the problems of working mothers essay std 10

Essay on Working Mothers

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100 Words Essay on Working Mothers

The importance of working mothers.

Working mothers play a pivotal role in our society. They not only contribute to the family’s income but also serve as role models for their children. They teach important values like hard work, independence, and resilience.

Challenges Faced by Working Mothers

Balancing work and family life can be challenging for working mothers. They often juggle multiple responsibilities like professional tasks, child care, and household chores. Despite these challenges, they strive to excel in both domains.

The Impact on Children

Children of working mothers learn to be independent and responsible from an early age. They get inspired to pursue their dreams and ambitions, seeing their mothers’ dedication and commitment.

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10 Lines on Working Mothers

250 Words Essay on Working Mothers

Introduction.

The concept of ‘working mothers’ has evolved significantly over the years, shifting from a socio-economic necessity to an emblem of women’s empowerment. This phenomenon has not only transformed the structure of the family but also influenced societal norms and perceptions.

The Evolution of Working Mothers

Historically, mothers were confined to the domestic sphere, responsible for nurturing the family. The feminist movement, however, challenged this traditional view, advocating for women’s rights to work and contribute economically. The rise of working mothers since then represents a significant shift in societal structures.

Impact on Family Dynamics

Working mothers have redefined family dynamics. They have proven that it is possible to raise children while pursuing a career, thereby debunking the myth of the ‘ideal’ mother being confined to the home. This shift has also led to a more equitable distribution of household chores, promoting gender equality.

Economic Implications

Working mothers contribute significantly to the economy. They not only support their families financially but also add to the national income. This economic independence further empowers them, allowing them to make decisions about their lives and families.

Challenges and Solutions

Despite the progress, working mothers face numerous challenges, including societal judgment, work-life balance issues, and lack of support. Addressing these issues requires societal change, flexible work policies, and robust support systems.

In conclusion, working mothers are a testament to the evolving roles of women in society. They symbolize resilience, strength, and the ability to balance multiple roles, thereby challenging traditional norms and contributing to societal progress.

500 Words Essay on Working Mothers

Working mothers are an integral part of society, demonstrating the epitome of multitasking by juggling personal and professional responsibilities. They are the pillars of their households and workplaces, contributing significantly to the economy while shaping the future generation.

Historically, societal norms and expectations confined women to domestic roles. However, the rise of feminism and women’s rights movements in the 20th century led to a paradigm shift, encouraging women to step out of their homes and pursue careers. Today, working mothers are prevalent across various sectors, from science and technology to arts and humanities.

The Balancing Act

The life of a working mother is a delicate balance between work and home. They often face the “double burden” of managing household chores and professional tasks, leading to a phenomenon known as “time poverty.” Despite these challenges, many working mothers successfully navigate this complex terrain through effective time management, family support, and flexible work arrangements.

Impact on Children and Society

The impact of working mothers on children and society is multifaceted. Children of working mothers often grow up to be independent, resilient, and empathetic, having witnessed their mothers’ hard work and dedication. Moreover, working mothers contribute to the economy, help reduce gender wage gaps, and challenge traditional gender roles, fostering a more equitable society.

The Role of Employers and Policy Makers

Employers and policy makers play a crucial role in facilitating the journey of working mothers. Workplaces need to offer flexible hours, remote work options, and family-friendly policies. On the policy front, governments should ensure equal pay, provide affordable childcare, and enforce maternity and paternity leave laws.

Working mothers are the backbone of a progressive society. They not only contribute to their family’s well-being and the economy, but also inspire the next generation to challenge societal norms and strive for equality. The journey of a working mother is challenging yet rewarding, filled with hurdles and triumphs. By acknowledging their efforts and providing them with the necessary support, we can create a society where both men and women can thrive in their personal and professional lives.

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Essay on “Problems of Working Women” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Problems of Working Women

The liberated woman has come to the face today. The term chiefly implies a woman who is independent economically. For other things a woman still needs her husband and family. She cannot be liberated in matters of marriages and family otherwise she will not be accepted by society. When we consider the problems of a working woman in our society, her domestic life comes to mind immediately. What is a modern working woman like?

A working woman of today may belong to the middle, lower or higher echelons of society. Working women of middle or lower class have the work for economic reasons while those belonging to the higher class work to pass time. The woman who works for financial reasons has to face many problems. They have to work in an office or organization, full-time. Often she is sniggered at; people make passes at her and criticize her work just because she is a woman. However hard working she might be in her work, there are people ready to find faults in her work in order to harass her if she does not submit to their lewd advances. And the poor woman cannot report against these people for fear of losing her job or her reputation in the eyes of colleagues, family or society. She, indeed, has to keep walking on a razors edge all the time.

Her domestic life is also not smooth. She does not get any reprieve from household work because of her office job. She has to get up early in the morning to finish her household chores, get the children ready for school, prepare breakfast and lunch for her husband and school going children, clean the house before she is ready to go to office. The western concept of the husband helping in household chores has not taken roof in our country yet. When she comes back in the evening she has to help her children with their studies, prepare evening meals and try and look pleasant in front of family members and guests. Nobody bothers to find out her requirement to be fulfilled. Nobody shows any consideration for the poor working woman. She is sandwiched between two worlds and reduced to a virtual robot, trying to perform her functions and duties to the best of her abilities. Woe betides her if she falters even once from the set path.

The concept of working woman, leading a blissful domestic life, has not yet been accepted bye out society. It is time to give some attention to the poor, harassed working woman who also bears the burden of domesticity. It lies with her husband and her immediate family to help lighter burden and assist her in leading a normal happy life.

Essay No. 02

Inequality between Men and Women in Workplace

Problems Faced by Women in Workplace

In this century, a woman actively participates in workplace. Many women desire a career and a place in this world. They want to stand on their own two feet, to become self-independent individuals, independent and free from other individuals. One thing that is clear is that women in all careers are striving to gain equality in the work force today. Through their determination, women now have the ability to break out of the gender roles that were created for them by society. One of the issues that have affected women in the workplace is that of stereotyping of women. Throughout history women have taken the role of housewife, mother, and nurturer. Women are stereotyped to stay at home and take care of the house and children. It has been their job to cook the meals, do the laundry, and manage the children’s school activities. Even today, motherhood is still considered to be the primary role for women. Women who do not take on this role are still thought of as selfish. Women that look to establish careers outside the home, for years, were thought of as being selfish and self-centered. Because women were viewed as homemakers they were often given jobs that were meaningless, and they were not thought of as managers or professionals. Even today, women are not treated the same as men. One i area that clearly shows this oppression is the area of equal pay for equal jobs. Another area in which women are at a disadvantage in the workplace is through discrimination. Discrimination can be an uncomfortable situation for the women involved. There are two types of discrimination, indirect and direct. Indirect discrimination might be a women being overlooked for a promotion, or an employee displaying inappropriate sexual material in the workplace. Direct discrimination may include a women being discharged from her employment because she is pregnant, or being excluded from after work group events. Another major area were women have been affected in the workplace is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is closely linked to sex discrimination. Sexual discrimination forces women into lower paying jobs, and sexual harassment helps keep them there. One thing is clear, whether the problem is sexual harassment or sexual discrimination the problem continues to exist in the workplace, creating tension that make their jobs more difficult. In the last decade, companies have turned their attention to some of these issues. There has been more training and education about women’s issues. Even though there is more corporate training for these issues, this training may not work, but start educating people. Women need to overcome the image that they are sensitive People, which let their emotions control their mind. They need to, prove that they can think with their minds and not their hearts when it comes to business. Most people want to correct the unequal treatment of women in the workplace. One method that can be used to support equality would be to introduce legislation to guarantee equal pay for equal work. The logistical problems associated with this solution would be great. How would people measure the value of one person’s work another’s? ‘Who would decide this and how would it be implemented?

Our attitudes toward women in the workplace are slowly starting to change. More opportunities are appearing for women workers today than ever before. The unequal treatment of working women will take years to change, but change is occurring. This topic will remain until people treat and pay women equally, based upon their abilities. There have been many remedies introduced into the workplace that have tried to address the injustice toward women in the workplace.

Although there have been many improvements for women in the workplace but there are still many inequalities for women when compared to men. Remedies are needed to secure a fair and equal role in the workplace. This change can only fully occur when we change the attitudes of every individual toward women. When we accomplish that then we can finally achieve gender equality in the workplace.

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Challenges of working mothers: balancing motherhood and profession

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Will Working Mothers Take Your Company to Court?

In their article, “Will Working Mothers Take Your Company to Court?,” authors Joan Williams and Amy Cuddy present a thorough and enlightening view of a very modern circumstance, that of the employer’s role – and vulnerability – in regard to working mothers. The issue, of course, is not new. As the authors point out, there has long been an odd tolerance for the particular bias against working mothers, and they suggest that this is due to American ideologies stressing the importance of the mother/caregiver role. Women are accustomed to accepting discrimination anyway, it is implied, so this form of it is largely accepted by them. Those working mothers who choose to challenge the bias, however, have apparently triggered great shifts in the marketplace. Such women resist career derailment as an inevitable consequence of raising families, take their employers to court, and juries are largely sympathetic to the suits. Then, these movements are not restricted to mothers; a man forced to take family leave to care for his sick parents, penalized by his job, was awarded $11.6 million in damages (Williams, Cuddy). The actions of such workers, and corporate response, then form the substance of the article.

The authors make one point very clear early in the article: the reality of the new, families responsibilities forms of litigation carries a significant impact today. If working mothers of the past were typically content to accept whatever decisions their employers made regarding their limitations, this is no longer the case. From 1998 to 2008, in fact, there has been an increase of over 400 percent of these lawsuits (Williams, Cuddy). Williams and Cuddy then go on to examine the multiple factors fueling “family bias” on the job. While they admit that their research is largely confined to U.S. cases, they provide ample evidence that the underlying issues are both widespread and rooted in commercial tradition. This is so much the case, in fact, that most working mothers do not sue, despite the enormous rise in lawsuits over family leave issues. Williams and Cuddy note here that many such women present their leaving their jobs as choices made, rather than as forced circumstances, because they are fearful of impeding a return to their careers later.

