26% Mothers Prefer Full-time Work, reveals ASSOCHAM survey (Full-Time Work Grows Less Attractive to Moms)Sunday, October 24, 201

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In less than a decade of craze for full time working, suddenly the severe competition amongst the children have compelled mothers with minor children (ages 17 and under) to work preferably part time rather than full-time work to build the strong foundation and spend the maximum time with their kids, according to the Associated chamber of commerce and industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Above findings have come to fore following conclusion of a survey conducted under aegis of ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF), on “Women preference towards works” in which over 4,700 working parents in metros including large township participated, however, further reveals that fully seven-in-ten of today’s working mothers say part-time work would be their ideal for them and would opt not working at all outside the home.

Cities involved in the survey include all metros and places like Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Pune, Bangalore, Ahemdabad, Udaipur, Shimla, Dehradun, Indore, Patna, Cochin, Chennai etc.

There’s been a similar shift in preferences among at-home mothers with minor children, just 16% of these mothers prefer ideal situation would be to work full time outside the home. Nearly 56% of all at home moms now say that not working at all outside the home is the ideal situation for them, say Mr. D S Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM.

On the other side, 72% fathers prefer the ideal situation for mother is a part-time job. It is much less popular among fathers that about 12% men with minor age children say that full-time work is their ideal situation, while 56% say they would prefer to work part-time and 32% say they would prefer not working outside the home.

There are also differences in the way working moms and at-home moms assess the job they’re doing as parents. Mothers working full-time give themselves slightly lower ratings as parents, on average, than do at-home mothers or mothers employed part-time.

As for the shifts in attitudes among mothers about full-time work, these come at a time when the women participation rate of all women ages 25 to 54. Among mothers with very young children (under 3 years of age), there was a small decline in the women participation rate from 2007 (59%).

Mothers with younger children (ages 0 to 4 years) also are less likely to prefer full-time work today (26%). 48% of mothers with younger children prefer part-time work, while 36% prefer not working outside the home and 16% prefer fulltime work.  The decline in mothers saying full-time work is ideal for them occurred about equally among mothers with higher and lower education levels.

At-home mothers (54%) are more likely than employed mothers (20%) to say an at-home mom is the ideal situation for children. The at-home group is narrowly divided over whether part time (41%) or no outside work (44%) is the ideal situation for children. Just one in- ten says a full-time working mother is ideal for the children. A majority of working mothers (52%) say that a mother working part-time is ideal for children.

Three-in-ten say a mother who doesn’t work outside the home would be ideal for children and about one-in-ten (11%) say that a full-time working mother is ideal for children say the ASSOCHAM Secretary General.

Parents have also rated themselves how good a job they are doing as parents, on a scale from 0 to a high of 10. Regardless of their employment status, most mothers tend to give themselves relatively high marks on this scale. However, the women who are hardest on themselves are full-time working moms. Just 10% of mothers working full-time give themselves the highest rating (10) as a parent; another 18% place themselves at the next highest mark (9). At-home moms give themselves more kudos as parents; nearly three-in-ten (28%) give themselves the highest mark (10) and another 15% put themselves at nine on this ten-point scale.

Mr. Rawat said mothers see themselves in a better light, on average, than do fathers. Just 26% of dads give themselves one of the two highest marks; six-in-ten put themselves at a seven or eight on this scale and the remaining 13% rate themselves at six or below.

About four-in-ten (42%) adults say an at-home mother is the ideal situation for children; a nearly identical proportion (41%) say a mother working part-time is ideal and just 9% say a mother working full-time is ideal for children. Men are more likely than women to consider an at-home mother the ideal situation for children. The same gender difference is found between moms and dads with children under age 18; fathers of minor age children are more likely than mothers to consider an at-home mom the ideal situation for children. There are no or minimal differences in judgments about the ideal situation for children by education or family income.

News Source : 26% Mothers Prefer Full-time Work, reveals ASSOCHAM survey (Full-Time Work Grows Less Attractive to Moms)Sunday, October 24, 2010