Introduction
Planning a child or focusing on career, this is an eternal question haunting almost every woman worldwide. There are many surveys conducted which reveal a common finding that women believe that pregnancy and maternity leave has a negative impact on their career path. Many women, especially the ones who are doing quite well in their respective careers, nowadays are opting for a late pregnancy, because of a high opportunity cost of having a baby. This article evaluates the effects of delaying pregnancy by women and the various factors affecting it.
Effect of Pregnancy Timing on Career
As the women got more educated, independent and empowered, a marked increase in their pregnancy age has been observed. This finding is valid both for a cross-sectional analysis of women present globally and for the analysis of behavior of women in the same society over a long period of time. A research conducted in 2005 by University of Virginia states that for every year of delayed pregnancy, the increase in the career earnings of a woman can go up by almost 10%. It can also translate to almost 3% increase in the average wage rate that a professional women commands. Of course, these numbers vary depending upon the skills, abilities, motivation and ambitiousness of the women, however, the difference that just one year delay in pregnancy is quite significant.
In terms of the likelihood of women taking up a job, pregnancy has a major impact. Researches have shown that till the age of 20, the difference in the number of working women who wants to have children and who do not want to have children in life is less than 10 percent. However, if the same data is observed for women who are in the age group of late twenties to late thirties, the dif...
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...oyed women or women who work from home, the time required to resume work might be quite less as compared to those women who have to go out to work. Fourth, current and prospective job skill level should be considered. As already stated above, the maternity penalty for women professionals in jobs requiring a high skill level is not very significant. Hence, if there is not much of a difference, then the women need not to choose between career and family life. They can enjoy both.
Conclusion
To conclude, there might exist a number of factors affecting the timing of pregnancy for women. However, the biggest among them is the mental, physical and financial preparation of not just the female but also of her spouse as well. A reasonable fulfilling career can be enjoyed even after child birth with careful planning, ramping up of personal skills and proper education levels.
...d had no evidence to back them up. With interviews, Ranson (2005) provided views from different women, but by using a small sample size the opinions still appeared to be biased. She also solely focused on the effect children would have on the women’s careers but failed to mention the financial penalties children would have on the women as well. This review considered the strengths and limitations of stating that motherhood is barrier to women’s careers, critiqued the methodology of the article and stated different approaches the author could have taken.
...olden times, women were bound ‘only’ to do the domestic work, whereas men were entitled to do the foreign work. But now time has evolved, and women are indulging more in the professional arena. The pursuance time of the career and that to starting a family conflicts. Women have their priorities of pursuing their career first to acquire financial stability similarly like men and then settling down in the institution of marriage. Some women delay marriage and parenting because some of them are single girl child or are sister siblings so they have their own household and family responsibilities to look after. So they want to ensure a quality life for their parents and themselves. But there is a ‘ticking clock’ that places an additional burden on those wrestling with some important life decisions one of them being the most essential – the right time to have children.
Maternity leave is a controversial debate that has been discussed for many years and continues to this day being a controversial issue. There is one side that argues that women have a right for leave of absence in order to bond with the baby and recuperate physically. On the other side there is the argument that companies take a financial hit. Both sides provide valid points for being pro maternity leave or against it, but one must take into consideration the long-term impacts these positions have. Maternity leave is necessary not only for emotional development but also for economical productivity in the long run.
However, the demands put on parents by the workplace can make spending time with the family a difficult task. The technological revolution has made it possible for businesses to assign work after hours which could cut into family time. Balancing family and work is even more difficult for new parents. They must learn what it means to be a parent, maintain a healthy marriage, and continue to provide for their family. According to Kunz (2013), parents experience stress and exhaustion following the birth of their child. Kunz also mentions the responsibility parents have to aid in every aspect of their child’s development. Parents are being pulled in one direction by their infant and another by their boss. This strain can be especially difficult for new mothers who want to breastfeed. Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for 6 months (who.int, 2017). If a woman returns to work quickly after giving birth, she will have difficulty breastfeeding and is at a greater risk for postpartum depression (cbsnews.com, 2017). The need for time to bond with an infant, encourage healthy development of the child, and to rest from child birth are all reasons why parental leave should be offered to all people. The need for time off after the birth of a child is not exclusive to one group. Parental leave should be offered to all types of families and business’ and the government should offer adequate assistance
The most fertile ages for a woman are twenty to twenty four years of age. With that being said it more common for a younger woman to become pregnant. Having children or planning to have or not to have a family is one of the biggest decisions of a woman’s life. There is no such thing as perfect time to start a family. There are both disadvantages and advantages to giving birth at different stages. For instance, a woman in her 20’s would have more energy to run after and take care of a toddler but less of a financial budget. A woman of her 30’s or 40’s may be more established financially but does not have the energy to keep up with a toddler. Everyone does not think about these aspects when getting pregnant. It’s a heavy responsibility that comes with children. Americans have to ask themselves are they ready for this type of responsibility?