From here, the authors describe the prescriptive, benevolent prescriptive, and descriptive forms this kind of discrimination takes, noting the subtle characters of each and how they reflect traditional, patriarchal concepts of family rearing. In descriptive bias, for example, working mothers are actually redefined in the workplace as weaker performance is automatically attributed to the demands of the home and children. The remainder of the article serves to provide management with a realistic and equitable framework for eliminating the discrimination that may well result in disaster for the company. To begin, and seemingly unnecessarily, the authors emphasize the importance of knowing and adhering to the law, and not allowing personal viewpoints, no matter how common, to steer professional decisions in this regard. They stress the critical importance of not making assumptions, which translates to the proactive inquiring of women how they foresee pursuing their careers when the family is imminent. Equally important is that the company remove whatever form of stigmatizing is in place for the working parent, as Williams and Cuddy cite numerous examples of working mothers denied promotion opportunities and/or compelled to accept lesser compensation, even as other employees with lax attendance records are not so penalized. All of this, it is encouraged, must be infused into the training policies of the company, to avoid regressive policies.

All things considered, “Will Working Mothers Take Your Company to Court?” is an engaging and highly relevant article. It educates, but in an accessible way, and no point is presented without documented cases to support it. At the same time, and in its stress on fathers as being very much a part of the issue, there is no overtly feminist leaning here. More effectively, Williams and Cuddy examine the situation of families responsibilities lawsuits as rising radically, note the background and forms of the discrimination behind it, and sensibly inform companies of the logical policies needed to be in place to ensure ethical treatment of all employees, and to safeguard the company itself.

Works Cited

Williams, Joan C., & Cuddy, Amy J. C. “Will Working Mothers Take Your Company to Court?” Harvard Business Review , 2012. Web. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/2012/09/will-working-mothers-take-your-company-to-court/ar/1

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Postpartum health of working mothers: A prospective study

Anak janting majorie ensayan.

2 DrPh (UNIMAS), Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Whye Lian Cheah

1 PhD (USM), Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia. Email: ym.saminu@haehclw

Hazmi Helmy

3 MCommMed (USM), Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Introduction:

Most working women experience poor physical and mental health during their postpartum period. This prospective study aimed to describe the physical and mental health issues faced by working mothers during their postpartum period.

Respondents were recruited using the proportional sampling method among mothers who attended the Maternal and Child Health Clinic in the Kuching division in Sarawak, Malaysia. Face-to-face interview was conducted using a questionnaire that consisted of items on socio-demographic data as well as perinatal, prenatal and postpartum factors, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and a checklist of 28 specific postpartum symptoms were used during the first 6 weeks and after 12 weeks of childbirth.

A total of 281 respondents participated in this study. Fatigue (42.7%), back or neck pain (36.3%), breast discomfort (16.4%), dizziness (13.5%) and nipple irritation (11.0%) were among the most common symptoms experienced by the mothers during the first 6 weeks after childbirth. There was a significant decrease in the physical symptom scores of the respondents from the first 6 weeks to after 12 weeks of childbirth (1.73±1.96 vs 0.16±0.42; P<0.0005). A significant decrease was also found in the depression scores (6.26±4.26 vs 1.35±1.85, P<0.0005).

Conclusion:

The prevalence of postnatal depression was higher during the first 6 weeks of postpartum than after 12 weeks of postpartum. Screening and treatment of poor postpartum mental health among working women are essential owing to the impacts on occupational outcomes.

Introduction

Since most working women resume to the workforce within their initial year of postpartum, a concern rises as women are more likely to develop depressive symptoms during the first year of childbirth than during any other time of their life. 1 The growing participation of women in the labour force has forced employers to start looking after the psychological well-being of working mothers since mental health problems can be costly to employers in terms of higher absenteeism rates, lower productivity and profits and increased costs of medical treatment. Although postpartum issues by definition refer to mother-related issues after the birth of the baby up to 6 weeks (42 days), 2 maternal health conditions can occur beyond the time stipulated. Thus, some studies have recommended that the postpartum period should cover both the physical and mental recovery beyond the 6-week duration. 3 This is supported by the report by Woolhouse et al. 4 that poor physical health during the early postpartum period was associated with poorer mental health throughout the first 12 months of postpartum.

After childbirth, some women will undergo stages of rapid changes that affect their physical health, ranging from medical conditions, such as postpartum haemorrhage, uterine inversion, amniotic fluid embolism and eclampsia, to haemodynamic, genitourinary, metabolism and emotional problems after delivery up to 2—6 weeks of postpartum. 5 Restoration of the muscle tone, connective tissues and even the genitourinary system to the pre-pregnant state will take a longer time, thus making recovery from childbirth challenging. 5

The physical health problems experienced by some women during the first 6 weeks of postpartum may lead to episodes of depression 6 and vice versa, as depression may lead to or exacerbate the delay in recovery from physical health problems owing to certain factors, including delays in help-seeking, incompliance to treatment and poor behaviour towards health. 7 Thus, it is vital to recognise physical health problems earlier so that effective measures can be taken to address them and consequently improve the mental well-being of childbearing mothers. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the physical and mental health problems faced by women during their postpartum period — within the first 6 weeks and after 12 weeks of childbirth. The findings are expected to provide insights into the trend or background of the postpartum health of working mothers from Sarawak, the largest state of Malaysia with the most diverse socio-cultural background.

This prospective study was conducted among working mothers after childbirth in the Kuching division in Sarawak, Malaysia. Kuching is classified as the administrative division in Sarawak with the most populated area including 705,546 residents. 8 Working mothers are operationally defined as women who have a full-time job outside the home in addition to taking care of their family. In this study, working mothers who attended the Maternal and Child Health Clinic (MCHC), operated under the Ministry of Health Malaysia, were invited to participate.

The sample size was calculated using the PS software developed by Dupont and Plumme. 9 Based on the prevalence of postpartum depression of 3.5% in the study by Klainin and Arthur 10 and 14.3% in the study by Yusuff et al., 11 the minimum total sample size needed was 280 women, with an attrition rate of 30%.

Respondents were recruited using the proportional sampling method. All working mothers who attended the MCHC for postnatal follow-up for a minimum of 6 months, were on maternity leave and resumed their work after a given leave of absence by their employers were included. Mothers with severe childbirth outcomes such as severe postpartum haemorrhage, uterine rupture, hypertensive disorders requiring prolonged hospitalisation (>2 weeks) and admission to the intensive care unit, severe obstetric conditions and preexisting psychiatric illness diagnosed before pregnancy were excluded.

Initial recruitment was performed among the mothers eligible for participation in the study at the first 6 weeks after delivery in the respective clinics. Under the mothers’ consent, they were presented with a data collection instrument, which consisted of items on socio-demographic data; perinatal, prenatal and postpartum factors and employment characteristics.

For the mothers selected to participate in this study, they must sign a written commitment in the follow-up of the subsequent screening. The initial recruitment was performed among 288 working mothers from August to December 2017. In this process, the mothers were required to answer the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and a checklist of 28 specific postpartum symptoms. The subsequent follow-up involved 281 mothers, with a dropout rate of 2.43% owing to refusal towards participation.

Three sets of data instrument were used in this study. The first set consisted of items on sociodemographic data (i.e. age, ethnicity, marital status, parity and monthly family income), prenatal factors (i.e. chronic health problems, preconception health and mood disturbances), postpartum factors (i.e. delivery complications, caesarean delivery, infant girl, breastfeeding and elapsed time after childbirth) and employment characteristics (i.e. employment status, occupational sector classification, job satisfaction and supervisor support).

The second set of data instrument was the EPDS. The EPDS is a 10-item questionnaire designed specifically to measure postnatal depression, which has been extensively used among mothers after childbirth worldwide. 12 Each item is rated on a 4-point scale (0 to 3), with a total score ranging from 0 to 30. The Malay version of the instrument was adopted from Azidah et al. 13 According to the recommendation of Azidah et al., 13 the mothers who achieved a score of 12 or higher in the EPDS were categorised as having depressive symptoms.

The third set of data instrument was the 28-item postpartum symptom checklist, which was adopted from Gjerdingen et al. 14 and McGovern et al. 15 The checklist classifies symptoms based on six main categories, namely neurologic symptoms, gynaecologic and breast symptoms, cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms, skin and hair problems, gastrointestinal symptoms and general symptoms such as fatigue, fever and back or neck pain. Respondents are required to answer with either a ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ towards each symptom as a response to each item in the postpartum checklist.

A pre-test of the questionnaire was conducted among 30 respondents in one of the clinics under the sampling frame. This clinic was excluded from the main survey. The reliability testing showed a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.850, acceptable for an exploratory study as recommended by Garson. 16

The respondents were approached after their postnatal check-up or child immunisations. They were briefed regarding the purposes of the study and the questionnaires used. Ethical approval was obtained from the Medical Research and Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health Malaysia (NMRR-17-743-35240IIR) and Medical Ethics Committee of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS/NC-21.02/03-02 Jld 2 [72]).

All data were entered and analysed using IBM SPSS version 21.0. A univariate analysis was used to answer the research questions, and P<0.05 was used as the cut-off value for significance.

Table 1 shows the socio-demographic characteristics and health profiles of the respondents. Of the 281 respondents, more than 40% were from the Sarawak indigenous group, had their highest education up to secondary school and were working for the government. The mean monthly household income was RM 4735.5 (SD 3957.78 or USD 1138). The respondents had a parity of 1 or 2. Only a small number of respondents reported to be smoking, had chronic health problems and had delivery complications. More than 95% breastfed their children.

Among the physical symptoms reported, fatigue (42.7%), back or neck pain (36.3%), breast discomfort (16.4%), dizziness (13.5%) and nipple irritation (11.0%) were among the most common symptoms experienced by the mothers during the first 6 weeks after childbirth. Subsequently, the physical symptoms gradually resolved over time, which contributed to a fewer number of cases reported from 12 to 27 weeks than during the first 6 weeks after delivery. Table 2 details the physical symptoms experienced by the working mothers after childbirth.

In the comparison of the physical symptom score between the first 6 weeks and after 12 weeks, a significant decrease was found in the physical symptom score of the working mothers from the first 6 weeks [mean (standard deviation {SD})=1.73 (1.96)] to after 12 weeks of childbirth [mean (SD)=0.16 (0.42)] (t [280]=28.10, P<0.0005; Table 3 ).

