Marriage and children for professional women: Asset or liability?

Abstract

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the role strains experienced by women who add the new role of worker to the more traditional roles of wife and mother (Hochschild, 1989;Wortman, Biernat, & Lang, 1991). In sharp contrast, there has been almost no research on the stress affecting women who substitute new roles for old ones, for example, by embarking on professional careers while remaining childless or single (Allen, 1989;Fong, 1992). Nevertheless, this is a sizable and growing population. Not only are more women entering historically male professions each year (Marshall, 1989) but, in comparison with both their male colleagues and women in general, professional women are less likely to marry or bear children (Marshall, 1989; Statistics Canada, 1989). Moreover, this tendency to refrain from marriage, childbearing, or both is not restricted either to specific professions or to Canadian women but has been repeatedly reported in recent studies of managerial, professional, and academic women (

Family enrichment and women entrepreneurial success: the mediating effect of family interference

“…This leads to better performance (Ruderman et al 2002). Furthermore, the woman's perception that she can handle her personal problems thanks, in part, to family moral support, may give her the feeling of higher self-esteem and overall satisfaction with life (Barnett and Baruch 1985; Barnett and Marshall 1992;Roskies and Carrier 1994). This leads to an "optimistic bias" (Busenitz and Barney 1997;Powell and Eddleston 2013;Simon et al 2000), which may lead to better outcomes.…”

The Role of Husbands' Supportive Communication Practices in the Lives of Employed Mothers

“…There are also several psychological outcomes of employed mothers' process of adaptation. Among these are their levels of satisfaction with their lives in general (Roskies & Carrier, 1994). Other outcomes include their physical health (Reifman, Biemat, & Lang, 1991), their levels of stress (Costello, Stone, & Dooley, 1996;Shipley and Coats, 1992; Steffy and Ashbaugh, 1986), psychological well-being (Ozer, 1995), and work-family conflict Shipley & Coats, 1992).…”

“…Therefore, I propose the following hypotheses and research question: work and family responsibilities is a priority for many people. Roskies and Carrier (1994) found that single professional women and married childless women experienced low levels of life satisfaction. They also found that married professional women with children experienced more life satisfaction than their counterparts, in part because they were able to secure resources, such as household help, who assisted them in managing work and family responsibilities.…”

Work and Family Issues: Their Impact on Women's Career Development

“…However, stress, pregnancy, child care, and elder care seem to create the most extensive problems (Friedman, 1991;Neal, Chapman, Ingersoll-Dayton, and Emlen, 1993;Roskies and Carrier, 1994;Thomas and Ganster, 1995).…”