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Gender & Society
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0891243208319359v1
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Article

The Importance of Motherhood among Women in the Contemporary United States

Julia McQuillan*, Arthur L. Greil, Karina M. Shreffler, and Veronica Tichenor

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jmcquillan2{at}unl.edu.


  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 positivelyassociated with valuing motherhood among mothers. Consistent with feminist explanations for delayed fertility, valuing leisure is negatively associated with valuing motherhood for non-mothers.

First published on June 5, 2008, doi:10.1177/0891243208319359

Gender & Society 2008;22:477.

A more recent version of this article appeared on August 1, 2008

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Home page
 Gender SocietyHome page
G. Webber and C. Williams
Mothers in "Good" and "Bad" Part-time Jobs: Different Problems, Same Results
Gender Society, December 1, 2008; 22(6): 752 - 777.
[Abstract] [PDF]