more grist for the opting-out debate…
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/536/working-women
Fewer Mothers Prefer Full-time Work From 1997 to 2007
July 12, 2007
In the span of the past decade, full-time work outside the home has
lost some of its appeal to mothers. This trend holds both for mothers
who have such jobs and those who don’t.
Among working mothers with minor children (ages 17 and under), just
one-in-five (21%) say full-time work is the ideal situation for them,
down from the 32% who said this back in 1997, according to a new Pew
Research Center survey. Fully six-in-ten (up from 48% in 1997) of
today’s working mothers say part-time work would be their ideal, and
another one-in-five (19%) say she would prefer not working at all
outside the home.
There’s been a similar shift in preferences among at-home mothers
with minor children. Today just 16% of these mothers say their ideal
situation would be to work full time outside the home, down from the
24% who felt that way in 1997. Nearly half (48%) of all at-home moms
now say that not working at all outside the home is the ideal
situation for them, up from the 39% who felt that way in 1997.
The lack of enthusiasm that mothers of all stripes have for full-time
work outside the home isn’t shared by fathers – more than seven-in-
ten (72%) fathers say the ideal situation for them is a full-time job.
Meantime, even as mothers have grown less enamored with full-time
work, a new division of opinion has opened up between working moms
and at-home moms on the question of whether it’s good or bad for
society that more mothers are working outside the home.
A decade ago, nearly identical pluralities of both groups (38% among
at-home moms; 39% among working moms) said this trend was bad for
society. Since then, more working mothers have come to see this trend
as good for society, while slightly more at-home moms have come to
see it as bad.
There are also differences in the way working moms and at-home moms
assess the job they’re doing as parents. Mothers working full-time
give themselves slightly lower ratings as parents, on average, than
do at-home mothers or mothers employed part-time.
This self-rating question about parenting performance wasn’t asked on
the 1997 Pew survey, so there is no way to know whether these
patterns have changed over time.
The parenting ratings also vary by level of education; mothers with
more education tend to be harder on themselves than are mothers with
less education.
As for the shifts in attitudes among mothers about full-time work,
these come at a time when the labor force participation rate of all
women ages 25 to 54, after rising sharply over the past half century,
has been basically unchanged since the mid 1990s, plateauing at about
75%. Among mothers with very young children (under 3 years of age),
there was a small decline in the labor force participation rate
between the peak year of 1998 (62%) and the most recent year for
which figures are available, 2005 (59%).
The survey did not probe the reasons women say one work situation or
another would be ideal, so it can offer no details about the way
mothers see the roles of working and childrearing in their lives.
The Pew survey was conducted by telephone from February 16 through
March 14, 2007 among a randomly selected, nationally-representative
sample of 2,020 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3
percentage points. Many of the analyses presented in this report are
based on responses among selected subgroups. Results based on working
mothers (259 respondents to the survey) have a margin of sampling
error of plus or minus 8 percentage points. Results based on at-home
mothers (153 respondents) have a margin of sampling error of plus or
minus 11 percentage points.
Whenever possible, these findings have been compared with a
nationally-representative survey of 1,101 women conducted in 1997 by
the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The subgroup of
women in the 1997 survey who are working mothers (317 respondents)
and at-home mothers (140 respondents) have a margin of sampling error
of plus or minus six and nine percentage points, respectively.
The Elusive Lure of Part-time Work
The mothers in the Pew survey who were most inclined to endorse their
current situation as representing their ideal are those who work part-
time. Among this group, fully eight-in-ten says that part-time work
is their preferred option.
Part-time work is also the preferred option of about half (49%) of
mothers who work full-time and a third (33%) of mothers who don’t
work outside the home. It is much less popular among fathers; about
seven-in-ten (72%) men with minor age children say that full-time
work is their ideal situation, while 12% say they would prefer to
work part-time and 16% say they would prefer not working outside the
home.
Among women with minor children, views on this question vary little
by income or education level. There are minor differences by race.
Black mothers are more likely than whites to say full-time work is
ideal; both groups are about equally likely to say no outside
employment is ideal.
Married mothers are somewhat more likely than unmarried mothers to
consider no or part-time employment ideal; this pattern occurs in
both the 1997 and 2007 Pew surveys. However, unmarried mothers are
much less likely to prefer full-time work today (26%) than a decade
ago (49%). A plurality of today’s unmarried mothers now prefer part-
time work (46%), while 26% prefer not working outside the home and
26% prefer full-time work.
Mothers with younger children (ages 0 to 4 years) also are less
likely to prefer full-time work today (16%) than a decade ago (31%).
A narrow plurality (37%) preferred part-time work in 1997; today 48%
of mothers with younger children prefer part-time work, while 36%
prefer not working outside the home and 16% prefer full-time work.
The preferences of mothers with older children (ages 5 to 17) are
about the same today as they were a decade ago.
The decline in mothers saying full-time work is ideal for them
occurred about equally among mothers with higher and lower education
levels.
Among all working mothers, there’s a strong disconnect between the
kind of job they say would be ideal and the kind of job they actually
have. Some 60% of working mothers say they’d prefer to work part-
time, but — according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics – only about a quarter (24%) of all working mothers have a
part-time job.3
How Mothers Assess Societal Impact of Working Moms
Working and at-home moms are divided in their judgments about the
impact on society of working mothers.
