PEDIATRICS Vol. 52 No. 2 August 1973, pp. 252-263
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EMPLOYED MOTHERS AND THEIR FAMILIES (I.)*

Mary C. Howell M.D., Ph.D.1

1 Children's Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

More than 40% of all U.S. mothers of children of 18 years of age or younger are employed. The prevailing notion that employed mothers are deviant is examined with regard to published research literature. No uniformly harmful effects on family life, nor on the growth and development of children, have been demonstrated. It is concluded that conditions of employment, and the attitudes of other family members, probably influence the employed mother's relationship to her family by affecting her self-esteem and energy sources.

Maternal employment may jeopardize family life when the conditions of her employment are demeaning to her self-esteem, when other family members are strongly disapproving of her work away from home, or when mutually agreeable arrangements for children and housework cannot be made. Otherwise, maternal employment seems to offer many advantages to family relations and for the lives of children.




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