This article says: according to a growing body of research, working moms have an overwhelmingly positive influence on their children. Family and career data on over 100,000 men and women found that children of working mothers tend to lead different lives than those with stay-at-home moms. Working moms model for their children how to manage a really complex life and what an egalitarian relationship looks like.
“The real impact of working moms is most evident in their daughters. The researchers found that women who grew up with working mothers are more likely to have careers themselves than those with stay at home moms, and they’re also more likely to have better, higher paying jobs. According to a 2015 working paper from the same team, daughters of working mothers in the U.S. make about 23% more than daughters of stay-at-home mothers. And across the 25 developed countries represented in that survey, 21% of women whose mothers had worked got supervisor jobs, compared to 18% of women who had stay-at-home mothers.”
“Sons, for their part, grow up to spend more time doing household chores and caring for their kids if their mothers had careers. In the U.S., that translates to about eight more hours a week spent folding laundry, changing diapers, and doing other kinds of domestic duties — nearly twice as much as sons of stay-at-home moms, they found.”
“At the root of this phenomenon is the way children internalize social mores, and the behaviors modeled by the adults around them. People tend to have ‘more egalitarian’ views on gender roles if they had working mothers, McGinn’s team found. We tend to repeat the patterns that are modeled for us in childhood — adults who grew up in a home where both parents worked, and split household chores, are probably going to repeat those patterns when they start their own families. Same goes for those of us who grew up in a traditional Leave It To Beaver household.”
That doesn’t mean stay-at-home moms are damaging their children’s futures. McGinn stresses there isn’t one ‘right’ way to raise a child and that neither option is inherently detrimental. But as more moms enter the workforce, some wrestling with the guilt of leaving their child at home, her research is a tiny fist-bump to moms in the struggle.
“When you’re watching your mom go to work everyday, especially if you’re a girl, you’re learning how to manage what is a really complex life,” she says.
Counseling with Elaine Korngold
In my private practice, I work with clients on career counseling issues such as:
- Choosing a career path
- Changing careers
- Deciding whether to leave a company
- Managing office politics
- Dealing with layoffs and finding a new job
- Creating work and life balance
- Interacting with difficult colleagues
- Dealing with stress and emotions at work
Career counseling involves helping people clarify work and personal values, refine problem-solving skills, and improve motivation in performing daily activities. We can focus on game planning and identifying the short-term and long-term steps that align with your career goals. Career counseling can help improve your communications skills for dealing with coworkers, managers, or customers, refine interview and networking skills, and build up your leadership, business, and management abilities. Contact me to learn more.