Stay At Home Mom Analysis

All mothers have the protective instinct for their children. So what happens if they have a baby then go back on the job and ended wanting to leave completely, they will not be able to leave until their contract is fully done and completed if they do not fulfill the contract they will be sent to court martial. So I leave that women should stay at home with their children because they can handle it way more than men can. Don’t get me wrong some men take care of their kids great but it’s better for a mom to stay home with them and make sure absolute everything is going okay and won’t have to stress about it as much when you are away from them.

This research also shows that when women take these leaves of absences, it will impact their career by decreasing their earnings in the long run (Patten, 2015). This is seen as an indirect form of discrimination in the workplace because even though an employer is not neglecting a woman for simply being a woman, they still are the ones who are expected to leave their occupation in order to care for their family and that creates much more significant long-term impacts on their careers than on a man’s career. This is quite unfortunate because as stated earlier, women are becoming a much larger force in high-paying jobs that are typically overrun and controlled by men, for instance, professional and managerial positions. However, research still shows that women

The negative mind-set of employers on pregnant employees plays an important role in causing discrimination. Women’s performance ratings were seen to decline after being pregnant, from “superb” to “terrible” as shared by one victim of pregnancy discrimination. This is because they are perceived as “overly emotional, often irrational, physically limited, and less than committed to their jobs” as compared to their non-pregnant woman counterparts and are hence “less valuable and dependable.” There is also the problem of additional workload for remaining staff or the potential need to hire temporary staff to tide over the maternity leave period. To compound the issue, employers suffer uncertainty as to when the employee will return to work, or worse, the employee leaves for good after their maternity leave period. In fact, a study done shows that only 60% of women go back to work within two years of their maternity leave. It is hence unavoidable that employers, being cost sensitive, worry that all the extra cost incurred will ultimately become a meaningless loss if their pregnant employees do not return to work.

There is data to support the idea of a mother taking time off or a woman reducing her working hours to part-time will hurt her significantly in the career world. The reason for this sudden break in a woman’s career being motherhood. The most popular reason for working less hours is in a law firm is for a mother to take care of her child. Taking this additional time off decreases the chances of the mother receiving a partnership immensely. When doing this, the mother also risks the idea of herself being seen as “not serious about her career”, permanently damaging her chances of promotion at the private practice. However, mothers are no less likely than childless women to receive a

In Judith Stadtman Tuckers “The Least Worst Choice: Why Mothers Opt out of the Work Place” Judith Stadtman Tucker looks at why hard working, intelligent woman are choosing to leave their high end jobs to stay at home with their children. Judith Stadtman Tucker expresses her option that it is nearly impossible to work 40 hours a week, be available on your off hours as well as raise children. I fully agree with Judith Stadtman Tucker’s point of view that it is absurd to have to be at the mercy of your employer even in your off hours, nor less if you are attempting to create an emotional connection and successfully raise a child. It is no question that even in today’s modern society that it is assumed that woman are the best caregivers for young children. If you are put in a position where you have a child to raise, is it more appropriate to abandon your career or to emotionally abandon your child to a stranger or strangers and allow them to raise it? Judith Stadtman Tuckers argument against mothers having to choose between the joys of parenthood and the freedom of being able to work a career really speaks to me because it makes me consider what I want for my own future and what I would choose.

Before we began to build our family, my husband and I were both working full time jobs at an upwards of 60 hours a week. This was practical at the time, but I knew I could not continue to do so with an infant. This led me to leave my job of 3 years just before giving birth. After a few months, I debated long and hard on returning to work. After very careful consideration, I decided the best thing to do for everyone would be for me to stay home. I knew that being a stay at home mom would be hard. More importantly, I also knew that my daughter needed me to be there for her. It helped me learn that the plan you may have for yourself may not be the best plan for everyone else; being able to compromise for loved ones is always important.

In her interviews with woman she was sure to interview very well educated women and those that strived for mere perfection. One thing is that the men in the lives of these women were not supportive and not mentioned of much. The men and society of today have placed a lot of responsibility on a woman’s shoulders when it comes to the child. It is the woman who makes the decision or is given the task to make the heavy decisions regarding the child’s future. Because of this many women choose to stay at home to be sure that the children will receive everything that they deserve and that they are not lacking in any area. Another issue that she reviews is that employers do not work with moms at all. For example she talked about the scenario where two moms brought a solution to their problem to management yet it failed to receive approval instead one mother was offered more money (Guest, 2011). Employers are not very flexible when it comes to mothers and don’t provide the proper care that is needed for a child. Since men are the ones that don’t carry the responsibility of the child’s well-being having proper day care is not a factor for them. Then there is the cost of day care which is high and can at times not compare to what the individual is making.