EPDS, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; b insufficient cell count for analysis.

In terms of the symptoms of postnatal depression, a significant decrease was found in the postnatal depression score among the working mothers from the first 6 weeks [mean (SD)=6.26 (4.26)] to after 12 weeks of childbirth [mean (SD)=1.35, (1.85)] [t (280)=28.10, P<0.0005 (two-tailed)]. The mean decrease in the postnatal depression score amounted to 4.904, with a confidence interval ranging from 4.56 to 5.25 ( Table 3 ).

In this prospective study of working mothers after delivery, the highest number of symptoms was recorded within the first 6 weeks after childbirth, with fatigue identified as the most common symptom, followed by back or neck pain. Overall, these findings are consistent with those of a previous study conducted at a different location, 17 in which the aforementioned symptoms were identified as the most common symptoms despite a notable decrease in the number of respondents with these symptoms. Meanwhile, most other symptoms were resolved in the second interview, which was conducted 12 weeks after delivery. Notably, these findings are common considering similar findings shown in other studies, which recorded similar common symptoms during the first few weeks after delivery among mothers. 4 Despite the decrease in the trend of fatigue, a substantial proportion of mothers still experienced this symptom after 12 weeks of delivery. In this study, fatigue was experienced by 42.7% of the mothers in the first 6 weeks after delivery. Although the trend of this symptom decreased, 9.3% still experienced fatigue at a later point after postpartum. These findings are generally in agreement with previous reports. 18

The fatigue and physical exhaustion experienced by the mothers after childbirth in the present study were attributed to several possible factors, specifically childbirth and changing roles. These factors were typically associated with disrupted sleep, as the mothers’ babies frequently woke up in the middle of the night, and the mothers were faced with difficulties in settling their babies and night-time feeding. Doering et al. 19 found that although the efficiency of maternal sleep was the lowest during the first few days after delivery, it improved as the baby’s sleep pattern shifted to nocturnal hours. This situation is a possible reason for the reduced symptoms of fatigue over time.

Herein, 9.3% of the mothers still experienced fatigue after 12 weeks of childbirth. This finding could be explained by a previous report that the melatonin of physically exhausted mothers is transmitted to the infant through breastmilk. This phenomenon would delay the development of mature sleep cycles, possibly prolonging sleep disruption in the postpartum period. 20 These findings indicate that the complaints regarding fatigue among the mothers in the second interview, which was conducted at least 3 months after postpartum, were attributed to prolonged sleep deprivation and the job commitment to be fulfilled. Most mothers returned to work during the second interview: 96.1% of the mothers returned to their job, while 3.9% were still on maternity leave.

In a previous study conducted in the Netherlands, 24.5% of mothers were found to experience fatigue at 12 weeks of postpartum, while 18.1% complained of fatigue at 52 weeks of postpartum. 21 In another study conducted on working mothers after childbirth in Minnesota, it was found that 43% of working mothers reported fatigue at 11 weeks of postpartum; this percentage increased to 64% of mothers at 5 weeks of postpartum. 3 However, the prevalence of fatigue in the present study is slightly lower than the prevalence reported in the two previous studies during the corresponding time frame. Therefore, it can be concluded that the variation in the prevalence of fatigue among working mothers after childbirth is influenced by other factors, including culture, the support obtained from their surroundings, educational level of their spouse and sleep problems. Nevertheless, a previous study reported that the prevalence of postpartum fatigue at 12 and 52 weeks was 24.5% and 18.1% respectively, was associated with the working environment of mothers. 21 In this case, intervention by the working environment of mothers is necessary, in which employers and colleagues could initiate some actions to alleviate the symptoms of postpartum fatigue.

During the first 6 weeks after delivery, 15.3% of the working mothers had scores of >12, indicating that they were at a possible risk of developing postnatal depression. Nevertheless, the prevalence of depressive symptoms is notably lower herein than in other studies. 22 , 23 Postnatal depression is one of the most common factors of maternal distress, making it a significant area of concern in public health. This type of depression affects not only the mother but also the child and her family. 24 Furthermore, there is an increase in the physical and emotional demands among women in the postnatal period, and the debility associated with depression may impair the capacity of women to take care of themselves, provide for their family and maintain productivity in their organisations. However, in the subsequent follow-up visits in the present study, the percentage of working mothers with scores of ≥12 was reduced to 0.4%. This low prevalence of postnatal depression may be attributed to the fact that most respondents eventually returned to their work during the second interview. It is possible that the working environment plays a protective role in reducing the risk of postnatal depression. Further exploration focusing on the working environment among mothers should be performed to gain deeper insights into the role of employment in improving the quality of life.

This study has a few limitations. As antenatal depression could be a predisposing risk factor of postnatal depression, depression should be ideally screened during the antenatal period among mothers to exclude those with signs of depression. However, there would be some inconsistency in using the same screening tool to screen antenatal depression, as the EPDS is typically used to assess the severity of depression during pregnancy and postpartum. Such concerns should be addressed in future studies. The postpartum period could be viewed as a transitional stage in mothers’ postnatal phase. Within the first 12 weeks after giving birth, physical symptoms lessen at varied rates, with the majority of them significantly or completely disappearing by the end of that time. It can be suggested that the postpartum periods for working women should be evaluated at two extremes. Since depressive symptoms might change over time, it is possible to suggest multiple somewhat different findings by evaluating the symptoms and severity of depression within the time interval. This information is crucial in gaining an understanding of the factors contributing to postnatal depression among mothers.

The prevalence of postnatal depression was higher during the first 6 weeks of postpartum than after 12 weeks of postpartum. Although physical symptoms are reduced over time, it would be a notable opportunity for health professionals to screen such symptoms early and initiate an early intervention.

As the majority of women in their childbearing age in Malaysia are working outside the home, screening and treatment of postpartum mental health problems are essential owing to the impacts on occupational outcomes that affect a company’s workforce and labour productivity. A supportive working environment helps to optimise loyalty, retention and trust among employees. A mandatory incorporation of screening of postnatal depression and physical symptoms into postnatal follow-up could benefit working mothers’ well-being and promote a more productive life between work and family.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Director General of the Ministry of Health Malaysia for the permission to conduct this study.

Author Contributions

ME, CWL and HH designed the study. ME acquired the data. ME, CWL and HH analysed and interpreted the data. ME and CWL drafted the manuscript. All authors critically revised the manuscript and have reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the Medical Research and Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health Malaysia (NMRR-17-743-35240IIR) and Medical Ethics Committee of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS/NC-21-02/03-02 Jld 2 [72]).

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this article.

This study was not funded.

Data sharing statement

The datasets are not publicly available. Data are however available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

How does this paper make a difference in general practice?

This study provides useful insights for primary care providers into the physical and mental health of working women during their postpartum period.
The findings further confirmed that most women experienced fatigue, back or neck pain, breast discomfort, dizziness and nipple irritation during the first 6 weeks after childbirth. Nevertheless, such symptoms decreased after 6 weeks onwards.
As the majority of women in their childbearing age in Malaysia are working outside the home, screening and treatment of postpartum mental health problems are essential owing to the impacts on occupational outcomes.

Becoming A Confident Parent

They do it all: Working moms share 10 real-time eternal struggles and how they try to overcome them

Working mothers live with the constant guilt of not being available for their little ones and make every effort to balance work and home. Here are some real struggles faced by most moms who go to work

They do it all: Working moms share 10 real-time eternal struggles and how they try to overcome them

A PR professional working in a multinational company and a mother to a three-year-old, Mansi has a lot on her plate. She sometimes feels like she's in a race that never seems to end. She leaves early after preparing the meals for the day and drops her daughter at her parent's home. Her profession demands her to be available to clients most of the day; there are times when she's to work late and her heart aches to come home and see her daughter already asleep.

Mothers who are employed full-time always grapple with the guilt that they are not giving enough time to their children. Being a mother is one of the hardest yet fulfilling jobs and when coupled with a full-fledged professional life, a working mom has a daunting task to fulfill. Managing the kids, taking care of the family and juggling the responsibilities of the home along with a career, work commitments and deadlines put a lot of pressure on the working mom.

However, working mothers have the advantage of having a life outside the confines of their homes and a chance to build their dreams and careers. According to a study conducted by Kathleen L McGinn at the Harvard Business School along with Mayra Ruiz Castro and Elizabeth Long Lingo, having a working mother improves children's prospects. Seeing mothers work both inside and outside the home allows children to understand that contributions at home and work are equally valuable, the study says.

Nonetheless, the struggles of a working mom are very real.

Here's taking a look.

1. The morning rush: Mornings can be extremely crazy for working moms. As a teacher who leaves behind her young kid at home, Shalini laments,

"The hardest part of my day is to wake my daughter early so that I can stick to my schedule and not be late for work. Getting ready for work while preparing breakfast, doing other household chores and getting the child ready for daycare/school is a formidable task."

2. Leaving behind an unwell child: There is nothing more heart-wrenching than to leave a sick child at home and go to work. I remember a friend breaking down at work because she had left her son, who was down with fever, at home. The guilt is just unbearable, and very often mothers of sick children take leave from work so that they can care for the little one. What this does is that it makes it difficult for the working mom to take an off when she is in need of rest.

3. Finding quality time: There are times when all you want to do is spend some quiet time bonding with your little one, maybe playing a board game or baking cookies together, or just listening to her talk about her day. Unfortunately, for a working mother, this is a luxury that takes a lot of effort and planning – even weekends are busy with sorting household chores and on weeknights, she may too tired or distracted to spend quality time with the child.

4. Having to make difficult choices: You put extra effort and time into that presentation so that your meeting goes off well the next morning. And to your horror, your child's school diary shows that there's a PTA meeting scheduled at the same time. You cannot ask your spouse because he is traveling. Prioritizing and choosing between work and child can be one of the unending dilemmas for mothers. Is attending the conference more important or helping the child learn for exams? This persistent, daily sorting of priorities can make life tough for even the most hardened time managers.

5. The elusive me-time: In the pursuit to handle everything, working moms often neglect taking care of themselves. They skip breakfast, eat unhealthy lunches, don't pay too much attention to grooming. They don't take time out for themselves because of the guilt of leaving their child behind. An uninterrupted movie, reading a book or a quiet evening spent just relaxing on the beach are things she may not be able to do. As Meenakshi, a working mom puts it,

"Sometimes, the pressure is so much that I wish I could just run off to an island, but then I realize that is being just outright mean and selfish."

