Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Women Working

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/15/news/economy/working-moms-kids-better-off-harvard-study/

     A recent article I have read from CNN talked about the effects a working mother may have on their kid.  A Harvard professor and her colleagues studied 50,000 people to see the effects of having a working mother in the household.  The research found that daughters of working mothers earned 23% more than daughters who had stay at home moms.  It also stated that daughters of working mothers were less likely to accept the idea of husbands being the breadwinners and the wives being the house workers.  As for the effect it has on men, the men who grew up with working mothers spent 7.5 hours more on childcare per week, and they were more likely to have a wife that worked.  The sharing of the household chores and childcare give their wives more time to pursue their careers as opposed to just being stay at home mothers.  Despite the findings of the research, the percent of unemployed mothers has risen from 23% to 29% from 1999 to 2012, respectively.  This may have been due to the recession, and it is hoped that more mothers are seen in the workplace. 

     The article “The Mommy Tax” talks about the effects that having kids can have on a family.  It states, “My annual income after leaving the paper has averaged roughly $15,000, from part-time freelance writing. Very conservatively, I lost between $600,000 and $700,000.” (Crittenden 367).  Prior to having kids, the speaker was making roughly $50,000 a year, and the effect having kids had on her stacked up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The article sparks the question on what should mothers do?  Should they stay at home and be with their kids, or should they work and hire somebody to watch the kids.  Both the Harvard studies and Crittenden article lean more to the side that mothers should be working, and they cover the monetary aspect and the effect that it has personally on the kids.  If you could have kids, work, make money and have positive effects on your children, it seems like an easy decision.


     "Chore Wars” poses questions from the point of view of a mother who is waiting for her husband to come home from work.  The mother is staring at the clock with anger, asking herself if she’s going to have to do everything by herself or if her husband is actually going to help.  However, mothers working and splitting chores could help prevent situations like this.  The fairest way to do things, after all, is to split them up equally.  With parents splitting the load of making money, raising kids, and taking care of the home, there wouldn’t be much for anybody to complain about because the mother and father essentially are doing the same amount of work.  That is the way I personally think things should be done, and most sources are supporting the fact that splitting things up evenly has the most benefits on the mother, father, and kids.     

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