Highly Educated Stay-at-Home Mothers: A Study of Commitment and Conflict

Abstract

Women continue to take on financial responsibility for their families while remaining the primary caretaker of the children. The tension between the dual roles of mother and professional leads some women to trade their career for more time with their children. This qualitative study investigated the lived experience of 10 highly educated stay-at-home mothers using individual in-depth interviews. The dominant themes encompassed the decision to stay home, the benefits and challenges of staying home, and the need for self-care. Findings indicate that women who have achieved a high degree of education and professional success and stay home full-time face a complex range of emotions and experiences significant to counselors working with this population.

The All‐or‐Nothing Workplace: Flexibility Stigma and “Opting Out” Among Professional‐Managerial Women

“…These forms of bias are, in turn, often linked to, or presumed to reflect, women or mothers’ inability to observe prevailing time norms. More recently, so‐called flexibility bias, against workers who request or work flexible schedules in violation of time norms, has been the subject of interest in its own right (e.g., Bornstein & Williams, ; Boyce, Imus, Ryan, & Morgeson, ; King, ; Ruben & Wooten, ).…”

The Voice of Trailing Women in the Decision to Relocate: Is it Really a Choice?

“…These women felt that the burden of family and career duties involved heavy personal and family costs and they looked for an "objective" force that would allow them to quit their jobs. They were looking for an opportunity to liberate themselves from some of the gendered societal expectations to be a perfect mother and employee and from the heavy guilt associated with the constant failure to achieve such impossible goals [43].…”

Parental Nonstandard Work, Family Processes, and Delinquency During Adolescence

“…Mothers in particular may abstain from or opt out of paid employment specifically as a means of providing more comprehensive, all around care for their children. For instance, Rubin and Wooten's (2007) qualitative study describes how highly educated mothers choose to leave their jobs and stay at home with their children in order to make mothering their top priority.…”