Diversity News Commentary: Debunking Working Mom Mythology

by Susan Welch, Hewitt Research -

The myth goes like this: Mothers work only because, financially, they need to. As soon as their husbands become wealthy, they choose, and prefer, a life at home, caring for their children. More than five years ago, this was the story painted in a 2003 New York Times magazine article called “The Opt-Out Revolution.” Following it came a barrage of related stories, furthering the myth. The Times article offered numbers: The percentage of new mothers going back to work dropped from 59 percent in 1998 to 55 percent in 2000. Examining the Stanford graduating class of 1981, 57 percent of women from that class spent at least one year at home caring for an infant in the first decade after graduation. Among Harvard Business School grads from the classes of 1981, 1985, and 1991, only 38 percent of the women were working full time.[1]

The article offered a theory, as well. Increasingly, it said, women simply are choosing a balanced life at home, versus the frenetic pace of a high-powered career. In other words, rather than pursue equality with their male colleagues, women are—when they have the means—making a choice to walk away. “Why don’t women run the world?” the article asks. “Maybe it’s because they don’t want to.”[2]

But new statistics on working mothers tell a different story.

For the first time, hoping to better understand American families and households, the Census Bureau conducted a study of mothers—those who work, and those who stay at home. The study found that, contrary to the belief that women “opt out” as soon as they have the means, stay-at-home moms are younger and less educated than working mothers. Specifically, in the year studied[3]:

• About 44 percent of stay-at-home moms were under 35, compared to 38 percent of mothers in the labor force.
• More than a quarter of stay-at-home moms were Hispanic, compared with 16 percent of working moms. In fact, 34 percent of stay-at-home moms were foreign born.
• Among stay-at-home mothers, 19 percent had less than a high school education, compared to 8 percent of working moms.

So, were those reports about wealthier mothers opting out unfounded? Not quite. A 2007 study by the Council on Contemporary Families foreshadowed Census Bureau findings. Looking through the lens of husband’s income, the Council’s study found two groups of mothers less likely to be employed: those with husbands at the lowest income levels, followed by those with incomes at the very highest levels.[4]

One might argue that these groups represent the extremes: Mothers with the least choice, and mothers with the most choice. This, if accurate, would tend to validate the belief that mothers leave the workforce once they feel financially able. But digging deeper, a more endemic workforce issue surfaces.

Mothers with the wealthiest husbands opt out because they don’t need to work, right? In fact, many of those mothers pursued prestigious college and post-graduate degrees. These highly educated women fly in the face of the fact that more educated moms tend to work more (per both the Census and the Council on Contemporary Families reports). Why? A recent New York Times column opined that these women feel they must stay home to keep the family running while their high-paid spouses travel and work more than 70 hours a week.[5] Indeed, the lack of flexibility for many working men—particularly the highest paid of them–poses challenges for both working and stay-at-home moms.

A different study—again previewing the Census Bureau findings—suggests women with high-paid spouses are not so much opting out, because they prefer the stay-at-home, nurturing lifestyle, but marching out, to protest employers and a society that cannot offer the flexibility they need to make their lives as working mothers tenable.[6]

Imagine, then, the plight of women whose husbands are not so well-paid. The group of mothers most likely to stay home is less wealthy, less educated, and often foreign born. These less-skilled women simply can’t find ways to build their skills and still cover child care costs. They can’t find unskilled labor that pays nearly well enough to offset child care costs. They can’t find jobs that offer sufficient flexibility to reduce their need for outside child care.

The common thread: Flexibility. Specifically, a lack thereof.

In other words, women are not opting out because they don’t want to work. They opt out because they can’t make it work.

Employers have heard the cry for increased flexibility for decades now—since the late 1970s, when women first entered the working world in significant numbers. Dodging the issue might be practical now, given today’s difficult economy, particularly when many men are available to fill both highly skilled and unskilled jobs that mothers could perform as well. But short-term solutions bring long-term pain: In the not-so-distant future, the American workforce will get older. Countries that cannot replace aging workers will be disadvantaged. Countries that cannot find ways to develop skills and employ all possible workers will be left behind.

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[1]Belkin, Lisa. “The Opt-Out Revolution.” New York Times magazine. October 26, 2003.

 

 

[2]Belkin, Lisa. “The Opt-Out Revolution.” New York Times magazine. October 26, 2003.

[3] Census Bureau statistics from: Edwards, Tom. “Stay-at-Home Moms are More Likely Younger, Hispanic, and Foreign-Born Than Other Mothers.” Census Bureau. October 1, 2009. Link: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/014266.html

[4]Cotter, David; England, Paula; and Hermsen, Joan. “Moms and Jobs: Trends in Mothers’ Employment and Which Mothers Stay Home.” Council on Contemporary Families. May 10, 2007. Link: http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/subtemplate.php?ext=momsandjobs&t=factSheets

[5] Warner, Judith. “The Choice Myth.” New York Timesonline. October 8, 2009. Link: http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/the-opt-out-myth/#more-1117

[6]Williams, Joan C.; Manvell, Jessica; and Bornstein, Stephanie. “’Opt Out’ Or Pushed Out?: How The Press Covers Work/Family Conflict.” UC Hastings College of Law. 2006. Link: http://www.uchastings.edu/site_files/WLL/OptOutPushedOut.pdf

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