Working Mother Essay

Submitted By elion1234
Words: 1090
Pages: 5

I think that wives with children positively influence the couple’s marriage. Starting from the positive financial impact, to the emotional satisfaction that work brings to mothers, work outside home contributes to a better atmosphere at both home and marriage. Couple relationships are happier when the wife’s work acts as a financial safety net, and the couple share child rearing. Husbands and wives are more satisfied with their relationship when both partners view themselves as equally responsible for providing financially for the family, as compared to those who see the husband as the only partner responsible for providing. Research have shown that the main reason for the divorce rate to rise to 50 percent is the tendency of partners to go back to the old ways of parenting and into traditional roles when their children are born, thus destroying the equality and friendship they previously shared before the child was born. If the mother does most of the child care while the father is the only breadwinner, the couple will grow apart by blaming one another for their mutual anger. In addition, a 2003 study of 749 women from the Midwest US found that women who quit work after having a child experience 30% more psychological distress compared to woman who returned to their jobs. Women who never returned to their part- time jobs experienced 10% more distress. Public health data from researchers in US found that women who have been wives, mothers, and workers were significantly less likely to suffer poor health than woman who did not play all three roles. Two incomes are a safety net, especially when the couple has children. As children grow and become more expensive to rear, the pressures on a sole provider increase. At the same time, the breadwinner becomes more competent at work and less competent at home. If the husband loses its job, a working wife provides financial security until the next job comes along. Research has shown that marriage can be a lot more rewarding and fun, if both parents jump into family life full force. Sharing the experience when both spouses have careers and are parents can be protective for the marriage. Studies have shown that once a child enters the family, spouses begin to gradually disengage from one another if one parent leaves the house for work each day while the other stays behind. When a woman sees her job as important, her marriage will likely be more equal, and when marriage is more equal, couples and particularly women are happier. When both parents have jobs outside the home, their daily experience remains more similar, even if they work in entirely different fields. In 2006, the American Journal of Sociology showed that among American couples, whether wives work or not, if husbands do more household, the odds of getting divorced are lower. Couples where the husband did 50% of the household work and wives did 50% of the earnings reduce their odds of divorce by more than 50% as compared with couples where the wife did all the housework and the husband earned all the money. When women play multiple roles such as worker, spouse and parent they enjoy higher self- esteem. Working mothers say that finding satisfaction in the day- to day is what keeps the couple going. Work lets working women in general define themselves more broadly and expand their sense of who they are and what they can do. Although today most married women work for pay, and beliefs about the roles of men and women have undergone noticeable shifts towards gender equality, married women still perform most of the household tasks. Mothers do not usually work to avoid household demands and responsibilities so much as it is that they work for the challenge and intellectual stimulation that work gives them. Women that are typically well educated and hold professional jobs are more likely to renegotiate traditional gender roles and responsibilities in some cases by purchasing services such as child care, and in others by reallocating