Pregnancy and Employment: A Literature Review - Crisis Pregnancy ...

Pregnancy and Employment: A Literature Review
1.6 Attitudes to Maternal Employment
The rising trend in maternal employment has been accompanied by a shift in attitudes towards the employment
of mothers and on other aspects of gender roles. In a series of studies spanning 1975 to 2004, Fine-Davis (1988,
2005) tracks changes in a wide range of gender-role attitudes, including maternal employment. In 1975, Irish
attitudes were very traditional. For example, 68% of respondents in a Dublin-based sample believed: “It is bad for
young children if their mothers go out and work, even if they are well cared for by another adult”; 65% agreed that
“When there is high unemployment, married women should be discouraged from working” (Fine-Davis, 1988). A
significant shift in attitudes was noted when a similar survey was carried out in 1986, though it was noted that the
urban sample held more egalitarian attitudes than those from rural areas (ibid). By 2004, the proportion believing
that mother’s employment was bad for young children had declined to 39%, while the proportion endorsing the
view that, during times of high unemployment, married women had a lower entitlement to work was 18%.
Evidence from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) also shows considerable attitudinal change over
the period 1994 to 2002. The proportion of Irish women agreeing with the view that a pre-school child is likely
to suffer if his or her mother works outside the home decreased from 51% to 35%, while the proportion of men
agreeing dropped from 56% to 47% (O’Sullivan, 2007). 7 Similarly, the percentage agreeing that family life suffers
when the woman has a full-time job fell from 57% to 44% among both women and men over the same period.
Each of the studies notes that attitudes to maternal employment vary with age, employment status and socioeconomic
status/education level (Fine-Davis, 2005; Whelan & Fahey, 1994; O’Sullivan, 2007).
Comparative analysis reported in Russell et al (2009) show that Irish attitudes to maternal employment are
similar to those held in Britain. For example, 41% of Irish respondents agreed that the pre-school child suffers if
his or her mother works outside the home, compared to 46% of British respondents (Figure 1.3). Similarly, 45% of
British people agreed that family life suffers as a result of women working full-time outside the home compared
to 44% among Irish respondents (Figure 1.4). These results suggest that in 2002 Irish attitudes towards maternal
employment were more traditional than those in Denmark and Sweden, but less traditional than those held in the
USA, the Netherlands, France and Spain.
Figure 1.3: Percentage agreeing that a pre-school child is likely to suffer if his/her mother works
outside the home, 2002
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Sweden DK IRL GB USA NL France Spain
Male Female All
Note: From Russell et al (2009). Data Source ISSP 2002
7 Whelan & Fahey (1994) use data from the European Values survey which shows that the proportion of women agreeing with this statement in
1990 was 46% and the proportion of men was 60%. The difference between these figures and the 1994 results may reflect the different survey
instrument, therefore it is most informative to compare the 1994 and 2002 ISSP results.
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