a job for being a single mother and some women have even been fired from a job for being pregnant without a husband to help support the baby. Single mothers have also been bullied at their work. Coworkers will taunt them about having spouses and a relaxed family to go home to that is run by two adults. Once single mothers get a job, they have a risk of losing it. They have no one to take care of her chil...
A contributing factor to this, according to Mary Brinton, sociology professor at Harvard University, is that women continue to balance family with the demand of work and being available all the time (Gender Inequality and Women in the Workplace, 2016). As a result, women take on a “second shift” when they get home from work and in choosing to progress professionally many are having less children or waiting longer to have children. There seems to be a correlation between gender equality at home and the workplace with lower birth
“Of the 41.8 million children under 15 who lived with two parents last year, more than 25% had mothers who did not work and stayed home, according to a Census Bureau report,” Genaro Armas writes. This is an increase of stay at home parents which maybe because of the economic boom. Many people are wondering why you would give up a job, and economic security just to raise your kids. What most don’t realize is that you are taking on another job when you take care if your kids. The Census Bureau also reported that 55% of women who gave birth between July 1999 and July 2000 returned to the labor force within a year of having their babies. This means that most mothers do not end up at home like old times. They are choosing there own economic safety over there child’s well being. They still have time with there children just while they are at work they just like to forget where there children are.
"The Harried Life of the Working Mother." PewResearch Social and Demographic Trends. Pew Research Center, 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.