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New research suggests the opting out revolution is a sheer myth and that more women than ever before are working.
Do you think there is truth behind this new research?
In the June issue of the American Sociological Review sociologist Christine Percheski claims that despite the rampant perception that a tidal wave of moms are opting out, in reality more mothers are working than ever before and the employment gap between mothers and childless women is diminishing.
Percheski chose cross-sectional data from the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey to examine trends by 10-year birth cohorts of college-educated professional and managerial women in the United States from 1960 to 2005. She found that less than 8 percent of professional women born since 1956 leave the workforce for a year or more during their prime childbearing years.
Percheski’s research also shows that the number of women with young children who work full-time year-round has increased steadily, growing from a rate of 5.6 percent of women born 1926 to 1935 (referred to as the “Baby Boom Parents” by Percheski), to 38.1 percent of women from Generation X (born 1966 to 1975). More professional Generation X mothers of young children were working full-time year-round than their counterparts in any previous generation.
Percheski finds that among mothers of older children (those age 6 to 18), full-time employment is the norm for professional women of Generation X.
“Contrary to an opt-out revolution, professional women—including mothers of young children—are working more than ever,” said Percheski. “Despite this increase in women’s employment, we can not assume that combining professional work and family life is easy for most women. Indeed, many working women successfully combine these roles by making great personal sacrifices, including curtailing their sleep, civic involvement or leisure time.”
Sociologists have also studied the factors that affect the decisions of the small percentage of women who do “opt out” of the workforce. The fall 2007 issue of the American Sociological Association’s Contexts magazine included sociologist Pamela Stone’s examination of “The Rhetoric and Reality of Opting Out,” in which Stone describes the home and workplace dynamics that contribute to these decisions. This article is available online at http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/Fall07CNTFeature.pdf.
Source: Newswise
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