Working Moms Want To Cut Back On Work

WOMAN, WE know, is the “victim of the species.” That’s what Simone de Beauvoir, haute bourgeoise and existentialist, wrote in The Second Sex, and she should know.

Back then, high-born victims like the Beaver wanted jobs, careers, anything that men did. But now the average working victim, according to the Pew Research Center, wants to work part time. Here’s how AP reported the Pew findings of their opinion poll of working mothers.

Sixty percent of the working mothers said a part-time job would be best, up from 48 percent 10 years ago. And 19 percent said not working at all would be ideal — roughly the same as in 1997.

Here’s how the folks at Pew interpreted the results.

Cary Funk, a Pew researcher on the survey, said the trend reflected women’s latest thoughts on the ideal arrangement for their children.

When you get to non-working mothers, or stay-at-home mothers, you get a definite break of opinion against working outside the home at all. Asked if mothers should work, moms split according to whether they worked or not.

Among stay-at-home moms, 44 percent viewed this situation as bad, 22 percent as good, and the rest said it made no difference. Among working moms, 34 percent saw the situation as positive, another 34 percent as negative.

As Beauvoir wrote, woman’s life is “subservient to maternity.” It takes a French intellectual to be scandalized by the obvious.

Here is the link to the report at Pew Research Center

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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