6. Missing out on important milestones: "I missed seeing my little one take her first step. What I would have given to be there," says an HR manager and mother of a 13-month- old. Missing out on the little joys of watching your baby grow and reach important milestones makes the working mom feel miserable. It's worse when you have to hear it from others, while they describe the precise moment when your bundle of joy pulled herself up and started to wobble towards her first step.

7. Running on limited energy: You come home from work and are totally exhausted. That's when your children demand attention since they haven't seen you all day. They want to do something constructive with you, while you are still thinking about the dinner you can cook up in a jiffy! Sound familiar? It's an eternal struggle for working moms. You could read them a story or play checkers before going to bed, but seriously, who has the energy?

8. Daycare dilemma: Leave in a daycare center or get a nanny? Drop-in at grandma's home or enroll in a creche? For a mom with a small child, making the right decision is hard. While a nanny ensures the child is in familiar surroundings, a working mom will always be distracted about how the nanny is looking after her precious one. A creche means worrying about the quality of care.

9. Struggling to make it to playdates: This is a complaint that children with two working parents may have, and it is usually the mother who blames herself for not being available. It's worse when all your children's friends go for playdates, and your little ones are irritated that they never get to go. Between finishing deadlines, preparing meals for the family and helping with homework, where's the time?

10. Mommy guilt: The biggest challenge is to deal with the guilt that every working mother has. The guilt of leaving the child behind, spending less time with her and missing out on many moments of mothering. This underlying guilt always makes the working mother put herself last in the scheme of things.

Working moms are role models for not only the other women but also for their children and the younger generation. It's important to understand that it may get tough trying to make all things work and there'll be days when you feel like a messed-up underperformer. But be kind to yourself and believe that, in the long run, it'll all work out.

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Understanding and Overcoming Challenges Faced by Working Mothers: A Theoretical and Empirical Review

Isaac E. Sabat 3 ,
Alex P. Lindsey 3 ,
Eden B. King 3 &
Kristen P. Jones 3
First Online: 20 August 2016

2142 Accesses

8 Citations

Working mothers face different sets of challenges with regards to social identity, stigmatization, and discrimination within each stage of the employment cycle, from differential hiring practices, unequal career advancement opportunities, ineffective retention efforts, and inaccessible work-family supportive policies (Jones et al. in The Psychology for Business Success. Praeger, Westport, CT, 2013 ). Not only do these inequalities have negative effects on women, but they can also have a detrimental impact on organizations as a whole. In this chapter, we review several theoretical and empirical studies pertaining to the challenges faced by women throughout their work-motherhood transitions. We then offer strategies that organizations, mothers, and allies can use to effectively improve the workplace experiences of pregnant women and mothers. This chapter will specifically contribute to the existing literature by drawing on identity management and ally research from other domains to suggest additional strategies that female targets and supportive coworkers can engage into help remediate these negative workplace outcomes. Finally, we highlight future research directions aimed at testing the effectiveness of these and other remediation strategies, as well as the methodological challenges and solutions to those challenges associated with this important research domain. We call upon researchers to develop more theory-driven, empirically tested intervention strategies that utilize all participants in this fight to end gender inequality in the workplace.

Discrimination

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Sabat, I.E., Lindsey, A.P., King, E.B., Jones, K.P. (2016). Understanding and Overcoming Challenges Faced by Working Mothers: A Theoretical and Empirical Review. In: Spitzmueller, C., Matthews, R. (eds) Research Perspectives on Work and the Transition to Motherhood. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41121-7_2

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Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness Thesis

Introduction.

There are different views on everything. This research is conducted to determine whether working moms or stay home moms are happier. In a general opinion, people think it is not suitable for us to make any comments on issues like this. They believe that every family unit is different from the others and that it is way too private to make any statements about it.

In a broader perspective, any literate person would say that as long as the woman can handle the work pressure then it is absolutely okay. However, if she cannot manage that then she should be well aware of when and how to manage things, rather than affecting her personal and family life by taking out her frustration on kids or by taking extra pressure to keep things bottled up inside.

Current researches are now showing that working women are not harming the family, as it is mostly thought of the eastern countries, it is actually helping themselves, their families and most of all their children. Over the course of the research, I came across a number of people all of whom had different perspectives on the issue. In some parts of the world, it’s considered well that a woman is working, but mostly in eastern countries, women are preferred to stay at home at look after their houses and children.

As time is changing the world is getting more competitive, and so are the views of many people. The following research organizes and summarizes some classic research, that helps us to understand how this is so.

Significance of the Research

The way women should live has been a question f doubt in different societies. Everybody has his own say, and mostly men enforce their opinions and decisions on women in the ethnic eastern societies. In the west comparatively, women are more independent.

Lack of education and free will leads to a lot of mishandling of women’s issues. This research is based on an analysis of the impacts a women’s work-life can have on her family. In short a determination of whether or not it’s worth it that women work or not. This research is not a concluding remark on this issue. It is only a belief that will be outlined in the light of the responses of the respondents and the already carried out research studies regarding the topic. Women are the support of a dwelling. A good wife or a good mother makes a house a home. That’s the only reason women’s choice of career is given so much consideration and thought.

This research will summarize a number of points of view obtained from research all over the world. It will show people how this issue is understood by the general public and how this grave situation can be handled properly so that it does not affect the women themselves or their families.

Statement of the Problem

“Do Stay Home Moms Exhibit more Indicators of Happiness than full-time working Mother? ”

The prime focus will be on how is the happiness of a family determined and how do we measure it.

Women should stay at home and be house moms completely.

Women should work and utilize their education, without affecting the family’s importance and lead a happy life.

All the data collected from primary and secondary sources will be used to justify the above-mentioned hypothesis. The effects on the families will also be highlighted.

Research Questions

I have used two different questionnaires for stay home moms, and for working women. The queries are:

For Stay-home Moms

How many do children do you have?
Are you single, living with a partner, or married mom?
Why stay at home?
What do you do all day while staying home with your child?
How do you manage the funds for it?
What will you do for adult interaction yourself?
For the child, what will you do to interact with other children?
Housework is the responsibility of whom?
Have you thought about working part-time outside the home?
What is the importance of home-based work for you?
Are you confident on your decisions?
What would you suggest to the new mother?

For Working Housewives

Are you single, living with a partner or married mom?
Why do you choose to work outside the home while nursing a child?
Where do you keep your child while you work?
Do you pay for your childcare while you work?
What will you do for mother-child interaction?
For the child what precaution do you take in avoiding contracting contagious diseases?
Who does the housework while you are away at work?
Have you thought about working part-time instead of full-time?
Have you considered working from home or starting up a home business?
Do you have any worries?
What advice do you have for new mothers and mothers-to-be?

Literature Review

Demographic data depicts that key variations have been taking place in the daily routine lives of many families. This change is more noticeable over the last generation. A greater section of mothers of young children is choosing to work these days. This change has been seen due to the rise in economic instability of many countries and the increasing awareness of the importance of education and work. It is now being considered equally important to work for women as it was once for men.

Mothers and Patterns of Work

While comparing women’s and men’s work lives, one can see a startling difference. On one hand, the working style of a man shows a linear course of action, while a woman’s life includes interruptions, stops, starts and re-routings as they try to adjust themselves according to others’ lives they are living (VanKatwy, n.d).

Women take time off from all-time obligations to the compensated employees. In turn, they end up losing some ground in their relationships, and their work abilities. Though the women try to improve the work-life balance by employing them in work, it sometimes goes against them. It has been seen that women love multi-tasking. It never appears to be a problem for women to work with kids; it’s never a source of psychological stress for them.

Surprisingly it has been seen that taking maternity leaves or staying back home to take care of the family caused some sort of psychological stress for women. The change from these roles to official recruitment has been seen to improve women’s mental health (Stuchell & Barrette, n.d).

The Real Challenge: How a Working Mom Creates the Balance in Personal Life

It’s the most sacred task of all for working moms – to find and maintain a happy balance between their families and work lives. This issue has recently gathered a lot of media attention, probably because there are too many cases of successful women in our surroundings nowadays. Many firms have been taking a keen interest on these issues and considering several new policies and work rules that have been introduced, like time flexibility, reduced working hours, and most of all telecommunicating options have opened all new doors for families with working moms. But as it is hard to accept, in reality, any sort of such simple formulas are difficult to be implied in real-time workplace situations.

Rachel Emma Silverman, a columnist in “The Wall Street Journal”, wrote a column recently, “The Juggle”. In this article, she wrote about this topic. As per her views employees should sort out their priorities or tasks which require their attention like family, and take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for the employers to come up with decisions or policies benefitting them (O’Kelly, 2011).

Approaches to Women’s Roles

In the early years, women were always considered to look after the family and stay at home. Over the last few decades, this view has been changing over time. Researches from 1969 onwards depict different views and results regarding women’s work and family functions. A great deal of focus has been there on this subject from varied aspects of research specifically, psychology, sociology and organizational behavior.

Focusing in the gender viewpoint, the research papers on women’s work and family lives can be split into three classes; “The Expansion of Women’s Responsibility” (Journal of Anthropological Research); Multiple Competitive Responsibilities and a Work-Family Convergence stage.

The Spreading out Women’s Responsibility

From 1975 to 1986, there has been a visible increase in the women workforce. The percentage of women working with children under 18 years has increased from 43.71% in 1975 to 62.1% in 1986. Similarly, there’s a massive increase in working women with children under 6 years of age, from 38.8% to 53.5%.

Women’s shift toward work raised a number of questions in the early years. This raised concerns regarding their traditional responsibilities, towards their children, family and spouses. This was initially talked about as a transgression of women’s role in male realm.

Research began keeping a close watch on women’s activities looking at how they were balancing their new expanding roles without affecting their basic responsibilities. It was seen how they remain happy with their children and husbands. Results from many studies showed, that preschool-age children were at no added risk if they went to daycares or some alternative care other than parents for some part of the day.

Multiple Competitive Responsibilities

Moving forward in time, women’s choice of working was termed as “their right” and “their choice”. Slowly and gradually, the percentage of working women increased. The earlier concepts of the expansion of women’s responsibilities changed to “sharing partners”. Women started helping in the household finances. With the increasing economic instabilities, this concept was welcomed more and more. Now, most of literate women work to support their families.

