Impact On The Family Of A Working Mother?

In our society, we carry an ideological assumption that a “normal” family consists of the man working to provide for the family and the women takes on the role of stay-at-home mom (Dow 1992).

Suzanne Bianchi, John Robinson and Melissa Milkie’s Changing Rhythms of American Family Life were able to document that “mothers are spending as much time with the children as forty years ago, fathers were doing more at home and there is more gender equality” (Bianchi et al 2006, 169). In their data it showed the trend of workloads for both fathers and mothers to have increased “from 55 to 64 estimated weekly hours between 1965 and 2000 households with married parents” (Bianchi et al 2006, 171). This could attributed to that there was a big change that occurred that allowed more women and mothers to enter the workforce. Corresponding to the female participants in my sample that want to continue to work and further their career. Furthermore,

In the reading, “From the Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home”, Hochschild explains her experience conducting a case study with a series of different women to get their perceptions of their lives as mothers, but also working women. Moreover, she provides good information to start her study. She reports that in 1950, 30 percent of American women were in the labor force, 28 percent of married women with children worked out of home. Today, those numbers have dramatically increased. During her findings, she saw that women felt a responsibility to be able to balance work and life at home, focused more on children, and expressing how overworked or tired they felt. Whereas men in this study expressed that women did most of the work around the house and childcare. In addition, what stood out to me in this reading was that some men felt pleased that their wives received more income than them. For instance, in an interview a man expressed, “was more pleased than threatened by her

In her interviews with woman she was sure to interview very well educated women and those that strived for mere perfection. One thing is that the men in the lives of these women were not supportive and not mentioned of much. The men and society of today have placed a lot of responsibility on a woman’s shoulders when it comes to the child. It is the woman who makes the decision or is given the task to make the heavy decisions regarding the child’s future. Because of this many women choose to stay at home to be sure that the children will receive everything that they deserve and that they are not lacking in any area. Another issue that she reviews is that employers do not work with moms at all. For example she talked about the scenario where two moms brought a solution to their problem to management yet it failed to receive approval instead one mother was offered more money (Guest, 2011). Employers are not very flexible when it comes to mothers and don’t provide the proper care that is needed for a child. Since men are the ones that don’t carry the responsibility of the child’s well-being having proper day care is not a factor for them. Then there is the cost of day care which is high and can at times not compare to what the individual is making.

When highly paid professional women leave jobs to stay home and take care of their children they are considered ?good mothers?. Also, when they do decide to work outside the home they are judged as ?selfish? and ?bad mothers?. However, the expectation of poor women is the exact opposite. Poor women are often criticized for staying home to take care of their children and are expected to leave the home and work for wage in order to receive the ?good mother? approval from society.

In Judith Stadtman Tuckers “The Least Worst Choice: Why Mothers Opt out of the Work Place” Judith Stadtman Tucker looks at why hard working, intelligent woman are choosing to leave their high end jobs to stay at home with their children. Judith Stadtman Tucker expresses her option that it is nearly impossible to work 40 hours a week, be available on your off hours as well as raise children. I fully agree with Judith Stadtman Tucker’s point of view that it is absurd to have to be at the mercy of your employer even in your off hours, nor less if you are attempting to create an emotional connection and successfully raise a child. It is no question that even in today’s modern society that it is assumed that woman are the best caregivers for young children. If you are put in a position where you have a child to raise, is it more appropriate to abandon your career or to emotionally abandon your child to a stranger or strangers and allow them to raise it? Judith Stadtman Tuckers argument against mothers having to choose between the joys of parenthood and the freedom of being able to work a career really speaks to me because it makes me consider what I want for my own future and what I would choose.

In the past 30 years, one of the most dynamic social changes in the history of the United States has taken place in the area of employment, specifically of women with children. Although, to some degree there have always been employed mothers, today a greater proportion of mothers are employed than ever before. Statistics show that in 1976, 48% of the population of women categorized as “married women with children” were employed and it increased to 62% in 1986 just 10 years later. What are the causes for this and how does it affect the children?

     The topic of this paper is the debate of whether or not maternal employment has any effect on infant development. Research on this described topic has recently become popular due to the rise of working mothers over the past several decades. Their increasing numbers in the workplace and decreasing numbers as stay at home moms are creating a number of different issues to be studied. The effects of maternal employment are determined by a number of factors that include, the mother’s job satisfaction and drive, amount of work, and the mother’s opinion of quality versus quantity time with children. The main concept at hand here is the importance of an attachment in the first few years as being vital to a child’s

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, mothers who return to work soon after the birth of a child are more likely to become depressed and are less healthy than mothers who do not, and one third of mothers end up in debt after childbirth due to having unpaid maternity leave. When a woman has access to paid leave after birth they are more