A 44% plurality of at-home moms consider the increase in working
mothers bad for society while about half as many (22%) say it is good
for society and the remainder take a neutral position (31%). By
contrast, working moms are split almost evenly between positive
(34%), negative (34%), and neutral (31%) views of how this trend is
affecting society.
As noted above, the opinion divide on this question between at-home
and working moms has emerged over the past decade. In the 1997 Pew
survey, about equal proportions of at-home moms (38%) and working
moms (39%) said the increased number of mothers in the labor force
was a bad thing for society.
Married mothers are more likely than their unmarried counterparts to
consider the growth of working mothers bad for society. Younger
mothers (as well as younger women without children) are less negative
about this societal trend.
Mothers with some college or more education have grown somewhat more
positive than mothers with less education about the impact of working
mothers on society. For example, 24% of mothers with a college degree
say more working mothers is a good thing for society, up from 9% in
1997. Mothers with no more than a high school diploma are about
equally likely to say this trend is a good thing for society now
(32%) as did so a decade ago (27%).
What’s Best for the Kids?
Judgments about the impact of working mothers on society are strongly
related to beliefs about what is best for children. Here too, at-home
moms and working moms have different views, although neither group
sees a full-time working mother as ideal for children.
At-home mothers (44%) are more likely than employed mothers (30%) to
say an at-home mom is the ideal situation for children. The at-home
group is narrowly divided over whether part-time (41%) or no outside
work (44%) is the ideal situation for children. Just one-in-ten says
a full-time working mother is ideal for the children.
A majority of working mothers (52%) say that a mother working part-
time is ideal for children. Three-in-ten say a mother who doesn’t
work outside the home would be ideal for children and about one-in-
ten (11%) say that a full-time working mother is ideal for children.
African-American mothers (83 respondents to this survey) are more
likely than white or Hispanic mothers to consider employed moms –
especially full-time working moms – ideal for children. Unmarried
mothers are a bit more likely than married mothers to consider a mom
working full-time ideal for children. Both black and unmarried
mothers participate in the labor force at higher rates than their
respective female counterparts. Mothers’ views on this question do
not vary by education level.
How’s Your Parenting Going?
The Pew survey asked parents to rate how good a job they are doing as
parents, on a scale from 0 to a high of 10. Regardless of their
employment status, most mothers tend to give themselves relatively
high marks on this scale. However, the women who are hardest on
themselves are full-time working moms. Just 10% of mothers working
full-time give themselves the highest rating (10) as a parent;
another 18% place themselves at the next highest mark (9).
At-home moms give themselves more kudos as parents; nearly three-in-
ten (28%) give themselves the highest mark (10) and another 15% put
themselves at nine on this ten-point scale. Moms working part-time
(just 75 respondents to this survey) give themselves similar marks;
24% of this group rates their job as a ten and another 17% rates
themselves just one rung down at a nine.
Mothers see themselves in a better light, on average, than do
fathers. Just 26% of dads give themselves one of the two highest
marks; six-in-ten put themselves at a seven or eight on this scale
and the remaining 13% rate themselves at six or below. (Most fathers
of minor children in the Pew survey are full-time workers (85%); thus
ratings among full-time working dads are virtually the same as those
for all dads.)
Mothers with more education tend to be harder on themselves than are
those with less education. By contrast, there is no clear
relationship between father’s parenting rating and education level.
Public Opinion about Working Mothers
On questions related to work and motherhood, the views of the full
adult population are not much different from the views of mothers
themselves. The public is broadly ambivalent – but tilts more
negative than positive –about the phenomenon of mothers working
outside the home.
The Impact on Society of Working Mothers. A plurality of the general
population (41%) says the trend toward more mothers working outside
the home is a bad thing for society, while 22% say it is a good thing
and 32% say this trend hasn’t made much difference.
The Pew survey also asked respondents to assess the impact on society
of eight other trends related to family life – including the increase
in single women having children; the increase in people living
together without marrying; and the increase in people marrying at
older ages. Of these nine, “more mothers of young children working
outside the home” was in about the middle of the pack, reflecting the
mixed views Americans hold about the impact of working mothers on
society.
There is virtually no difference of opinion between men and women in
assessments about the social impact of more mothers of young children
working outside the home. Younger adults (especially those under age
30) are more positive, on average, than older adults about the impact
of this trend. These age differences are more pronounced among women
than among men, however.
Respondents who grew up with a working mom are less negative about
the impact of working mothers on society than are respondents whose
own mother was not employed at the time they were growing up.
African-Americans and Hispanics are a bit more positive than whites
about the impact of working mothers on society. Republicans,
political conservatives and white evangelical Protestants are more
negative than their respective counterparts about the impact of
working mothers on society. There are no or minimal differences in
opinion on this question by education or income.
Working Mothers and Children. About four-in-ten (42%) adults say an
at-home mother is the ideal situation for children; a nearly
identical proportion (41%) say a mother working part-time is ideal
and just 9% say a mother working full-time is ideal for children.
Men are more likely than women to consider an at-home mother the
ideal situation for children. The same gender difference is found
between moms and dads with children under age 18; fathers of minor
age children are more likely than mothers to consider an at-home mom
the ideal situation for children.
There are no or minimal differences in judgments about the ideal
situation for children by education or family income. Blacks are more
likely than either whites or Hispanics to hold full-time working moms
as the ideal for children, but a plurality of blacks holds the part-
time working mother as ideal, not the full-time worker. Republicans,
political conservatives and white evangelical Protestants are more
likely than their respective counterparts to consider an at-home mom
ideal for the children.