Media Does ‘Poor Job’ of Depicting Working Mothers.
Results from a survey conducted by Executive Moms, www.executivemoms.com, show that contrary to popular belief, working mothers are glad to have careers and feel that working is beneficial to motherhood and overall family life.
Major findings from the survey:
- 97% of respondents AGREE that being a mother with a career can “help make me a better mother”.
- 70% of respondents work BOTH because “it is important to me EMOTIONALLY” and “it is important FINANCIALLY”.
- 82% of respondents feel that the GREATEST BENEFIT to being a professional as well as a mother is the FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION they make to the family.
- 61% of respondents believe the media does a “POOR JOB” of depicting working mothers.
“The results from the survey show that working mothers feel very good about themselves,” says Marisa Thalberg, founder and President of Executive Moms. “Not only is it clear that these women derive a sense of personal esteem and value from having a career – they also believe that their career brings a value to their role as mothers as well.”
This disputes the conventional notion that being a “working mother” inherently means a trade-off, especially on the “mother” end.
Survey results indicate that contributing to working mothers’ sense of personal contentment is a sense of satisfaction in the support they are getting from others:
- Only 8% wish they had a more accommodating spouse.
- Only 21% wish they had better childcare and/or back-up childcare.
- Only 36% or respondents feel societal pressure or guilt that they should be “stay-at-home-Moms”.
The most significant wish expressed by the respondents in the survey, and perhaps the study’s least surprising finding, is their desire for “more personal time” (66%).
Abigail Hirschhorn, Chief Marketing Officer, DDB New York believes that these results mirror trends DDB has witnessed from its yearly Lifestyles study of thousands of women.
Looking at the results of the Executive Moms study in conjunction with DDB’s ongoing research, there is a clear level of satisfaction and confidence that seems to be a true defining trait of working mothers in this country – one that probably runs counter to many cultural assumptions about how working mothers feel about the lives they lead.”
DDB’s 35th annual Lifestyles study offers findings that lend support to the Executive Moms study.
Some key findings there:
- A greater percentage of working mothers (96%) describe themselves as “family-oriented” than the rest of the population (89%).
- Only 18% of working mothers believe that men are naturally better leaders than women (vs. 36% of rest of population).
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