Here’s to the working mothers
This issue would not be complete with a salute to the working moms out there, who have the hardest time with work/life balance. Those of us who are not working moms can only sit and wonder about how it is they do it, while passing no judgement on those who cannot take on such a burden. To those toiling away on both a job and a family, we urge you to stay strong and not slip into “mother’s guilt’, as the rewards are priceless where it counts — the children.
That’s because research now shows that daughters of working mothers actually get better jobs and higher salaries, according to an extensive survey by Work, Employment and Society on family and career of more than 100,000 men and women. According to a 2015 working paper from the same team, daughters of working mothers in the US make about 23% more than daughters of stay-at-home mothers. And across the 25 developed countries represented in that survey, 21% of women whose mothers had worked got supervisor jobs, compared to 18% of women who had stay-at-home mothers, according to CNN Money.
The benefits to sons are plenty as well. Don’t take it from us. Just ask Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. In an op ed penned for the Guardian, Zadari relays the impact of having such a powerful mother who rose in Pakistan’s politics despite the sexism and regression of the society. “She proved beyond a doubt, with her life and relentless courage, that women can certainly do everything. While the political pygmies who opposed her will be forgotten, she lives on in history as a global icon.’