“Supermoms” of the Nineties

Abstract

Mothers employed in full-time careers and full-time homemaker mothers were surveyed to examine relationships among their employment status, role behaviors as mothers, and perceptions of the mother role. Women in both groups were graduates of the same undergraduate liberal arts college, thus providing groups with similar sociodemographic characteristics. Although homemaker mothers devoted more hours to homemaking than did employed mothers, both groups reported the same range of household and child care activities within a 48-hour period. Both groups also perceived equally little choice in performing household tasks they had done. With regard to their perceptions of whether mothers in general typically performed the child care activities, full-time employed mothers perceived 5 of the 12 behaviors as less typical than did homemakers. Results suggest the importance of examining mothers' perceptions of the role along with their objective behaviors in studying employment effects.