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Both the family and the workplace are so-called greedy institutions, demanding a great deal of time and energy from individuals. In fact, in the United States the full-time work week is quite a bit longer than in many Western European countries. Furthermore, individuals often find that these domains require the most from them during the same period of their lives. That is, the demands of work and family peak around the same time. Thus, many women and men feel that it is difficult to balance the demands of career, marriage, and family. This is particularly true of women, because they are expected to be the "kinkeepers"--maintaining a happy marriage, a stable and successful family, routines, rituals, and extended family ties. Not surprisingly, balance may be most difficult to achieve among dual-earner couples with preschoolers. To help achieve balance, one spouse, typically the wife, may choose to limit the time spent in the paid work force. Other strategies include seeking more flexible work schedules, although historically in the United States flexible options in the workplace have been scant. Some spouses may opt to work from home. However, studies have shown that women who work from home contribute more to housework than do men who work from home. Another con- sequence of the inability to balance work and family is a lack of leisure time, especially for wives. In one study, it was found that while husbands tend to relax in the evenings or enjoy a personal hobby, wives tend to be focused on housework and child care.

Because a belief in separate spheres remains firmly entrenched in American ideals, employed women, and especially mothers, often find that they not only confront conflicting role expectations but also social disapproval. Approval for working mothers seems to be on the increase, however. A 2001 survey of women found that over 90 percent of them agreed that a woman can be successful at both career and motherhood.

Today, a majority of mothers are employed. This trend has prompted a significant amount of negative attention, especially from social and religious conservatives. The primary concern seems to revolve around the potentially negative effects of maternal employment on child development and on family relationships more generally. The current ideal and expectation for so-called intensive mothering requires that women be available and receptive to their children's needs for most, if not all, hours of the day, every day of the week. There is no comparable expectation for fathers. Good fathering is normally de- fined as stable providing; thus, there is no contradiction between the roles of father and employee. For women, however, employment presents a challenge, at least ideologically, to the mothering role, because good mothering is not equated with providing. In fact, commitment to paid work is typically viewed as posing a threat to successful mothering. Women who wish to pursue both a career and motherhood may feel that they must choose between two opposing, mutually exclusive alternatives. The cultural contradiction of being a working mother has negative economic and professional ramifications for women. It has been found that not only does being married reduce the chances that a woman will be promoted, but being a mother does so as well. Women with preschool- aged children have lower rates of promotion than do other women, whereas the opposite is true for men. Motherhood has a definite negative impact on lifetime earnings--this is known as the motherhood penalty. This penalty has not declined significantly over the years.

Many of the concerns surrounding mothers' employment are unfounded; there is little, if any, empirical support for them. The primary concern surrounds the effects of maternal employment on the well-being of children. Furthermore, this seems to have been prompted by a larger concern with the rise of women's equality, threats to the masculine gender role, especially men's role as providers, and what some believe are the long-term, negative effects of the feminist movement. For the most part, Americans are accepting of mothers' employment if and when it is absolutely necessary to provide for basic necessities. Attitudes become more intolerant, however, of mothers who have careers and work for personal fulfillment. In fact, in recent years, there have been several instances of highly publicized cases in which children were harmed while under the supervision of a paid caregiver, such as a nanny. In such instances, it was the employed mother, not the hired caregiver or the employed father, who was held responsible for the child's well-being. Rarely, if ever, are fathers implicated in such cases.

A number of research studies have examined the question of what effect, if any, maternal employment has on child well-being. Among mothers who work outside the home during their child's first year of life, some negative outcomes have been found. However, many factors, such as the type and quality of child care, home environment, spousal attitudes toward women's employment, and gender role ideology need to be considered as well. After careful consideration of many of the studies examining the effects of women's employment on child outcomes, some have concluded that, in and of itself, maternal employment has little, if any, negative impact on child development or on child-parent relationships. In fact, some studies find that children benefit from maternal employment or from high-quality child care. Interestingly, a number of studies indicate that parents today spend as much or more time with children than in the past. For instance, it has been shown that, in 1975, married mothers spent about 47 hours per week with their children, whereas in 2000, they spent 51 hours per week with them. This increase seems to be the result of a decrease in time spent on personal care, housework, and marital intimacy.

Regardless of the child care arrangement, employed mothers may feel as if they are being asked to juggle and manage multiple roles--to do it all. The idea of the supermom is that of a woman who successfully manages a marriage, a family, and a career with time left over for herself. The reality is quite different from the image, however. Working mothers often report feeling overwhelmed with the kind and quantity of responsibilities they maintain. Not only are mothers expected to manage and execute tangible tasks such as meal preparation and transportation, but also psychological tasks such as planning and preparing for family routines. While husbands may serve as occasional pinch hitters, wives typically have an executive function, meaning that it is ultimately their responsibility to see that the household runs efficiently. Furthermore, the demands of the house- hold are continuous and unrelenting; thus, household executives are never off duty.

References:

Blair-Loy, Mary, Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Women Executives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Crittenden, Ann, The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued. New York: Henry Holt, 2002.

Galinsky, Ellen, Ask the Children: The Breakthrough Study that Reveals How To Succeed at Work and Parenting. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.

Hays, Sharon, The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. Hesse-Biber, Sharlene, and Gregg Lee Carter, Working Women in America: Split Dreams. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Hochschild, Arlie Russell, The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New York: Henry Holt, 2001.

Landry, Bart, Black Working Wives: Pioneers of the American Family Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Padavic, Irene, and Barbara Reskin, Women and Men at Work. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2002.

Williams, Joan, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

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