{"id":24903,"date":"2012-04-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2012\/04\/13\/women-work-and-motherhood\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:51:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:51:51","slug":"women-work-and-motherhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/04\/13\/women-work-and-motherhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Women, Work and Motherhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democratic\u00a0strategist Hilary Rosen&#8217;s comment this week about Ann Romney&#8217;s lack of work\u00a0experience has put the &#8220;mommy wars&#8221; back in the news. The Pew Research Center\u00a0has done many surveys in recent years that explore public attitudes about\u00a0issues related to women, work and motherhood.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What follows is a summary of our key findings.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In many ways a public consensus has\u00a0developed around the changing role of women in society.\u00a0 Nearly three quarters of American adults (73%)\u00a0say the trend toward more women in the workforce has been a change for the\u00a0better. And 62% of adults believe that a\u00a0marriage in which the husband and wife both have jobs and both take care of the\u00a0house and children provides a more satisfying life than one in which the\u00a0husband provides for the family and the wife takes care of the home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/11\/03\/the-generation-gap-and-the-2012-election-3\/?src=prc-headline\">The\u00a0Generation Gap and the 2012 Election<\/a>,&#8221; November 3, 2011.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2010\/11\/18\/the-decline-of-marriage-and-rise-of-new-families\/\">The\u00a0Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families<\/a>,&#8221; November 18, 2010.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>At the same time, when motherhood\u00a0and children are brought into the debate, there is an ongoing ambivalence about\u00a0what is best for society.\u00a0 Only 21% of\u00a0adults say the trend toward more mothers of young children working outside the\u00a0home has been a good thing for society.\u00a0Some 37% say this has been a bad thing, and 38% say it hasn&#8217;t made much\u00a0difference.\u00a0 And women themselves report\u00a0feeling stressed about balancing work and family.\u00a0 When asked in general how they feel about\u00a0their time, 40% of working moms said they <em>always<\/em> feel\u00a0rushed.\u00a0 This compares with 24% of the\u00a0general public and 26% of stay-at-home moms. For their part working fathers don&#8217;t seem to feel nearly as harried as\u00a0working mothers.\u00a0 Only 25% of working\u00a0dads said they always feel rushed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2009\/10\/01\/the-harried-life-of-the-working-mother\/\">The\u00a0Harried Life of the Working Mother<\/a>,&#8221; October 1, 2009<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Most working mothers (62%) say\u00a0that they would prefer to work part time, and only 37% say they prefer\u00a0full-time work.\u00a0 By contrast, most\u00a0working fathers (79%) would prefer to work full time, while only 21% say they\u00a0would prefer working part time. The reality for today&#8217;s working moms does not\u00a0reflect their preferences: 74% work full time while only 26% work part\u00a0time.\u00a0 Only about one-in-ten moms (12%)\u00a0say having a mother who works full time is the ideal situation for a child.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2009\/09\/03\/recession-turns-a-graying-office-grayer\/?src=prc-headline\">Recession\u00a0Turns a Graying Office Grayer<\/a>,&#8221; September 3, 2009.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Partisanship is strongly linked to\u00a0views on women, work and motherhood.\u00a0While majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents say having\u00a0more women in the workforce has been a change for the better, Democrats feel\u00a0more positively about this trend: 82% of Democrats compared with 72% of\u00a0independents and 68% of Republicans say this has been a change for the\u00a0better.\u00a0 When asked specifically about\u00a0the trend toward more mothers of young children working outside the home,\u00a0Republicans and independents react much more negatively.\u00a0 Nearly half of Republicans (45%) and 42% of\u00a0independents say this trend has been bad for society.\u00a0 Only 28% of Democrats agree.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2009\/09\/03\/recession-turns-a-graying-office-grayer\/?src=prc-headline\">Recession\u00a0Turns a Graying Office Grayer<\/a>,&#8221; September 3, 2009.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2010\/11\/18\/the-decline-of-marriage-and-rise-of-new-families\/?src=prc-headline\">The\u00a0Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families<\/a>,&#8221; November 18, 2010.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While the share of mothers in the\u00a0workforce has risen significantly in recent decades, roughly three-in-ten mothers\u00a0of children under age 18 still do not work outside the home.\u00a0 Ann Romney became the face of stay-at-home\u00a0moms this week, but she doesn&#8217;t fit the demographic profile of the average\u00a0at-home mom.\u00a0 According to Census data,\u00a0stay-at-home moms are on average less educated than their counterparts in the\u00a0labor force (18% of stay-at-home moms lack a high school degree, compared with\u00a07% of working moms).\u00a0 More than\u00a0one-fourth (27%) of stay-at-home moms are Hispanic, compared with 15% of\u00a0working moms.\u00a0 Stay-at-home moms also\u00a0have markedly lower household incomes than their working mom counterparts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See U.S. Census Bureau, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.census.gov\/population\/www\/socdemo\/ASA2010_Kreider_Elliott.pdf\">Historical\u00a0Changes in Stay-at-Home Mothers: 1969-2009<\/a>,&#8221; 2010.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See U.S. Census Bureau, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.census.gov\/population\/www\/socdemo\/hh-fam\/p20-561.pdf\">America&#8217;s\u00a0Families and Living Arrangements: 2007<\/a>,&#8221; September 2009.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen\u2019s comment this week about Ann Romney\u2019s lack of work experience has put the \u201cmommy wars\u201d back in the news. Here is a summary of surveys in recent years that explore public attitudes about issues related to women, work and motherhood.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"A Sampler of Recent Pew Research Survey Findings","sub_title":"A Sampler of Recent Pew Research Survey Findings","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[234,255,30,228],"tags":[],"bylines":[2134],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-24903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-workplace","category-gender-demographics","category-gender-lgbtq","category-parenthood","bylines-tom-rosentiel","formats-report","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":634,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/04\/13\/women-work-and-motherhood\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Women, Work and Motherhood","parent_id":24903},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Women, Work and Motherhood","description":"Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen\u2019s comment this week about Ann Romney\u2019s lack of work experience has put the \u201cmommy wars\u201d back in the news. 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