1986). In actuality, as long as there is enough love and support at home, a woman working outside the home could actually provide some very useful instruction to her children, not just on the redefinition of gender roles and the multiplicity of a woman's choices that has occurred in recent decades, but also on the responsibilities of life and the hard work it takes to achieve success. This conclusion is born out by earlier research that shows children that come from two-parent households with a working mother actually spend more structured quality time with their children, and that the children have a greater sense of responsibility, without any noticeable detriments. These conclusions were drawn as early as the 1960s, in a study that focused solely on middle-class white families and controlled for economic conditions and other known issues in child success rates and development (Yarrow et al. 1962). In general, the actual child-rearing practices employed by both working and non-working mothers are largely the same, and it is mainly in the organizational details and the structure of the woman's workload that are different (Yarrow et al. 1962). The mother's own level of academic achievement has a lot more to do with their child rearing practices than their work status, with women who have gone to college and would enjoy work but remain home out of a stated sense of duty to their children and their family report the biggest problems with child rearing and the most stress from the job, as well (Yarrow et al. 1962). In families where a college-educated mother is also employed outside the home, planned activities tend to take make up for any time that might be lost due to her career, and even in families where the mother ended her education with high school, children with working mothers tend to be more in control and have a better sense of their responsibilities and their parent's expectations of them (Yarrow et al. 1962). The reason behind...

Seeing their mother work will also provide them with a role model for their adult lives, without any downside so long as quality time is still spent with the family during the mother's (and father's) off hours.
Though there is of course a lot of work involved, there are many benefits to having both a career and being a mother. The new and more equal partnership of marriage enables women to take some independence along with their familial duties, leading to more fulfilling lives. The proven ability of women to rise to this occasion, and the actual benefits it can provide to their children, are effective arguments against the traditional cultural view that women with children should devote all of their attention to the home and the family. As the practice of women working outside the home becomes more commonplace, it will also become easier and more accepted.

References

Family Education. (2009). "To stay at home or return to work." Pearson Education. Accessed 20 July 2009. http://fun.familyeducation.com/mothers/baby/40200.html?detoured=1

Hochschild, a. (2003). The second shift. New York: Penguin.

Milne, a.; Myers, D.; Rosenthal, a. & Guinsburg, a. (1986). "Single parents, working mothers, and the educational achievement of school children." Sociology of education, 59, pp. 125-39.

Working Mother. (2009). "Executive moms." Accessed 20 July 2009. http://www.workingmother.com/web?service=direct/1/ViewAdvancedPortalPage/PortalBlocks/dlinkArticle&sp=S2018&sp=1462

Yarrow, M.; Scott, P.; de Leeuw, L. & Heinig, C. (1962). "Child rearing in families of working and nonworking mothers." Sociometry, 25(2), pp. 122-40.