Majority of working moms prefer part time

WASHINGTON – A new majority of working moms in the United States would be happiest in part-time jobs, with fewer seeing full-time work as ideal, according to a study released today.

In a notable shift over the past decade, working mothers overwhelmingly view fewer work hours as the best option for their busy lives with young children. The proportion of mothers who feel that way jumped 12 percentage points since 1997.

Now, 60 percent of employed mothers find part-time work most appealing. But just 24 percent of them actually have part-time hours, labor statistics show, and mothers working part-time have not increased in number in the last decade.

“What we’re seeing is the expression of an ideal: to be the able to do both of these things … to be employed and to be mothers in a very involved way,” said Anita Garey, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut who has studied women’s work and family lives.

The report, by the nonprofit Pew Research Center, reflects what some experts see as a convergence of trends in family life – workplace policies that have been slow to accommodate parents, at a time when raising children has become a more intensive, involved enterprise.

This is also a new generation of working mothers, said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research group based in New York, which she said reached conclusions similar to the Pew study – and linked the change to the arrival of Generation X.

“We found that the younger people are more family-centric than (baby) boomers are,” Galinsky said. “Most young people have seen someone lose their job, and they have lived through 9/11. It’s not that they don’t want to work. They just want to work more flexibly.”

The Pew study of mothers showed that the appeal of part-time work crossed income and education divides.

One big change of mind-set came with unmarried mothers. A decade ago, 49 percent preferred full-time hours; now just 26 percent do. A plurality of unmarried mothers – 46 percent – think part-time is the best option.

Overall, part-time mothers were also the most likely to identify their current working situation as the most desirable, with 80 percent saying so.

Fathers, by comparison, were far more interested in full-time work – with 72 percent citing this as ideal.

The study also offered a glimpse into how mothers view their own parenting.

Just 28 percent of the mothers surveyed who work full-time gave themselves the highest rating as a parent, while 41 percent of mothers working part-time and 43 percent of stay-at-home mothers gave themselves top marks.