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.
In the 1920s-1940s, women were encouraged to step outside of the home and work, but on the other hand, women were also encouraged to be stay-at-home mothers. Women should stay at home if they have the ability to do so. However, women should not feel like they have to be isolated from the rest of the world with chores and children all day.
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.
There are conflicting viewpoints involving the “mommy track.” Supporters of the track claim that women cannot make it to the top of their prospective career fields and be the primary focus in their children’s lives. They say a “mommy track” would allow these women to maintain their careers while playing a vitally important role at home. Those opposed to the creation of a “mommy track” claim that it is separate and unequal, permanently derailing women’s careers, making them ...
I read the article The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home by Arlie Hochschild. In this article, she talks about how women put more hours into the day by working and coming home and taking care of children and housework. She starts the article out by showing working mothers a picture of a successful women wearing a suit. In the picture, the women was holding a briefcase in one hand and a child in the other. She looks perfect in the picture. The working mothers that she showed the picture laughed and explained that is not how a working mother looks. She then interview different people to see what their outlook was on “how is it right for a mother of young children to work a full-time job, or how much a husband
Luckily, because of the feminist movement in the 60’s, our society is more accepting of the different choices women make. There still is the pressure to be a supermom, but it is perfectly acceptable to be a working mom as well, or not be a mom at all and just focus on careers. One just must be able to handle the consequences that come with their decisions.
Instead these life decisions are primarily influenced by an individual’s personal limits, beliefs, and morals. Though sexism and pay discrimination still exist there are so many regulations and penalties in place that such behavior has become very uncommon. Dorment creates a new scene where he asks women to not only take on the same sacrifices men past and present have all while realizing that men are doing the best that they can. I believe that this scenario created is key to realizing that women can only take on leadership roles or progress in their careers if they are willing to make sacrifices. They can’t expect special treatment or think that being successful doesn’t come with downsides when the thing they are fighting for is equality. According to the Pew Research Center 60 percent of two parent homes with children younger than eighteen consist of dual-earning couples. This study explicitly shows how men are no longer the sole provider, but instead that women are taking on careers while giving up the stay at home role. In addition, despite men typically spending a little less time at home than women it is become increasingly normal for the home work load to be more evenly divided in dual-earning households. As Richard Dorment mentions, this raises the question “Why does the achievement gap still exist?” Men and Women are increasingly splitting the home work load between each other yet men still appear to be achieving more in the workplace than women. Though the opportunities available to each are the same it is the personal motivation and limits that are resulting in the gap. Women value family time over work time greatly while men are much more willing to sacrifice personal time for work because they feel it is for the good of their family. The difference in personal importance is one factor that contributes to the gap and
In the United States, a third of mothers return to work within three months of childbirth compared to only five percent in other industrialized nations such as Germany, Sweden, and the UK (Berger, Hill, and Waldfogel 29). The rapid return of mothers to the workforce sparked interest in the effects the return has on the child’s behavior and health. The experiments measure the child’s health and development by the amount of time the mother breastfeeds, the immunizations the child receives, their score on a vocabulary test, behavioral problems, and the amount of doctor’s visits (Berger, Hill, and Waldfogel 36). Mothers who returned to work within twelve weeks were less likely to breastfeed their child, provide as many doctor’s visits and immunizations, and there were more noticeable behavioral problems at age four (Berger, Hill, and Waldfogel 39-42). The data is significantly lower for mother’s who work full time within twelve weeks after maternity leave (Berger, Hill, and Waldfogel 43). Therefore, it is proved that the duration of maternity leave is directly correlated with children development and
Raising a child can be an overwhelming situation for any working mother and father, but it is an even more daunting task when there is only one parents to take on this mission. I commend all parents who juggle and multi-task their lives to provide a balance and nurturing life for their children, but I must still remain objective. I can say that I speak with knowledge, having female friends and female family members who are single-handedly taking on this challenge. Being a parent has made me realize that there is no one plan that works for all, but certainly there is one desired result; children who become caring, independent and productive members of society. Due to my observations, I have come the the conclusion that single mothers spoil their children with unearned gifts, give too much freedom to their children, and let their children get away with uncorrected bad behavior.
Stone (2007) conducted “extensive, in depth interviews with 54 women in a variety of professions-law, medicine, business, publishing, management consulting, nonprofit administration, and the like- living in major metropolitan areas across the country, half of them in their 30’s, half in their 40’s” (p. 15). Keep in mind these women Stone (2007) focuses on are “highly educated, affluent, mostly white, married women with children who had previously worked as professionals or managers whose husbands could support their being at home” (p. 14). Her findings revealed women are strongly influenced by two factors: workplace push and motherhood pull. “Many workplaces claimed to be “family friendly” and offered a variety of supports. But for women who could take advantage of them, flexible work schedules (which usually meant working part time) carried significant penalties” (Stone, 2007, p. 16). This quote represents the workplace push, where women are feeling encouraged to continue their rigorous careers with little to no family flexibility being offered from workplaces. The motherhood pull is a term used to describe the way mothers feel when they face the pressure of staying home to raise their children while still expected to maintain a steady job. “Motherhood influenced women 's decision to quit as they came to see the rhythms and
If a woman chooses motherhood, then she must lower her occupational goals and expectations. A woman with children will fall behind a childless woman in earnings, as the childless woman goes up the corporate ladder faster. Women will then risk career advancement by having children. Also, a working mother must not only juggle a family and a career, but she must find child-care as well. Child care costs are the major reason why most women end up just quitting their jobs. The majority of a working mother’s salary goes directly to the child care provider. If women were paid equal to men, more families may be able to pay for child care expenses and working mothers could continue to work and get ahead.
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.
One day a mother and her three and a half-year-old daughter were approaching a daycare center. The girl turned to her mother and asked her this question: "Mom, is it against the law for you to stay home?" There was another little girl that would never talk whenever her mom took her to the babysitters house. The mother consulted child psychologist Eleanor Wiesberger. She asked her why she thought that the girl wouldn't talk during her stay. Wiesberger asked the girl about it and the little girl said "Tell mommy to tay' home"(2). Stories like these are heard far to often from children whose mothers work outside of the home.
There was a time when the woman 's expected role was based on staying at home. Now there are many more working mothers. This has caused changes in many attitudes. Those that
One of the issues that parents are dealing with is money. They believe that they can’t have a stay at home parent, because they wouldn’t be able to live off of one parent’s salary. However what many people don’t know that the value of a stay a home parent is a lot more than one would imagine. According to Barbara Sefton, “The stay-at-home mother is on duty an average of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. She provides a service with a market value of approximately $36,000 annually.” This is more than some individual salaries. Most do not realize how much work a stay a stay at home mom does, from c...
Men and women are working harder than ever to survive in today's tough economy. It's a big challenge for low and middle class families to survive. To meet growing demands, it's getting difficult for families to depend on one income. To contribute to family income, mothers are coming forward and joining the workforce. Working mothers are the one who takes care of the family and work outside the home. They may be a single mothers or married mothers. Working mothers usually work to support their family financially. Some of the mothers work, just because they are more career-oriented. Working mothers may work part time or full time. Women are now the primary or only income source for 40% of US households with kids, according to a new Pew survey (Wang, Parker and Taylor, ch. 1). They play a major role in raising their family and doing household chores. There are many reasons that why mothers should work.