The Importance of Motherhood Among Women in the Contemporary United States

Abstract

We contribute to feminist and gender scholarship on cultural notions of motherhood by analyzing the importance of motherhood among mothers and non-mothers. Using a national probability sample (N = 2,519) of U.S. women ages 25-45, we find a continuous distribution of scores measuring perceptions of the importance of motherhood among both groups. Employing OLS multiple regression, we examine why some women place more importance on motherhood, focusing on interests that could compete with valuing motherhood (e.g., education, work success, leisure), and controlling for characteristics associated with becoming a mother. Contrary to cultural schemas that view mother and worker identities as competing, we find that education level is not associated with the importance of motherhood for either group and that valuing work success is positively associated with valuing motherhood among mothers. Consistent with feminist explanations for delayed fertility, valuing leisure is negatively associated with valuing motherhood for non-mothers.

The Importance of Fatherhood to U.S. Married and Cohabiting Men

“…Although women are often depicted as making "hard choices" between work and motherhood (Blair-Loy, 2001;Gerson, 1985;Williams, 2000), McQuillan et al (2008) find that women place a high value on both, just as men do. So, for both men and women, importance of career is positively associated with importance of parenthood.…”

“…Research on infertility and childlessness has also given us a way to examine characteristics that may shape the importance of fatherhood in all men's lives (Bulcroft & Teachman, 2004) and has already been adapted to examine the importance of motherhood in women's lives (McQuillan et al, 2008). We group these characteristics into three categories (described below): economic (occupational and leisure), culture and identity (race/ethnicity, religiosity, and gender ideology), and life course/situational (age, marital status, fatherhood status, and infertility) factors.…”

“…We build on identity theory and use research on voluntary childlessness (Bulcroft & Teachman, 2004) and the importance of motherhood in women's lives (McQuillan, Greil, Shreffler, & Tichenor, 2008) as guides for exploring the characteristics that shape the importance of fatherhood in men's lives. These characteristics include economic factors, especially the potential "costs" of fatherhood vis-à-vis work and leisure pursuits, influences related to culture and identity, and life course or situational factors in men's lives.…”

“It's like giving him a piece of me.”: Exploring UK and Israeli women's accounts of motherhood and feeding

“…Israel is a country in which the majority of the population is Jewish (76%) with 21% of Arabs (Muslims, Arab Christians and Druze). Culture and tradition have been previously associated with perceptions of motherhood (McQuillan, Greil, Shreffler, & Tichenor, 2008) and it was hypothesised that Israeli mothers will practice the traditional role of a Jewish mother (a stay at home mother who cooks, clean and takes care of her family; Callister, Semenic, & Foster, 1999). However, the exposure of Israeli women to Western lifestyle moderates such traditional roles.…”

Becoming the mother of a child with disabilities: a systematic literature review

“…First-time mothers experience the transition as challenging (Darvill, Skirton, & Farrand, 2010) as they come to terms with the implications of having to take care of (Basnyat & Dutta, 2012) and becoming attached to their babies (Fourquier, 2011) within a specific cultural context (Kennedy et al, 2014). Culture determines the views of people regarding motherhood and the caring for children (McQuillan, Griel, Shreffler, & Tichenor, 2008). Although there are many similarities in how new mothers in a cultural group experience the transition to motherhood it remains a personal and unique experience for each individual (Nelson, 2003).…”