The amount of babies born from unplanned teenage pregnancies or out of wedlock is astounding. “If you are a boy,” you are “twice as likely to end up in prison as the sons of mothers aged 20 and 21. If you are a girl, you are three times as likely to become a teen mother yourself compared to mothers who had a child at age 20 or 21.” (Marcus, Ruth). “Statistics for teenage mothers themselves are similarly daunting. Only half obtain a high school diploma by age 22 compared to 89 percent of women who did not give birth as teenagers. Less than 2 percent of mothers who give birth before age 18 obtain college degrees by age 30. Half live below the poverty line -- and as their children grow older, the family 's chances of living in poverty increase” (Marcus,
Women in today’s society want to have a career as well as a family, but there was a time when if a woman became pregnant, she had to quit her job. There was also the possibility of being fired by her employer once they knew she was pregnant. Many women kept their pregnancies a secret for as long as they could just to hold onto a job. This is starting to become an uncommon practice.
Recently women’s rights and women’s equality in the workplace has come back to the fore as a topic for discussion in government agencies and the United Nations. Whilst this is a very important topic, when it comes to time off from work when a new child is born, women in the US have some provision, whereas men have none.
The author indicates that along with positive feelings and thoughts about parenthood, there is a degree of anxiety about the changes this life experience will bring about. Chodorow (2003) also supports this concept of ambivalence. The author describes how a constellation of fantasies and defenses that are unconscious, can delay childbearing. Women, who use feminism or career-based reasons for delaying motherhood, do so based upon their psychic realities and the behaviors these realities have generated. Anxiety around uncertainty of roles, career delays, and how the quality of significant relationships in their lives will be affected by the arrival of a child, can unconsciously lead to a delay in preparing for motherhood (Wischmann, 2003). Women feel that the struggles they are experiencing with becoming a mother and those who may be hurt in the process (spouse and/or other family members) is their
This paper will examine three of the areas associated with planning a newborn child, including single parenting, concerns and expectations parents have when planning for and having a child, and financial issues that mothers face when planning a pregnancy. (Specify if you are talking about single moms or parents/couples, if talking about all of them you might want to consider narrowing your research.)
Poster, E. (1984). Human Responses to Child Bearing. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 6(3), 99. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
One of the most common arguments is that aged parents are more likely to have a stable living and financial situation. The main reason is they want to educate their children with high class education. When parents are working in a well-established career, they can concentrate more on their children. In many cases, they have already committed to each other, and they could be cooperating to give proper guidance to their children. However, studies have shown that there are greater risks of health complications on mothers who wait longer to have children; it is possible to increase the chance of a delivering preterm or a low birth weight babies. For instance, after age 40, the rate of the physical complications is higher to carry an unborn baby, including diabetes and high blood pressure. Moreover, psychologists are worried about the possibility of another factor that could be ignored; the characteristic making bette...
This journal was useful for me because it gave me the background details on why women are opting for delayed motherhood by the age of 30 or 40. Accordingly, I was able to build up my points on how it will affect the health conditions of both baby and mother and also the risk of taking that challenge.
...due to increasing uncertainty about the future. Fears of having the baby are prevalent as the teen becomes confused on the impact of the baby towards her own life and future dreams. In their lifespan development, delaying their education is necessary as they cannot hold on to both the education and the pregnancy. The depression developed is due to lack of effective handling of the emotions created by the pregnancy (Carlson, 2009).
Being a teenager means that you are just starting life. Teenager’s role is to study, to play, to make friends and to enjoy the beautiful things in life. However, this joyful and happy life just needs a single mistake to be changed radically; this mistake is to become a teenage mother. For example, every four of 10 teenage girls in the United States get pregnant before the age of 20 (Hillis, Anda, Dube, Felitti & al, 2004). In Teenage Pregnancy a Theoretical Analysis of a Social Problem, Davis (1989) stated “In teenage pregnancy we have a problem about which everyone has an opinion, but apparently no one has a solution” (p. 20). More and more teenage girls are getting pregnant around the world and this significant