Despite all this the women’s choice of working on one hand is viewed as normative but is also viewed as a cause of conflicts in family life and a lot of compromises and sacrifices towards the family. Researchers have been focusing more on women rather than on men even partially on the basis that women are psychologically more vulnerable, and because work and family issues are more of women’s issues.

Another view that researchers have is that work and family are in competition. Families need to adjust to working schedules and demands. One conclusion from all the research says that women have this aspect of personal choice. Most of the women are ready to give up their personal choices and careers for having a family because that is what they want the most. Even today women are seen in very compromising roles compared to men.

Work-Family Convergence

Employment is now considered to be a normative and healthy decision for both men and women, in fact in America only 3% family’s fall into the category of stay-home mothers. Dual-earning couples make up around 60% of couples. Employed women report better physical and psychological health than stay home moms. Most women who are employed give equal importance to their work and families.

Researches also suggest that men’s participation in household chores has also increased considerably recognizing the increase of women in the workforce. Parenting and household chores go about 50:50% in dual-earning households. This is a positive shift from men supporting their wives to work and supporting the family financially as well (Unger, 2001).

Daycares and Everything Else

It is a fact that women mostly opt for daycares or other care centers for their young children if they’re working. There can be many impacts of leaving children at daycares etc.

Normally women are lucky enough and the employees are courteous enough to give them maternity leaves. But soon after that, they have to join back to work. Some women are not even lucky in this matter, as their job requirements don’t permit leaves.

When a woman chooses to work, she has to make an immediate sacrifice and decide what’s more important to her. “Which sacrifices can they live within peace?”

It requires a lot of painstaking decisions to continue working. Women are seen to be short-tempered with children after work. They are mostly distracted by official phone calls and emails. Thus the time spent at home is never quality time. This happens mostly in long-hour jobs, or even in the normal 9 to 5 jobs (Cho, 2010).

Working Moms are Healthier than Stay Home Moms, but they have to Pay the Mommy Tax

In old times, our grandmothers used to stay home moms. Then they used to do all the household chores, be it washing clothes or dishes, or cleaning the house, looking after children, or even cooking. Women used to do everything from scratch themselves. Nowadays technology has made things so much easier. No doubt these were in themselves tough jobs, but today’s women are ready and willingly able to not only work full time but also look after the house. This surprisingly has a great unexpected impact on women’s health!

For a very long time, working and taking care of the house, was more or less playing with a women’s health and was increasing the risks of health issues. A weeklong work schedule, followed by laundry and cooking and looking after children is really stressful and very difficult at times. Not to mention it leaves no time for them. A researcher at the University of Pennsylvania found out that working woman is not only healthier than other but mentally or psychologically more sound.

Staying occupied with work and a sense of achievement can do wonders for health. But this takes a turnaround when even working women are not satisfied. Women with children in the workforce do have to pay a “mommy tax”. In successful organizations where pay scales are higher, the jobs are more competitive. Normally firms avoid hiring women with children because the jobs require very competitive skills and long working hours. Not to mention they are not very fond of giving leaves as well, and working mothers have lots of family issues always. Not getting jobs and remuneration as per their qualifications leaves every working mom dissatisfied, which in turn has an impact on their personal lives. Irritating behavior and short-tempered attitudes are visible in women due to discontentment at work.

The traditional female jobs like nurses, teachers, and administrative jobs, though have flexible time schedules but are paid very low. Hence the overall work satisfaction for highly qualified moms is zero. Such jobs are only suitable for moms with acceptable levels of education and a need to support their families (GWMCHstudents, 2010).

What’s Happening To Women’s Glee?

This is a survey that includes a representative section of men and women of all ages, education ranks, income status, and whether or not they are married, with nearly 50,000 people. It gives us a self-explanatory trustworthy view of what’s happening to men’s and women’s happiness trends over the last few years or decades.

Such a big survey produces a number of findings. Let’s go through the two most important findings of this survey. First; Women’s level of happiness has been going down since 1972. It’s actually going down with respect to where it actually was 40 years back and as compared to how men’s happiness figures are evolving. Whether these women have kids or not, how many kids they have, how much is there monthly income, how is their health, what kind of job they are doing, whether they are married, single or divorced, what’s their age and what race and ethnicity they belong to, none of this makes any difference on the results. No matter who is there in the sample the results consistently show that women are getting unhappier with every passing year.

Average happiness index value for the period 1972-2006

Gloomy Everywhere

In the previous little time, the consequences from six chief studies of contentment have been shared:

The US General Social Survey included 46,000 individuals from 1972-2007
The Virginia Slims Survey of American Women included 26,000 individuals from 1972-2000
The Monitoring the Future survey included 430,000 individuals from 1976-2005
The British Household Panel Study included (121,000 individuals from 1991-2004
The Euro barometer analysis included (636,000 individuals from 1973-2002
The International Social Survey Program included (97,462 individuals from 1991-2001

Around more than 1.3 million men and women participated in the last 40 years, both in the U.S. and in additional urbanized countries all over the world. The researchers have gone everywhere they could to find out and collect reliable data, but everywhere they concluded the same. Good educational, political, and employment opportunities are less for women as compared to men.

“According to Stevenson and Wolfers, if you presume a strong connection between being unhappy and being without a job, which there is…the longer you’re out of work, the more depressed you become, the decline in women’s happiness is as if women’s joblessness has risen from 10% to 18%” (Buckingham, 2009). Buckingham explains Happy Girl to Sadder Woman as:

“Happy Girl to Sadder Woman

The second finding: although women are more content than men in the beginning of their lives, as they grow older, they slowly become less happy. Men, on the other hand, get happier as they get older” (Buckingham, 2009).

Source: What's happening to Women's Happiness (Buckingham, 2009)

In the light of this research, we can clearly see what impacts can things like this have on women with kids and families. Being in content in her own life, a working mom takes out her frustrations on her child. If a woman grows unhappier with age, her family will be the first one to get affected by it. In a situation of economic crisis like these days, certainly, the burden goes on increasing. This not only has a bad impact on women’s health but also on their personal roles. But the research states that women are getting unhappier no matter if they are employed or not. That means even stay-home moms are becoming discontent every year. That is maybe due to their added responsibilities (Harris, 2009).

Work-Family Conflicts

Work-family conflict is a type of inter-role conflict in which the position strains originating from a point are unsuited to positional functions originating from a point.

Kahn, Wolfe, Snoek, and Rosenthal have quoted that, functions are the effect of the hopes of others regarding suitable manners in a certain point. Role divergence is portrayed as the psychosomatic anxiety that is provoked by inconsistent responsibility demands. Role hypothesis puts forward that a clash happens when those involved take on several responsibilities that are unable to coexist.

Work-family disagreements can be timely, tension-based, or behavioral. Timely differences occur when responsibility stress originating from the two dissimilar spheres of influence struggle for the person’s time, for example, having the need of human resources to work late with little or no prior announcements might make it hard for workers to meet family commitments. Tension-based disagreement arises when the strain experienced in one functional sphere hinders efficient performance in the other sphere. Behavioral conflicts are called as clashes stemming from ill-assorted behaviors required by opposing parts. Time-based conflicts are the most often found type of work-family clashes. This theory suggests that the amount of personal vigor is flat and that numerous responsibilities unavoidably lessen the time and energy on hand to meet all responsibilities (Hammer & Thompson, 2003).

Children of working moms are 3 times more likely to get ill

Recently new research was conducted in London which shows that the children of working moms are more likely to get ill compared to those of stay-home moms.

Amongst 90,000 school children who were a part of this research, the ones whose mothers worked were found to have been to the hospital more than the other kids. They were more likely to be diagnosed of asthma or to have had broken bones and even poisoning. The reason of all these problems with the kids was thought to be a lack of administration (ANI, 2011).

Mom’s Still the Family Pillars

Nowadays, fathers are working very hard at home and are getting more involved with their kids. Whether or not this attention from the fathers is enough to knock down the moms from the top pedestal of the family can only be known after the coming 20 to 30 years. Surveys today of adult children show that they are closer to their moms than their fathers. Children normally feel closer to the parent towards whom they turn for advice. A Pew Research Center survey, conducted in 2005, depicts that 61% of adults with both parents alive said that they are more in contact with their mothers. Only 18% said they were more in contact with their fathers.

Being Dad May Be Tougher These Days, But Working Moms are Among Their Biggest Fans (Parker, 2007)

Mom vs. Mo m

Until now, it was a battle of genders, now it’s a battle between the moms.

Motherhood has always been one of the most well-documented joys of the world. It has now become a topic of envy and guilt of who’s a better mom. “One and all resist, and everyone envies what the other has,” says the stay home mom of a 7 and a 15-year-old kid. A functioning mom will wish she has more time to be with her child. On the other hand, a stay home mother would be always hopeful to achieve uniqueness as a human being, a brand name that she is original and talented.

The concern gets hardest, or at least radically, on working moms. On the other hand, it’s not as if stay home mothers are totally certain of the preferences they’ve made, either. Those who have selected to make motherhood their job will always speculate whether the dazzling life that was swinging as their legacy is flying-by-night pass them. On the contrary, many of those who are managing the world agonize they’re forfeiting their families on the altar of their own aspirations.

Shapiro remembers the conspicuous bitterness she used to come across from stay home mothers when she went to pick up her son and his nanny from a local Brooklyn playground. Many of these women gave up their professions.

The showground where these opposite base camps most often snarl is their kids’ schools. What specially irritates the working mothers is their idea, right or wrong, that the schools are on sides with the stay home mothers.

Not any of it will issue if the conferences are restricted to picking door awards. But what worries some working mothers is that while they’re off in Phoenix or Palo Alto trying to soothe a difficult client, the stay-at-home moms are fixing the system in their kids’ favor.

If the working moms detect an annoying level of smugness and a lack of self-examination among some of their nonworking sisters, perhaps it’s because most stay-at-home mothers don’t think of themselves as unemployed. Many have part-time jobs in careers such as real estate, public relations, and interior decorating. Besides, rare is the New York woman these days that didn’t once have a job, and probably a rather stressful, responsible job, before she decided to make motherhood her career. In her mind, she’s simply on an extended sabbatical from the 9-to-5 world.

