by Shirley Lendway

Created on: January 20, 2011   Last Updated: January 21, 2011

While men work for the family, women have to create time away from the family to work. Phyllis Rose makes this distinction in her book Parallel Lives. The three factors that influence whether a woman works or stays home while raising children are economic, social, and emotional.

Economic

There is a double standard already in place when women decide to enter the work world. John Stuart Mill, a famous nineteenth-century philosopher, opined that women, given the choice, would prefer to stay home to raise their children. Part of his utilitarian theory to ensure their decision to stay home was his idea that women should be paid less. Even though women may receive lower wages for the same work as men, they may work out of necessity.

Social

The type of family model a husband and wife decide to implement may determine the amount of free time she is willing to create to work. The family model can go in three directions. Families can function in one existence continually but this is not often the case. More probable is for a family to adopt one existence or another for various cycles of life.

The three directions are described by David Kantor and William Lehr in their book, Inside the Family: Toward a Theory of Family Process. They are as follows: the "closed" or traditional family which advocates discipline, emphatic central leadership, fealty and separate responsibilities. The "open" family looks for all to agree when a response is needed and encourages acceptance and the ability to work together. The "random" family is a family with limited cohesiveness, seldom making united actions but offering creativity and independence.

Emotional

A woman's social network can be emotionally binding and can affect whether she works or stays at home with her family. If her parents, in-laws and siblings pressure her and her preferred family-model style is the "closed" family, she is more likely to channel her energies toward the home front. Obviously, there is room for conflict. However, the family model can change at different points in a family's existence in tandem with the mother alternating between working and staying at home. 

Capitalism tends to reinforce the idea that women need to work. In order to have more and more, or nicer possessions, work can be an incentive.

Economic necessity is the most convincing reason for women to work. Social pressure can be strong enough to ensure that a woman stays home to raise her children. It is important for women to realize that a decision to work can be reversed if the family is temporarily best-served by the mother being at home. A budget can ensure that there is money put aside to bridge the gap when that time occurs. Emotional need or independence will ultimately govern a woman's decision between the two.

References

Kantor, David and William Lehr. Inside the Family: Toward a Theory of Family Process. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1976.

Rose, Phyllis. Parallel Lives. New York: Vintage Books, 1984.

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