Working Mothers Health Article

Working Mothers

More mothers in the United States are working today than ever before. In 1993, 58% of mothers with children under the age of six, and nearly 75% of those with children between the ages of six and eighteen were part of the paid labor force. Although the number of single mothers, who are dependent solely on their own income, is steadily increasing, a growing percentage of married women living with their husbands are working as well (40% worked full time in 1992, compared with 16% in 1970). The rapid influx of women into the labor force that began in the 1970s was marked by the confidence of many women in their ability to successfully maintain both a career and a family. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the dominant image of the working mother was the "Supermom," juggling meetings, reports, and presentations with birthday parties, science projects, and soccer games. With growing numbers of women confronting the competing pressures of work and home life, observers predicted that these women's needs would be accommodated by significant changes in how things were managed on both fronts: a domestic revolution in the roles of the sexes at home and a major shift toward enlightened attitudes and policies toward women in the workplace. Although there have been some changes, they have not been substantial enough to prevent many working mothers from feeling that the price for "having it all" is too high. In the '90s working mothers are increasingly expressing disenchantment with the "Supermom" ideal and looking for alternatives to help them create a better balance between work and family.

The "Mommy track"

Working mothers in many fields experience conflicts between motherhood and professional advancement. Many report that their professional aspirations are not taken as seriously by colleagues or superiors once they have children. In particular, if they quit working for a time to stay home with their children, the gap in their resumes is regarded with suspicion. One study found that the earnings of women with MBAs who took even nine months off after their children were born were still 17% lower 10 years later than those of employees with similar qualifications but no comparable gap in their employment record. Some women feel too threatened by the repercussions of time off the job to even take a maternity leave; others report problems on reentering the workforce after such a leave. Women in highly competitive professions are especially reluctant to lighten their work loads or schedules for fear that such measures will signal a lower level of commitment or ability than that of their peers, and they will be automatically assigned to the infamous "Mommy track." Many women—both with and without children—in traditionally male professions still earn lower salaries and carry greater workloads than those of male colleagues with comparable credentials and work experience because of the perception that they are not the "breadwinners" in their families.

Working two shifts

On the home front, married working mothers, even those whose husbands espouse an egalitarian philosophy, still find themselves saddled with most of the housework and child care responsibilities. In effect, they often have the equivalent of two jobs, a phenomenon expressed in the title of Arlie Hochschild's highly regarded study The Second Shift, which reported that the husbands of working mothers shoulder, on average, one third of the couple's household duties. Hochschild also noted that the tasks performed most often by men, such as repairs and home maintenance chores, can often be done at their convenience, as opposed to women's duties, such as cooking, which must be done on a daily basis and at specific times, giving women less control over their schedules. In 1990 a survey of 5,000 couples found that only 50% of husbands take out the garbage, 38% do laundry, and 14% iron. Working mothers also receive less help than ever from their children, with one important exception—working single mothers, whose children help out at home twice as much as children in other families. In addition, they often work at tasks traditionally done by the opposite sex: boys cook, clean, and babysit; girls help with home repairs and yard work. A supplementary benefit of this development is that the daughters of single mothers have a greater than average likelihood of entering traditionally male professions offering higher pay and better opportunities for advancement.