What Do The Youngsters Consider?

The Mom Logic polls blew away all the results. They showed that 89% of stay-home mothers think their children would be better off if they were working. On the other hand, only 46% of the working mothers think their kids will be better off if they chose to stay at home.

It’s not a plan or decision; all of us know that women drive themselves crazy to choose a suitable standard of living. What impacts will their lifestyle have on their kids is a woman’s biggest concern. Working mothers are always stressed out. They think and realize that they are not capable to be with their kids more often, on missing out the important moments in their lives and attending them every time they come back from school.

Moving on to stay home mothers it’s a totally dissimilar account. They will always be unsure if their children will ever get to know how talented they are as women. Or will they only remember their mothers as a housewife taking care of household chores? Will they ever understand what their mothers have given up and chosen a family life?

Well, its high time moms that you actually stop guessing and taking up all the stress in the world. It’s time for the questions to be answered. Why should women just sit around and think of all the possible impacts their choices will have on their kids? The Mom Logic survey took up to find the answers to these questions resting in the minds of millions and millions of mothers all over the world. A cluster of uptown teens were approached and questioned about how they think of their mothers, whether working or staying at home. Their responses will surprise any individual.

Let’s begin with the working mothers; well it’s high time they actually take the weight off their feet for a while. Teens were very exuberant talking about their mothers. They acknowledged their mother’s professional attributes which made the children become more independent and responsible. Though they wished their mothers could be around a little more than they were yet they highly praised them. They cherished and respected them for not only fostering their careers but their children as well.

Moving on to stay-at-home moms, everyone knows they’re certainly more than a take. Well luckily the kids also think alike! They can actually see how hard they are working and taking up one of the toughest jobs around. Furthermore, the kids did love having their mothers around and keeping their lunch ready when they come back from school, but many of the teens were of the view that as soon as they start attending high school they are craving for a little independence, which they can only get if their mothers and they themselves get their due space (MomLogic, 2008).

Outlook crack broadens between working and stay home mothers

Just when people’s attention started to drift away from the mother wars, new studies and research coming in show that the crack between the stay home and working mothers has widened even further. With time passing the differences seem to be growing more and more.

A recent study though shows interesting results depicting that both parties now think of working full time as a less pleasing option than it used to be earlier. This might be due to the increased work pressures and changes in the way of living.

Jayson identified “The investigative research was carried out via telephone, courtesy of Pew Research Center. It puts side by side the replies of 414 moms with children 18 years and below against 457 mothers interviewed by the same research center back in 1997” (Jayson, 2007).

60% of the working moms say that part-time work is ideal compared to only 48% in 1997. On the other hand, 48% of stay-home mothers say staying at home is the most superlative situation compared to 39% in 1997.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 data, shows only 24% of working mothers work part-time.

Pew conducted a survey of 2,020 men and women in 2007 about the communal impact of ever-increasing figures of mothers of juvenile kids working; 41% think it was an awful decision, 32% said it made no differentiation, and 22% said it was an excellent decision.

About ten years back, 38% of stay home mothers and 39% of working mothers said it was a terrible inclination. At the present, 44% of stay-home mothers consider it’s bad, while working mothers who judge it’s a good development increased from 19% in 1997 to 34% today. But 34% of working mothers at a halt consider it’s ghastly.

Rachel Hamman is the writer of Bye-Bye Boardroom published in 2006. The book was about the alternative to stay at home. In the book she says that so many fingers are being pointed at the issue which actually is connected with people themselves being guilty conscious or it’s an act of self-explanation towards the choices that the individuals make.

She further says that working mothers and stay home mothers are both trying to stand their ground. Whether you work at home or take up a professional job they both ask for sacrifices.

Examiners say an amalgamation of comparatively new aspects has strengthened the crack, together with the inclination in the direction of “concentrated parenting” at a similar instance companies are demanding additional personnel.

All of this stuff is placing women into a sort of all-or-nothing state of affairs. “It’s a type of forcing a division according to Pamela Stone, an associate professor of sociology at Hunter College in NY” (Jayson, 2007). She is also an author of “ Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home” ( Stone, 2008). The book is based on dialogues with women who quit their place of work; it advises they had slight options but to depart because of the ever-increasing workload and strategies that were not contributing to relations.

Mary James established MOMS Club in 1983, a grouping for stay home moms. She says the manner in which mothers describe themselves means there’s a little space for overlap in the research’s reactions. For example, she says she well thought out herself a stay-home mother, although the whole time at home I was working in some aptitude.

Joanne Brundage originator of Mothers & More says the Pew research is a photograph of the moment in time, noting that women will be inclined to shift in and out of the place of work at dissimilar eras. Her association began for mothers who quit their jobs to stay at home, but over the years have moved. Brundage says around 55% of its 6,000 affiliates are stayed home mothers, with the others operational in some capability.

She further says what has not altered, regrettably, is the place of work. The general public is asking all mothers to do it all and do it improved and superior and they have their hands fixed behind their backs.

Attitude gap widens between working, stay-at-home moms (Jayson, 2007)

Pros & Con for mothers who work and those who stay at home

Approximately three-quarters of all mothers are in the workforce. Let’s go through their pros and cons.

Toddlers who get an adequate amount of notice and fondness from an affectionate grown-up right from the beginning are most probable to accomplish something communally and psychologically.
Kids who are in daycare beginning from one month on will have improved verbal communication and cognitive aptitude than family at home.
Offspring with working moms tend to have a superior understanding score than children of mothers who stay home.
It is hazardous for toddlers to be away from their mothers for more than twenty hours per week.
Psychologists declare offspring that are on bad terms from their mothers might turn out to be disturbed afterward in living, more probable to act out in school, and have deprived relations as grown-ups.
With no hurdle, toddlers are probable to nurture up to be distressed and phobic, and they might even undergo grave personality turmoil leading to depression in many cases.
Kids of stay-home mothers turn out to be more forceful when they come into pre-school playgroups because mothers who are at home may be less violent than those who are working (Mother as Labor, 2002).

“Stay at Home Moms vs. Working Moms”, (Gilbert, 2010)

Gilbert stated, “One of the moms quoted that when she had a 3-year-old and a newborn, she gave her husband a photo gift for his birthday” (Gilbert, 2010). She put together 2 photos, each of them with their children and in the center, she put a color photocopy of a beautiful saying,

“ One hundred years from now, it won’t matter what kind of car you drive, the kind of house you lived in, or what is in your bank account. But the world may be a better place because you were important in the life of a child (The Best of Wisdom, 2002)”

She was stubbornly a stay home mom. As per Gilbert, “She couldn’t see how anybody could drop off an infant at daycare” (Gilbert, 2010). Often ladies tend to save rather than spending much. And they did. No babysitters – She understood in connection parenting. No going out dating and no restaurants, no movies and no house-cleaning assistance. They were stuck to buy all what they found on sale. Clothes from the 2nd hand store.

Now she knows that a number of families totally need double earnings just to get by and some mothers can’t put up with parting their offspring in daycare when there is no other way out for them. However, in 1995, she was the only mother at the recreational area. All the other women were Spanish nannies. Looks as if like no one else but only she wanted to be a stay home mother back then. There were by no means any other children or mothers on the block whichever. It was a without a friend in the world, first little years in anticipation when she set up my associates. No more than they could comprehend her and her connection parenting method.

At the moment though, in Santa Cruz, she can actually find many stay home mothers with their children at the recreational area. The tendency has twisted and more mothers want to stay at home with their children. But she speculates, whether they are happy?

There are disadvantages to staying back at home. The principal is that you by no means get a lunch break, or time off. Connection parenting is attractive and significant. She now believes her children are doing so fine because of the openhanded quantity of time they have had with their parents so accessible to them. But the sacrifices that she has made for them actually let her down.

When she lastly started working for a second time after a 10-year break, she acknowledged how strong and demanding it had been to by no means have her own earnings. Being back to a line of business was also enormously rewarding to her logic of self-importance. She actually started wondering about what her connection to such close-up parenting took away from her kids as far as her position representation of a fit, protected mom.

Throughout the women’s pressure group an option was complete among lobbying to obtain more hold up monetarily and or else for the stay home mom vs. lobbying to obtain women equivalent pay for equivalent labor.

Mothers require some time off to renovate and revitalize. Connection parenting can take account of that if you see that it’s also a significant requirement for your kids. Gilbert illustrates that “You can take an hour or two off for oneself once or twice a week while an important person you love and somebody the children love can watch over them. Even if it’s only to go out for grocery shopping may be” (Gilbert, 2010). But then you can use up time in many other ways as well (Gilbert, 2010).

Research Methodology

Research design.

The research is designed around the hypothesis mentioned earlier. It will be an investigative study. We will try to get as much information as possible with due consideration to the de-limitations observed during the research. The purpose of the study will be to justify the hypothesis in light of the information gathered from both primary and secondary data sources. The research objectives will hence be achieved. Primary data for the research will be gathered through questionnaires which will include both open ended and close ended questions, while the secondary data will be gathered from all sources ranging from magazines, newspapers, the internet, research journals, research articles and books.

Respondents of the Study

Respondents of the questionnaire will be chosen randomly. Since there is no effective way in which ideal candidates can be chosen they will be picked out randomly but we will try to get respondents from all areas and aspects of life, which will include mothers with toddlers and grown-up children. We can also include the responses of the spouses and the offspring to get their views about their mothers and what they think is right and not. It will consist of stay-home moms and working moms ten each.

Data Collection

Sources of data.

Research papers from institutes all across the world, books published on related topics, public discussion forums and articles on the subject and other sources from the internet. The major source of information will be through the internet where all sorts of research papers and varied articles can be accessed but libraries will also be approached for literature on the respected topics.

Instruments Used

There are three tools for the data collection, primary and secondary. The research tools can vary as per the research topics and the availability or the need of the subject. In this case, we need to get due information and statistical records from the already conducted research studies and further on we also required references of varied individuals from one-to-one interaction.

Primary Research Tools

Questionnaires. Secondary Research Tools:
Research Journals
Research articles

Treatment of Data

The data gathered through primary and secondary sources will be analyzed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The literature review provides a detailed analysis on the quantitative aspect whereas the questionnaires filled out by individuals will be used for the quantitative analysis.

