Stay At Home Mothers Or Working Mothers

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

The labor force of the United States has changed drastically over the last forty years. According to the Department of Labor, in 2012, 64% of woman with children under the age of six are in the labor force. While only 34% of mothers were working in 1970 (Gullekson, Griffeth, Vancouver, Kovner, & Cohen, 2014). Furthermore, in 1974, 80% of kids under the age 17 were cared for by a parent (Morrissey & Warne, 2011). Given this dramatic increase of mothers in the workforce, there is a considerable amount of time missed by the working parent. On average, American working parents miss nine days of work per year and that number increases to thirteen as the child moves through daycare and into elementary school. Breakdowns in childcare cost businesses three billion dollars annually (Shellenback, 2004). Given these staggering numbers the demand for reliable and affordable childcare has never been bigger.

Women were expected to be housewives. However, during this time the traditional roles of women contradicted the new age woman of the 1920’s. More women were employed in the workforce but stopped working when they had children. Despite increasing opportunities in employment and education for women, they only worked until marriage as this still remained the goal of most young women.

“The vast majority of Americans (79%) rejected the notion that women should return to their traditional role in society. Yet when they were asked what is best for young children, very few adults (16%) said that having a mother who works full time is the “ideal situation.” Some 42% said that having a mother who works part time is ideal and 33% said what’s best for young children is to have a mother who doesn’t work at all. Even among full-time working moms, only about

For years, society has encouraged women to engage in labor force participation and to create a career outside of the household. The feminist movement discouraged women to continue their roles as caregiver because it was considered a low status position in society. To be considered successful in life, one needed to achieve a high paying career and as everyone knows the job of mom is free of charge. The movement also portrayed the traditional family structure as a way to keep women confined to their homes, rather than a structure built with the main idea of women having complete focus on the most valuable job of their lives “Motherhood.” The feminist movement was to fight for women’s rights but at the same time the movement forced mothers to make a difficult decision of either entering the workforce and leaving children in daycare or continuing the homemaker’s lifestyle. After many years of liberation for women in the workforce there has been a decline in the number of women who continue a career after childbirth. Contrary to the feminist belief, mothers are finding a greater sense of fulfillment staying at home to raise children rather than focusing on a career. Data taken from the U.S Census Bureau in 2005 shows the amount of stay at home mothers is about 5.6 million (Zamora). More women are replacing the 1950s “housewife” stigmas and renouncing their roles in society with a new high status of “domestic engineers.” Although mothers who chose to stay at home might have a harder time reentering the workforce and many think it will make families struggle financially, more mothers of young children should stay at home instead of returning to the workforce. This will allow mothers to have more efficacious time to spend with children. Along with the unaffordable cost of quality child care causing

For the yes side of the argument, writer of the article from Time Magazine “The Case for Staying Home”, Claudia Wallis, says more and more women are choosing to stay at home. This article published on March 22, 2004 claims the ever increasing workload women are facing at work and home is forcing them not to just prioritize but to kick one to the curb. Wallis claims when this question arises most women are choosing to stay home with their children, and as she puts it, “most of these women are choosing not so much to drop out as to stop out.”

Due to a high rate of women opting out of the work force, they are leaving behind a negative stigma throughout the job market. This negative reputation has women not being seen as the ideal worker, especially for jobs that the individual has to work 35 to 40 hours a week. Women are stereotyped as future mothers when they enter the workforce, so they are not seen as the quintessential person for certain job positions. They also have to face societal norm that they are the care givers and that’s how it also has been. So if a child is sick or they need to be picked up, it is majority of the time the mother that has to leave work or has to take a few days off.

Without the chance of pregnancy, they made the change to go back to work. These effects are seen in the numbers by the recorded percentile change in women within the workforce from 1960 to 1970. In 1960, women working during childbearing years (25-34) rose an entire two percent, working through the rearing years (35-44) increased by 4.3 and the women returning work after motherhood (45-54) swelled to twelve percent (“Labor Force”).

According to https://sites.psu.edu, “...51 percent of survey respondents believe that mothers should stay at home and not be employed, as it makes children “better off.”

You just had your first child and you’ve been at home for six months with them; nourishing and loving them. But then you realize that it’s time to go back to work and you need to put your child in a daycare. You can no longer afford being out of work. You are worried about how your child will react to a new surrounding and strangers. At this moment, you must make a big decision; whither or not you want your child to attend daycare or not. As a parent, you want your child to have every great opportunity in the world: a great education, and a healthy upbringing with strong values. Many parents contemplate whether to allow their preschool aged children to attend daycare or not. Daycare can help your child grow and teach them many things. However, some parents don’t want their child in daycare because they don’t want their child catching germs, or they are afraid of the other kids and how they will treat their child. Most parents are afraid of letting their child be independent. There are many good things that can happen when your child goes to daycare; they can be social, learn new things, and learn how to become more independent.

While there are some caregiver’s that are only in the human service field to earn a paycheck and with the lack of parental involvement in their child’s life, it can make a caregiver’s job more challenging. Daycare centers serve as a stepping stone for a child’s future that will teach them how to establish appropriate skills and aid in the development of their cognitive abilities. Positive child interactions not only aid in the development of social and cognitive development, but also in the child’s self-esteem and it lets them know they are important and loved.

As one considers a mother and her roles, one normally pictures her at home, cooking meals, cleaning the house, and caring for her children and spouse. After generations of oppression, women continue to struggle with getting the same opportunities as men, whether it be for jobs or for equitable distribution of parenting duties. In the past, it was more common to see the father work and provide for his family, but as time has progressed there have been more women who strive to be independent and make a life for themselves. The majority of American women are currently employed and experience economic independence; 70% of mothers are currently employed, compared to 42% to 47% in 1975 (Willis and Brauer). While the maternal employment has become

This execise our class was assigned involved the reading of an interesting article that explained a report titled “Children Of Working Moms Face More Health Problems”. When the reader, as did I, originally reads the title a flood of ideas rush into your head. You’re curious as to what health problems the author is referring too. Is it diseases that these children are more susceptible too? Or is it accidents such as broken bones or falls causing stitches? The author of this piece, Melinda Morrill explained that (2011), hospilitizations of the overnight variety for anything from asthma to injuries and poisiniings increase nearly 200% if the childs mom is also working (Cohen, 2011). The media, like it always does, ran with this headline. There

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 changes occurring in the workplace present several sub-trends. One of the most significant is that women are returning to it in large numbers. I use the term returning rather than entering because women comprised a major factor in the workforce during World War II, but was forced out by men returning from the war. Jamieson and O'Mara (1991) project that approximately 50% of the workforce will be comprised of women by the year 2000. Wives came to the rescue of the family in the 1970s and 1980s. Even though male earnings dropped substantially for all but the top 20% of male workers, real household incomes fell only marginally for the bottom 60%, and increased for the top 40%. One third of this increase was a result of a rise in female real annual earnings; however, two-thirds was due to women working more hours per year. Unfortunately, most income earners in the family are now working as many hours as they can. The reentrance of women into the workforce occurred during the transition from the industrial to the information age.