For example, becoming a mother and having to deal with motherly responsibilities can take an abundance of time out of the hours in which they could be earning money, thus “[skewing] pay-gap statistics, as they decrease the average total hours worked by women” (Cholensky 16). Working mothers spend at least twelve unpaid weeks on maternity leave. Regardless, an abundance of mothers need more time to bond with and take care of her newborn baby. There is a term that was coined for this exact disadvantage; the motherhood penalty. This argues that working mothers encounter disadvantages in pay, perceived competence, and benefits relative to childless women. However “ fathers earn somewhat more than childless men with the same characteristics—referred to as a fatherhood bonus” (Misra 27). Fathers and mothers may both work the same amount of hours and have very similar jobs, but the father will almost always get paid more than the working mother. This is because assumptions have made it so that women take responsibility of household chores and take care of their families. In the past, male counterparts have made the money to support their families and households. Standards in society have also been made, which influence the decisions that couples make in their

Two scholars from American Enterprise Institute, Mark Perry and Andrew Biggs, share similar opinions with Schlafly about child bearing and its impact. Mark Perry and Andrew Biggs wrote the article titled, “The ’77 Cents on the Dollar’ Myth About Women’s Pay”. Perry and Biggs agree with Schlafly that having children does not benefit women’s salaries and the gender wage gap. Biggs and Perry claim that when mothers leave the workforce to take care of their children it creates a disadvantage to them. They explain that when the mothers return the workforce, “they have less work experience than similarly-aged males” (5). They correlate experience with wages; saying that new mothers will not have as much experience, which will lead to a smaller paycheck when they return. Perry and Biggs also argue that new mothers are less appealing to employers because their male counter-parts who are of similar age, will have more experience than them (5). The employers may feel that the new mothers may not be as qualified or become as successful as a man. Ultimately, like Schlafly they argue that women who choose to have children are willingly creating part of the wage gap because they are choosing to have limited experience in exchange for

In addition, it has been noted that the access and time-span of maternity leave offered by a job greatly affects the amount of time it takes to return to work and future family-work relationships (Guendelman, Goodman, Kharrazi, & Lahiff, 2014). Those who were offered more than 12 weeks of maternity leave were more likely to return than those offered less (Guendelman, Goodman, Kharrazi, & Lahiff, 2014). Although this policy is highly complex, I chose to focus on impacts on gender roles, maternal health, children’s development, finances, and employer’s attitudes because these were the aspects that seemed to be abundantly clear throughout the research.

It has been argued that maternity leave is not only harmful to business but also to women themselves, and that it can be a burden on businesses so they may think twice about employing women. (7) Where leave is given, whether paid or unpaid, businesses have to fill the position vacated by the parents and this in itself creates additional work and cost for employers who have to pay for job advertisements, background checks and time for interviews. They are also faced with the cost of training the temporary

My mother was a single mother of two and still held a fulltime job. Always excelling in her position. She worked hard and never lacked in her motherly duties. Being a mother is looked as a weakness in the job force. Men believe that women are incapable of being a great employees and mothers. The mommy track is helpful for mothers. it gives mother flexible hours to work so they also still care for their children. This is a great resource but often time when do use the available resource; their commitment to their position is questioned. Employers used to discriminate against mother and wives for employment due the fact that they might leave the job to become full time

New mothers, depending on their work history and hours worked, can get from fifteen to fifty two weeks off. Journalist Covert states that in America, “They’re guaranteed twelve weeks of unpaid time off.” What Covert really means is that if a mother is gone for twelve weeks, they do not get paid the time they take off but still have their job (Bryce Workaholism). What also came across while researching was how four to six percent of workers are overworked because their bosses make them even if they do not want to. Carmichael notes what one employee told her during an interview, “We work long hours because our bosses tell us to.” In other words, Carmichael along with everyone who read her article noticed that even if some people did not want to work more hours they would kind of have to in order to keep their jobs (Sarah Long). Maybe if the workers got paid more then would not mind

The pay gap between men and women continues possibly because women put their careers on hold to care for their families. Research shows that these types of choices can have a negative affect on long-term earnings. Approximately, four of ten mothers have taken a lot of time from work, which is thirty-nine percent. Approximately, forty-two percent have reduced their work hours to care for a family member or child. Also, twenty-seven percent have quit work completely to care for family responsibilities and even less men say the same. There is approximately twenty-four percent of fathers that have taken a lot of time off from work to care for family or children (Patten, 2015).

Being a working mom or a stay-at-home mom both has their benefits and drawbacks. Most of us don’t get the luxury to choose. Instead we must choose one or the other. I have had to make these choose several times throughout the eleven years since I became a mom. I will share with you some examples of the benefits and drawbacks that go with both being a working mom or a stay-at-home mom.