Jean M. Twenge, San Diego State University – Working Mothers

Are attitudes on working mothers changing?

Jean M. Twenge, San Diego State psychologist, is delving into this question.

Jean M. Twenge, Professor of psychology at San Diego State University, is the author of more than 100 scientific publications and the books Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before and The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (co-authored with W. Keith Campbell). Dr. Twenge frequently gives talks and seminars on teaching and working with today’s young generation based on a dataset of 11 million young people. Her audiences have included college faculty and staff, high school teachers, military personnel, camp directors, and corporate executives. Her research has been covered in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, and The Washington Post, and she has been featured on Today, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Fox and Friends, NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC, and National Public Radio. She holds a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Working Mothers

Will a preschool child suffer if his or her mother works? Can working mothers establish just as good a relationship with their children?

More than half a million Americans have answered these questions in surveys going back to the 1970s, and my colleagues and I wanted to see how these attitudes changed over time. For example, there’s often discussion about a “backlash” around these issues – the idea that attitudes toward working mothers have become more negative since the 1970s.

We found that is not the case: Attitudes toward working mothers are more positive than they have ever been. In 1977, 68% of American adults believed that a preschool child would suffer if his or her mother worked, compared to only 35% in 2012. High school students became steadily more positive about both the husband and wife working, even when they have small children. Attitudes toward working mothers became steadily more positive from the 1970s to the mid 1990s, slid a tiny bit downward in the late 1990s, and then rose to all-time highs in the 2010s. Overall, the “backlash” was both small and short-lived, and is now 15 years in the past.

These shifts are probably rooted in several causes. First, economic pressures have meant that many families need two incomes. Attitudes follow behaviors. Second, other research shows that these more positive opinions are correct: Kids who go to daycare don’t look much different from those with a parent at home. Third, our culture’s individualism supports equality for all regardless of gender or race. Generation Me – my term for those born in the 1980s and 1990s – takes it for granted that girls and women should have equal opportunities. Individualistic self-focus can have its downsides, but its emphasis on equality can be a huge benefit to women — and to society.