Children of Working Mothers vs. Stay At Home Mothers and Their Effects

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Children of Working Mothers vs. Stay At Home Mothers and Their Effects
Looking back at the past there have been women struggling for equal rights throughout the United States of America this includes the right to work or stay at home with their children. Ever since women started working the argument has been forthcoming over mothers who work and those who stay home with their children. One concern is what differences, if any, are there in children who are raised by stay-at-home moms and working moms. This includes effects on their children emotionally and academically. In today’s world women find themselves and their choices they make under much scrutiny. “With more women currently in the workforce than ever before, fewer children are being raised by stay-at home mothers and more are spending prolonged hours at childcare facilities” (Working Mothers: Cognitive and Behavioral Effects on Children, P75) This is a drastic change from women who were taught that their job in life was to raise their children at home.
Today these women are the minority and there has been research in which their children do not benefit from them being home. This is a great change from when people thought children of stay-at-home mothers thrived in that environment. “In the United States today, more than half of mothers with young children work, compared to 30 percent in the 1970’s” (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1999). This was research done in 1999 and in 2007 “Seventy-one percent of American mothers with children under the age of eighteen are in the labor force, meaning that they are either employed or are seeking employment (Health Researches and Services Administration, 2007). There are many reasons that women stay at work once their children are at...

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... personnel are able to stimulate a child with education tools such as toys and games, most parents have less experience with these types of tools and therefore the child will not benefit from the stay at home mother. Many studies have found that children of working mothers tend not to suffer any differently from antisocial behavior or stress-related problems than those of nonworking mothers. However they did find that children of working mothers held fewer stereotyped gender-role attitudes and felt their mothers were more competent.
One important decision that a women comes across during her lifetime is to become a working mother or a stay-at-home mother. In some situations stay-at-home mothers feel that being a mother was their most important part of their life while working mothers feel that their jobs are their main concern and the family was an added benefit.

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