In the last few years, there have been major changes in the work trends of women and their approaches to life. The old family-style living has changed a lot. For the purpose of having concrete information regarding these subjects, the primary research will be done.

Sampling Method : The sampling method that we will use for this research will be non-probability sampling method i-e the convenience sampling method.

Sample Size:

10 stay home moms

10 working moms

Data Analysis

Qualitative analysis.

After going through all the research papers and articles we can get to a fair conclusion.

Rewards and Disadvantages of Professional vs. Nonworking Moms

If a mother can watch her child grow up that gives her great contentment

The extent and quality of time spent with children gets even better if their moms are at home

Children’s principles and ethics can be guided

Children can be more closely controlled

Children normally feel safer when their moms are with them and are not working

Advantages for Working Moms

Working mothers earn themselves which is beneficial to both their children and their families

Children with working moms are likely to be more practical, mature and independent than children with stay home moms

As discussed earlier, working is better for not only a woman’s psychological but personal health as well

The feeling of working and earning, the feeling of being independent satisfies the working moms, it makes them happier which has a good impact on their kids

Conflicts for Working Moms

The sadness of wanting to be with their children and knowing they can’t

Missing out on an important event in the child’s life

Anxiety and worry of if their children are adequately cared for

Neglecting the child’s emotional needs

Overall, working moms as a person are more satisfied and content in life. Though they do try and manage their household chores pretty well with their jobs and are mentally and physically stronger, but they partially miss out in their interaction with the kids. A lot of major aspects of the child’s life are missed because their moms are not with them.

On the other hand, stay home moms are though extremely successful in their house lives but are more prone to frustrations and health issues. Stay home moms are normally there for their children but their own health and preferences are compromised.

Method of Verification

Quantitative analysis.

We took a sample of 10, stay home moms and working moms.

While interviewing stay home moms we observed a consistent pattern. Nearly all of them were married moms, staying completely at home. Their daily work patterns were also pretty much similar. Males were the sole bread earners of all these families, and all of the moms appeared to be doing pretty good with that. Around 60% of them had maids to do all household chores except cooking, while the other 40% did partial work on their own and partially got maids. Nearly 70% strongly disagreed to have any thoughts about working part-time or of having any business. They didn’t have time away from household responsibilities to consider such things. Probing them a little more we got to know that their self-esteem was nowhere to be found. They were so lost in their household worlds that they had absolutely forgotten about their own aspirations and goals.

Moving on to working moms it was a totally different scenario. They gave as much time at home as possible. Around 20% of them agreed that their children were neglected a lot many times. A few of them around 30% were considering beginning a home-based business. Overall they were more content with their lives. They were satisfied with who they were.

Delimitations

The de-limitations encountered during the making of this research report include:

Sample-based on non-probability sampling due to time constraints.

The sample considered as populations gives us approximate opinions.

Non accessibility of current information.

Summary & Conclusion

Deciding whether to stay at home with your kids or to join the workforce and be an ambitious professional can be a very tough choice. There is no exact reply to this query. Normally researchers encourage women to make choices that bring them nearer to the fulfillment of their hopes and aspirations.

In today’s world and in the ways the economic stress is increasing day after day it is becoming necessary for both the partners to work to get sufficient earning for leading a happy successful life. Most of the single handed running families are experiencing lots of stress and financial issues. In such times it becomes extremely difficult for women to decide her area of importance or in other words her priorities. New born kids or toddlers require immense attention which can be seriously affected in the case of working mothers.

As research says that it has been damaging for parents to stay away for more than some hours a day. Study has established that early on connection among toddlers and preschool children is the foundation of all subsequent behavioral development.

Dr. Phil argues that there is no testimony to support this statement. He says kids who are going to superior day cares have boosted in cognitive ability, cleverness, societal talent and calm.

In the hold up of mothers who chose to work, a researcher says that women wish to have a successful career and be a good mother at the same time. They often become depressed when they are stuck in only one role of their life. According to Dr. Phil, if the kid is taken care of by a parent who is feeling irritated and down in the dumps that is not an excellent thing (Dr. Phill, n.d).

No matter what is the decision of the women there are a few things every woman should consider before taking up any actions or decisions whether or not to work? Some of the factors include financial conditions, spouses interest or point of view, children needs etc. Before taking any vital decisions whether it is to stay back home or start working it should be a mutual decision of the spouses since it directly affects the family. Everything should be considered and all aspects should be highlighted.

If one were to stroll in the region of the park, one may hear stay home mothers passing judgments on their working mother peers for “preferring occupation over their kids and families”, while on the other hand working mothers are passing judgments on the stay home mothers for “letting go off their aspirations and dreams and proceeds for an apron and a dish washer”. Both of these condemnations can’t be more than the fact.

In order for stay home mothers and working mothers to get along well with each other, we have got to first be aware of each other and have understanding. Just for the reason that a mother is working doesn’t mean she has selected her occupation over her children and family, and only for the reason that a mother chooses to stay at home doesn’t mean she has deserted her aspirations and thoughts. The reality is lots of working mothers desire they could make the adjustment to stay home, and lots of stay at home mothers desire they could go to work.

So from now if you happen to go to the recreational area, and any of your peers makes a sarcastic observation about the mother living down the street, you should stand up for her. Nobody can pass any judgments about someone without knowing the families state of affairs; and what’s precise for anyone at all is not essentially correct for somebody else. When we disapprove of other women for their preferences, we pass judgments on ourselves as women.

ANI. (2011). Kids of working mums ‘are up to 3 times more likely to be ill’. Web.

Buckingham, M. (2009). What’s happening to Women Happiness? Web.

Cho, H. (2010). Rethinking daycare and everything in between. Web.

Dr. Phill. (n.d). Stay at Home Moms vs Working Moms. Web.

Gilbert, A. (2010). Stay at Home Moms vs. Working Moms. Web.

GWMCHstudents. (2010). Working Mothers are Healthier, But Must Pay the Mommy Tax in the Meantime. Web.

Hammer, L., & Thompson, C. (2003). Work-Family Role Conflict. Web.

Harris, T. W. (2009). Oprah and the Secret Lives of Moms. Web.

Jayson, S. (2007). Attitude gap widens between working, stay-at-home moms. Web.

MomLogic. (2008). Working Moms VS SAHMs – What Your Teen Really Think of You. Web.

Nearly three-quarters of all mothers are in the labor force. (2002). Web.

O’Kelly, A. (2011). Teaching Work-Life Balance To Our Children. Web.

Parker, K. (2007). Being Dad May Be Tougher These Days, But Working Moms are Among Their Biggest Fans. Web.

Perez, R. L. (2007). Challenges to Motherhood. Journal of Anthropological Research , 63 (3).

Stone, P. (2008). Opting Out. University of California Press.

Stuchell, S. C., & Barrette, R. H. (n.d). Mothers Who Wor. Web.

The Best of Wisdom. (2002). Web.

Unger, R. K. (2001). Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

VanKatwy, P. L. (n.d). Family Lifr Cycle Theory. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, July 10). Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/

"Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." IvyPanda , 10 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness'. 10 July.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

1. IvyPanda . "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

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Expert Commentary

What research says about the kids of working moms

We spotlight research on working moms. Overall, the research suggests maternal employment has little impact on kid's behavior and academic achievement over the short term and may have long-term benefits.

Woman wearing military uniform interacting with toddler

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource August 6, 2018

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/economics/working-mother-employment-research/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

Most American moms work outside the home. Nearly 70 percent of women with children under age 18 were in the labor force in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In recent decades, as more mothers take paid positions, families, policymakers and scholars have wondered how the trend may impact children, especially during their early years. Many women, single parents in particular, must work because they either can’t afford to stay at home to raise their kids or the government agencies they rely on for assistance require them to be employed.

Work is also a choice for a lot of women. As more women in the United States complete college degrees — the percentage of women earning bachelor’s degrees skyrocketed between 1967 and 2015 — many have opted to leave their youngsters with a family member or daycare provider while they pursue careers and other professional interests.

Is this trend good or bad? Are kids with working moms different from kids whose moms are unemployed? Do they have more or fewer behavioral problems? Are their academic skills stronger or weaker? Let’s look at what the research says.

The good news: Overall, maternal employment seems to have a limited impact on children’s behavior and academic achievement over the short term. And there appear to be benefits in the long-term. A study published in 2018 finds that daughters raised by working moms are more likely to be employed as adults and have higher incomes.

Below, we’ve gathered a sampling of the academic research published or released on this topic in recent years. If you’re looking for workforce trend data, check out the U.S. Department of Labor’s website , which offers a variety of reports on women at work. A May 2018 report from the Pew Research Center, “7 Facts about U.S. Moms,” provides some useful context.

———–

“When Does Time Matter? Maternal Employment, Children’s Time With Parents, and Child Development” Hsin, Amy; Felfe, Christina. Demography , October 2014. DOI: 10.1007/s13524-014-0334-5.

Do working moms spend less time with their children? And if they do, does that hurt kids’ cognitive development? Amy Hsin from Queens College-City University of New York and Christina Felfe of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland teamed up to investigate.

The gist of what they found: Mothers who work full-time do spend less time with their children, but they tend to trade quantity of time for better quality time. “On average, maternal work has no effect on time in activities that positively influence children’s development, but it reduces time in types of activities that may be detrimental to children’s development,” Hsin and Felfe explain. Each week, kids whose mothers work full-time spend 3.2 fewer hours engaged in “unstructured activities” — activities that don’t require children and parents to be actively engaged and speaking to one another — compared to kids whose moms are unemployed.

The researchers also find that children with college-educated mothers spend more time on educational activities as well as “structured” activities, which require kids to be actively engaged with their parents. “For example, college-educated mothers and their partners spend 4.9 hours and 2.5 hours per week, respectively, engaged in educational activities with their children; by comparison, mothers with less than [a] high school diploma and their partners spend only 3.3 hours and 1.7 hours per week in educational activities, respectively,” according to the study.

Maternal employment, generally speaking, appears to have a positive effect on children’s cognitive development. “When comparing the effect of maternal employment on child outcomes between stay-at-home mothers and mothers who work full-time, we see that the reduction in unstructured time resulting from full-time employment amounts to an improvement in children’s cognitive development of 0.03 to 0.04 SD [standard deviation],” the authors write. For children under age 6, the improvement is larger.

