Nowadays, as it becomes more popular and acceptable for women to cease being a full time housewife and to become a full time employee instead, many raise the question “should women be housewives or working mothers?” In general, most of women would want to be a good mother and employee, and hoping they can have enough time to make their full commitment as both a wife and a mother. However, due to limited time, resource and energy, that is nearly impossible and women face the decision to choose between one and another. Taking all factors, such as trade-offs of a housewife versus working mother, into consideration, in my opinion, I believe the benefits of working mother outweigh those of housewives and women should return to the workforce not only because of their need to support families but also because of the increasing demand of women in many work fields, their personal reasons such as having financial freedom and desire to gain more power in their family.
First and foremost, many women face a difficult decision of whether or not they should be a working mother instead of a housewife. This decision is not made easily since there are various factors that can influence their decisions. According to the article “Working and non-working mothers: comparative study”, “there is 200 questionnaire survey send out, and got the returned shown 50.5% of 101. The rates of 78% were working mothers and 22% were non-working mothers. The working mother had better mental health than the non-working mothers, but had more stress of women was not having enough time to take care of their family. For the non-working mothers, their social life was too lack.” (Rout et al, 264-275). As illustrated above, clearly women are in the tug-of-war of choosing what they want to become. Such pressure to decide intensifies when women are fully aware of the time they need to devote to their family and work as well as the responsibilities
Cited: Rout et al, “Working and non-working mothers: a comparative study.” Published by Emeraid Group Publishing, Limited, United Kingdom, 1997, pp.264-275 A young Phang and Ki-Hak Lee, “Experience of Social Support among working mothers: a concept map.” 147, 2009 Reserved by the American Counseling Association National Statistical Office. (2007). Annual report on the economically active population survey. Seoul, Korea: National Statistical Survey Institute. Hakim, C. (2003). Competing family models, competing social policies. Family Matter, 64, 52-61. Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/fm2003/fm64/ch.pdf Healy, G. (1999). Structuring commitments in interrupted careers: Career breaks, commitment and the life cycle in teaching. Gender, Work and Organization, 6, 185-201 U.S. Census Burean (2005). Table 6: Average weekly child care expenditures of families with employed makers that make payments, by age groups and selected characteristics: Winter 2002. Retrieved August 6, 2007, from http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/child/ppl-177.html Melinda Dodd and Teresa Palagano, The Working Mother Report: What Moms Think? November 2012, from www.workingmother.com Mitchell Young and Book Editor. Work and Family. 2012. Print Percy, Susan, You may not be a working mother today, but what about tomorrow? 221.5, November 1996:224 Sheryl Sandberg. Lean In. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Print