"Maternal Employment and Time with Children: Dramatic Change or Surprising Continuity?"

Suzanne M. Bianchi, The Population Association of America (2000)

Summary

The increase in female employment outside the home has occurred with less reallocation of time away from child rearing than would first appear. In the past, non-employed mothers' time with children was reduced by the demands of unpaid family work and domestic chores and by the use of mother substitutes for childcare, especially in large families. Today employed mothers seek ways to maximize time with children: they remain quite likely to work part-time or to exit from the labor force for some years when their children are young; they also differ from non-employed mothers in other uses of time (housework, volunteer work, leisure). In addition, changes in children's lives (e.g., smaller families, the increase in preschool enrollment, the extended years of financial dependence on parents as more attend college) are altering the time and money investments that children require from parents. Within marriage, fathers are spending more time with their children than in the past, perhaps increasing the total time children spend with parents even as mothers work more hours away from home.

The standards for what constitutes good mothering have changed. It has become widely acceptable for stay-at-home mothers to place preschool children in non-maternal care, at least for a few hours. Mothers' entry into the labor market may initially create demand for child care services, but as quality programs emerge to meet this demand and as mothers' income increases, what follows is an array of (expensive) choices for the way children spend their time. These programs are then seen as fundamental to enriching the child's life and enhancing his/her future opportunities. As a result, the level of preschool enrollment has climbed as rapidly for children whose mothers are not in the labor force as for those whose mothers are.

View the full report