The modern day woman works outside of the home, but then returns and continues to take care of housework and the children. Sociologists refer to this part of the woman’s day as the, “Second shift.” Two studies conducted found that if a man is more economically dependent on his wife, he is less likely to do housework. However, no evidence suggests that becoming economically independent makes marriage any less desirable for a woman. The family is the initial agent of socialization in their child’s life, however, even though the mother of the family may have the job with longer hours and better pay, the parents will still reinforce traditional gender roles in their household (Thompson 301-302.) This behavior can cause a child to embrace the stereotype that the woman’s only role is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Even if a woman is the primary

When a mother works outside the home it is considered maternal employment. The nation has seen more and more mothers entering the work force. In fact, women, whose presence in the work force have been ascending, are now the main providers in 40 percent of families, up from 11 percent in 1960 (Wang, Parker, Taylor, 2013). Therefore, it is believed that mothers work hours are a hinder to a child’s cognitive development. This controversy has been a focus of psychology and sociology literature over the past decades (Bernal, 2008). However many mothers here in the United States are still working outside of the home because the income is needed to help the family’s financial needs. This paper will show that early maternal employment can have an impact on children ages 3-5 cognitive development. How maternal employment impact adolescences’ achievement, behavior, and cognitive development will be shown in this paper also. Maternal employment impact on a child’s mental health will also be discussed in this paper. This paper will also show maternal employment effects on childhood obesity. Then maternal employment and child care effect on child development will be discussed. Finally maternal employment effect on juvenile delinquency will be discussed.

In the 1960s to 1970s, a feminist movement began and sparked a change in attitudes towards women in familial roles and pushed against gender inequality. This movement’s effects trickled down to the opinions and actions of people in the later 1970s to mid-1980s. The period saw a decline in the backing of the traditional family wife role for women and greater acceptance for women finding employment (Mason, K.O., Lu, Y., 1988). However, the change also encountered backlash, with the growth of employed mothers came concerns of the negative effects on the children and their relationship with the mother (Mason, K.O., Lu, Y., 1988). This triggered an inconsistent time for family structure. The nineties saw

They argue that this media driven debate pins working mothers against stay-at-home mothers in order to “divert the dialogue away from the real issues such as affordable health care, quality childcare, gender and racial equality, fathers’ roles in parenting, media effects, fair wages and benefits, and family-friendly work arrangements” (204). They state that in this culture of mother-blame, mothers have been blamed for causing problems in regards to childhood development such as, “epilepsy, colitis, asthma, ulcers, arthritis, anorexia nervosa, and a multitude of more severe problems in children” (207). However, they argue that it is now “accepted that these disorders are in fact not caused by poor mothering…” (208). Another issue with the Mommy Wars debate is that it portrays a universal kind of woman – white, affluent, and heterosexual – ignoring the fact that there are many different kinds of mothers of all backgrounds, sexualities, and economic statuses – which can make those who are not reflected as the “average” mother, feel inadequate. The authors further argue that these messages that working mothers are harming their children are what discourage women from economic participation and achievement and can have a negative impact on a mother’s perception of herself - which in turn can affect her performance as a parent. It seems that the

When the mother is stressed and exhausted from handling these multiple roles it is also said to affect the child in that they will also feel stressed from feeding off the mother’s attitude. Dr. Rosalind Barnett stated in her article, Women and Multiple Roles: Myths and Reality, that a common myth centers on “the underlying assumption that the roles of wife and mother are ‘natural’ roles and are therefore performed without undue stress”, and that the role of being employed is “seen as ‘unnatural’ and therefore highly demanding” leading to the belief that mother’s and wives should remain in the traditional role that society has set for them (2004:158). The message a lot of women are receiving from society is that they are selfish in pursuing “other” dreams, when they should be taking their role of mother and wife as the main job. Barnett explained that the message women commonly hear is “children of working mothers, especially during the crucial early years, will suffer a range of problems from insecure attachment to inappropriate externalizing behaviors” (2004:160). However, as Barnett points out, contrary to society’s perceptions of mothers working, the consistent findings in various studies, including cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, showed that a working mother with multiple roles “exhibited better mental and physical health” and consequently felt less stressed and less anxious overall (2004:160).

A major advantage of being a working mother is the income that she brings into her home. The more money that is brought into the home, the more the family can do and have. Let’s look at a certain situation: a family of four with two working parents. With two incomes coming into the household, there is more financial room to spend money on what they may please. The family can have a nicer home, cars, and clothes. Let’s not forget vacations. With more income coming into the household the family may be able to afford to go on extravagant vacations, or maybe can vacation more often. Another perk with the income of a working mother is that her family will never have to worry about not having anyone to watch her children. Instead of paying a babysitter or dropping the kids off at mom and dads the family has the option of putting the children in daycare, or even hiring their own nanny to watch the kids while the parents work. However, more family income isn’t the only perk of being a working mom.