Cambridge survey reveals backlash against working mothers in Western countries

According to new research from Cambridge University, the support for gender equality is declining across the UK and USA. One central concern reported in the study, is that women who are pursuing a career do so at the expense of family life. According to the study, both women and men are more likely to believe that it will have a negative effect on the family life if a woman works full-time. The research is based on social attitude surveys over the past three decades by Jaqueline Scott. “While British attitudes are more egalitarian than in the 1980s, there are signs that support for gender equality may have hit a high point some time during the 1990s,” said Scott. “When it comes to the clash between work and family life, doubts about whether a woman should be doing both are starting to creep in.”
The research gathered data from the international social survey programme and other opinion polls with sample sizes between 1000 and 5000 people in the UK, the USA and West Germany. While in 1994, 51% of women and 52% of men stated that they believe in the reconciliation of work and family life, by 2002 only 46% of women and 42% of men approved the idea of a full-time working mother. A second key finding of the research was the decline in the number of people supporting the idea that having a job would be the best way for a woman to stay independent. “It is conceivable that opinions are shifting as the shine of the ‘super-mum’ syndrome wears off, and the idea of women juggling high-powered careers while also baking cookies and reading bedtime stories is increasingly seen to be unrealisable by ordinary mortal”, states Scott. In Germany, attitudes towards working mothers has slightly improved (1994:24%; 2002: 37%). This discrepancy can be put down to the fact that Germany is at a different stage in “a cycle of sympathy for gender equality” since it had been slower to abandon traditional gender roles and may face this backlash towards working mothers in a couple of years from now. The study is included in Women and Employment: Changing Lives and New Challenges, a book published by Edward Elgar Publishing.