Why Should Mothers Work?

1288 Words6 Pages
Why Should Mothers Work? Carmen C. Gonzalez Interlink - UNCG Why Should Mothers Work? Everybody knows the importance of mothers during the development of children. Through the years psychologists and scientists have shown the effect of maternal employment on children, but little research has addressed the effects of employment on the psychological health of new mothers. It is a reality that today many women cannot stay at home because they have bills to pay. Beyond economic problems, there are other reasons and many benefits that explain why a mother should have a part-time job. Approximately 25% of all women currently work part-time schedules (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009) and a majority of mothers work part-time at some point during their adult years (Budig & England, 2001). In their investigation, Buehler and O’Brien (2011) put the focus on mothers’ part-time employment because it’s a normative experience for U.S. mothers. They defined part-time employment as between 1 and 32 hours of work per week. This research demonstrated that mothers working part-time reported themselves to be less depressed than stay-at-home mothers in their children’s early years and to have less work-related conflict than those working full time. Also, the psychologist, Bennett (2007) explained in her book The Feminine Mistake that working mothers have better physical and emotional health, and higher self-esteem than unemployed mothers. In general, the results of different studies indicate that employed mothers spend less time with their infants and preschoolers than unemployed mothers. However, this effect diminishes with maternal education and with the age of child. Hoffman (1998) argued that data indicates that employed mothers tend to compensate for their absence in direct proportion with the amount of time they interact with their child during non-work hours and on

More about Why Should Mothers Work?

Open Document