Working Moms & Stay-At-Home Dads
December 14, 2011, By Jim Higley 0 comments
Working women have spoken! A new study on the topic of what working moms feel about a number of subjects—including their at-home husbands—is shedding some important light on a seldom-explored trend.
"This is really the first study that's been done exclusively on the women's experiences of being the sole breadwinners of their families," explains Dr. Marianne Dunn, one of the authors of "Employee, Mother, and Partner: An Exploratory Investigation of Working Women with Stay-at-Home Fathers."
The study explores a number of attitudes held by working women, including:
- Why they choose to be the primary breadwinner;
- The pros and cons of the arrangement;
- How their choices impact their relationships with their children and husband;
- How their choices impact their career;
- How they believe others view and perceive their decision to be the primary breadwinner;
"Some of the higher-level findings showed that the majority of these women were happy with their choices and were really thriving at work and at home," explains Dr. Dunn, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Towson University.
Other findings, however, were surprising.
The Decision to Do It
While a number of reasons were given by the participants for their specific work-family arrangement, the majority identified economic benefits centered on the earning power of the wife. Other significant influencers were a belief that the husband was a better fit to be the primary caregiver (one respondent stating, "He naturally has the personality better suited to care for our child"), or that the choice was values-based, centered on the couple's belief that it was important to have one at-home parent.
These primary findings didn't surprise a number of at-home dads who heard a first-hand presentation on the study by co-author Aaron Rochlen at the annual At-Home Dads Convention.
"We could have easily done the dual-income thing," commented at-home dad Al Watts, president of Daddyshome, the national at-home dad network. "But we didn't want our children in childcare."
NEXT: Advantages
