Women increasingly choosing work over kids, study says

(U-WIRE) MORRIS, Minn. -- While in the past women in Western societies have either combined work with domestic life or privileged domestic duties over work outside of the family, according to scholar Neil Gilbert, now "family life has been abandoned in favor of work."

Gilbert contends that there are several reasons for this cultural shift. First, advances in contraception have allowed women to make their own reproductive choices. While women have varying predispositions toward childbearing, in the past lack of technology to prevent pregnancy led to more children being born than would have been had women access to contraception.

A second reason for the shift in childbearing patterns is a change in how women are socialized. While in the past women have been taught to value raising children, they are now socialized to want material comfort, career achievement, and independence.

While economic necessity is often cited as a justification for families who have two parents working, Gilbert points out that the current standard of living has caused people to consider it necessary to own appliances such as color TVs and air conditioners. This standard of living can be seen as a preference for material comfort over family.

The argument that women work due to economic necessity is also weakened by the estimation that 34 percent of the wife's income in two-income U.S. families is consumed by work-related expenses and taxes. In the case of poor working mothers who paid for childcare, it is estimated that childcare expenses alone account for 20 percent of income.

While economic independence is one of the reasons women today eschew family in favor of working, according to Gilbert women gain financial independence by working but become dependent on services such as day care and fast food. While the increase in divorce rates makes it desirable for women not to be dependent on their husband's income, it is impossible for one person to be solely responsible for holding a job and raising children.

In addition to the material results of working, more intangible results are believed to stem from employment. These include goals such as personal empowerment, self-realization, and achievement. However, according to Gilbert, the concept that careers can be rewarding tends to come from public-opinion makers such as professors, journalists, authors, artists, and pundits whose jobs are rewarding. For women who lack education, talent, or aptitude, a career may not necessarily be more satisfying than raising a family.

Gilbert concludes that our current socialization "devalues childbearing and the domestic arts" and "endorses the market as the only realm in which serious people experience accomplishment." The consequences of these social attitudes can be seen in the results of a 2003 Gallup poll: Among childless adults over 40, 70 percent said if they could do it again they would have at least one child.

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