“Learning from Mum: Cross-National Evidence Linking Maternal Employment and Adult Children’s Outcomes” McGinn, Kathleen L.; Castro, Mayra Ruiz; Lingo, Elizabeth Long. Work, Employment and Society , April 2018. DOI: 10.1177/0950017018760167.

These researchers analyzed data from two surveys conducted across 29 countries to examine how men and women had been influenced by their mother’s work status. The main takeaway: Daughters raised by working mothers are more likely to have jobs as adults — and those who have jobs are more likely to supervise others, work longer hours and earn higher incomes.

There doesn’t appear to be a link between maternal employment and employment for sons, according to the study. However, men whose mothers worked while they were growing up spend about 50 minutes more caring for family members each week than men whose moms didn’t work.

The study, led by Kathleen L. McGinn of Harvard Business School , notes that these outcomes are “due at least in part to employed mothers’ conveyance of egalitarian gender attitudes and life skills for managing employment and domestic responsibilities simultaneously. Family-of-origin social class matters: women’s likelihood of employment rises with maternal employment across the socio-economic spectrum, but higher incomes and supervisory responsibility accrue primarily to women raised by mothers with more education and higher skill jobs.”

“Increasing Maternal Employment Influences Child Overweight/Obesity Among Ethnically Diverse Families” Ettinger, Anna K.; Riley, Anne W.; Price, Carmel E. Journal of Family Issues , July 2018. DOI: 10.1177/0192513X18760968.

This study looks at how maternal employment affects the weight status of Black and Latino children from low-income families in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio. The researchers find that an increase in a mother’s “work intensity” — for example, when a mother transitions from being unemployed to working or switches from part-time to full-time work — increases the odds that her child will be overweight or obese.

Kids whose mothers increased their work schedules during the children’s first few years of life were more likely to have a weight problem. “Children of mothers who increased their employment status during children’s preschool years had over 2.6 times the odds of being overweight/obese at 7 to 11 years of age compared with children of nonworking mothers,” the authors write. They also write that their results “suggest that changing work schedules and increasing work hours over time may be more disruptive to family environments and child weight than maintaining constant levels of employment over time (whether that is not working at all or working full-time).”

The researchers note that within their sample of 602 children, having consistent family routines such as mealtimes and bedtimes were associated with a 61 percent reduction in the odds of being overweight or obese. They also note that youth whose parents live together, whether married or not, tended to have lower odds of being overweight or obese than children living with single mothers.

“The Effect of Maternal Employment on Children’s Academic Performance” Dunifon, Rachel; Hansen, Anne Toft; Nicholson, Sean; Nielsen, Lisbeth Palmhøj. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 19364, August 2013.

Rachel Dunifon , the interim dean of Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology, led this study, which explores whether maternal employment improves children’s academic achievement. Dunifon and her colleagues analyze a data set for 135,000 children who were born in Denmark between 1987 and 1992 and followed through the ninth grade.

A key finding: Danish children whose mothers worked during their childhood had higher grade-point averages at age 15 than children whose mothers did not work. And children whose mothers worked between 10 and 19 hours a week had better grades than kids whose mothers worked full-time or only a few hours per week. “The child of a woman who worked between 10 and 19 hours per week while her child was under the age of four is predicted to have a GPA that is 2.6 percent higher than an otherwise similar child whose mother did not work at all,” the authors write.

The researchers suggest their paper “presents evidence of a positive causal linkage between maternal work hours and the GPA of Danish teens. These associations are strongest when mothers work part-time, and among more advantaged mothers, and are not accounted for by mothers’ earnings.”

“Maternal Work Early in the Lives of Children and Its Distal Associations with Achievement and Behavior Problems: A Meta-Analysis” Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G.; Goldberg, Wendy A.; Prause, JoAnn. Psychological Bulletin , November 2010. DOI: 10.1037/a0020875.

This is an analysis of 69 studies that, over the span of five decades, look at the relationship between maternal employment during children’s early years and children’s behavior and academic performance later in life. Overall, the analysis suggests that early maternal employment is not commonly associated with lower academic performance or behavior problems.

The analysis did, however, find differences when comparing different types of families. Early maternal employment was associated with “positive outcomes (i.e., increased achievement and decreased behavior problems) for majority one-parent samples,” explain the three researchers, Rachel G. Lucas-Thompson , now an assistant professor at Colorado State University, and Wendy A. Goldberg and JoAnn Prause of the University of California, Irvine. Early maternal employment was associated with lower achievement within two-parent families and increased behavior problems among study samples comprised of a mix of one- and two-parent families.

The researchers offer this explanation: “The results of this meta-analysis suggest that early maternal employment in sole-provider families may bolster children’s achievement and buffer against problem behaviors, perhaps because of the added financial security and health benefits that accompany employment, as well as improved food, clothing, and shelter because of increased income and the psychological importance of having a role model for achievement and responsible behavior. In contrast, early maternal employment may be detrimental for the behavior of children in two-parent families if the increases in family income do not offset the challenges introduced by maternal employment during children’s early years of life.”

There were differences based on household income as well. For families receiving welfare, the researchers found a link between maternal employment and increased student achievement. For middle- and upper-class families, maternal employment was associated with lower achievement.

The researchers note that they tried to gauge how child-care quality might influence these results. But there weren’t enough studies to allow for a detailed analysis.

Family separation: How does it affect children?

Maternity leave and children’s cognitive and behavioral development

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About The Author

Denise-Marie Ordway

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Consequently, all over the world, to look after their family, there is a rising trend of working mothers leaving their works (Vanderkam, 2005).As per the Social Development Foundation of Assocham (2015), 25 per cent of first-time Indian mothers quit jobs to raise children.The motherhood dilemma is the reflection of a societal norm, which suggests that the woman must sacrifice career ...
Working Mothers: How Much Working, How Much Mothers, And Where Is The
Preschoolers experience a significant decline in time spent with their mothers when their mothers go to work and total time spent with the child has shown to decrease by as much as 2 hours per day. A trade off is found between time and money, as family income increases whereas mother's time with child decreases.
Challenges of working mothers: balancing motherhood and profession
Challenges of working mothers: balancing motherhoo d and profession. Prajakta G. Kadale, Aastha N. Pandey*, Swati S. Raje. INTRODUCTION. Woman is an integral part of the society. According to ...
Working Mothers Essay
It is important to see the negative aspects of being a working mother as well as the positive outcomes. First and foremost the term mother must be addressed. In this _____ the term mother will refer to _____. In a study done, the mothers working schedule was evaluated in order to see if it was correlated with the child's behavior.
Working Mothers, Essay Example
In descriptive bias, for example, working mothers are actually redefined in the workplace as weaker performance is automatically attributed to the demands of the home and children. The remainder of the article serves to provide management with a realistic and equitable framework for eliminating the discrimination that may well result in ...
Postpartum health of working mothers: A prospective study
Most working women experience poor physical and mental health during their postpartum period. This prospective study aimed to describe the physical and mental health issues faced by working mothers during their postpartum period. Respondents were recruited using the proportional sampling method among mothers who attended the Maternal and Child ...
Working Mom Struggles and Challenges, Problems of Working Women
Here are some real struggles faced by most moms who go to work. 18+ to Parent. 38.4K. 1. 1. A PR professional working in a multinational company and a mother to a three-year-old, Mansi has a lot on her plate. She sometimes feels like she's in a race that never seems to end. She leaves early after preparing the meals for the day and drops her ...
Understanding and Overcoming Challenges Faced by Working Mothers: A
Mothers are less likely to be hired for certain types of jobs, are paid less for doing those jobs, are less likely to be promoted, and are more likely to experience unequal treatment that leads them to turnover (Jones et al. 2013).These issues need to be addressed given the fact 38 % of the workforce will at some point undergo this transition into motherhood (Williams et al. 2006).
Working-mom burnout is real—here's how to combat it
Meeting the challenge of moms' 'double double shift' at home and work. Supporting employees in the work-life balancing act. Author Talks: Joann S. Lublin on lessons for working mothers, their families, and their employers. The state of burnout for women in the workplace. Beyond burnout: What helps—and what doesn't
Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of ...
60% of the working moms say that part-time work is ideal compared to only 48% in 1997. On the other hand, 48% of stay-home mothers say staying at home is the most superlative situation compared to 39% in 1997. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 data, shows only 24% of working mothers work part-time.
(PDF) Working Women and Motherhood -A Review
The respondents' characteristics are working mothers who work for at least 2 hours per day, are aged 17-70 years, have an income of at least 250 thousand rupiahs per month, are married, and ...
Working Mothers' Experiences in an Intensive Mothering Culture: A
The population of working mothers has greatly increased over the past few decades, yet cultural norms and standards for women have not progressed at the same rate. Intensive mothering ideals set expectations for mothers that recruit them into inequitable parental partnerships and create challenges for their well-being, health, and relational ...
The challenges for working mothers, and what companies and others can
May 9, 2021 The pandemic's dramatic effect on working parents isn't news anymore—but even as many slog on, juggling jobs and family alike, a substantial chunk of working mothers say they're considering downshifting their careers or dropping out of the workforce entirely. That's a problem, and not just for moms. Get perspective with several recent publications that unpack the issues ...
What research says about the kids of working moms
Most American moms work outside the home. Nearly 70 percent of women with children under age 18 were in the labor force in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In recent decades, as more mothers take paid positions, families, policymakers and scholars have wondered how the trend may impact children, especially during their early years.
The problems of working mother english essay
The problems of working mother english essay || english essayHelloThis video is about essay on the problems of working mother.#the_problems_of_working_mother...
Economies
This study builds on the debate on whether mothers' employment in the early life of children bring positive or negative impact to children in later life. This is based on the fact that employment often result in reduced family time in which mother may not be able to take care of their children fully. This study estimated the effects of mothers' employment status on children's education ...
Her Problem is Our Problem: Why We Must Change Our Views…
Her Problem is Our Problem: Why We Must Change Our Views on Working Mothers. by. Rikki Rogers. Updated. 6/19/2020. In their book The Mommy Myth, authors Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels point out that mothers on opposite ends of the earning spectrum are often sent vastly different cultural messages.