Full-Time Moms a Minority Now, Census Bureau Finds

A sweeping study of American fertility habits has found more than half of new mothers are going back to work before their infants can walk, a significant change from just a generation ago, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The study found that full-time stay-at-home moms are no longer the majority in America, with 55% of new mothers returning to the labor force in 1995 within 12 months of giving birth. In 1976, when the Census Bureau first began to track the trend, the comparable figure was only 31%.

The older and more educated the mother, the more likely she is to return to work before her baby turns 1, with a soaring 77% of college-educated women 30 to 44 years old deciding to juggle motherhood and an outside job, the study showed.

“Here you have a group of women who postponed children, got an education, went to work after college and probably have been fairly successful moving up in terms of income and satisfaction. It’s hard to walk away from that,” said Suzanne Bianchi, professor of sociology at the University of Maryland.

While the figures do not indicate whether women are returning to their jobs full time, it does portray a nation of mothers who have spent the last 20 years deciding to go back to work in steadily increasing numbers before their babies toddle.

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“These women are more likely to be in professional positions and probably have the ability to afford child care they are confident about. They don’t want to lose their ability to move up. They also probably have more interesting work and that draws them back,” said Christine Winquist Nord, senior study director at Westat, a Washington research organization that studies families.

The findings also reflect the increasing reliance of many households on two paychecks, as well as the growing rate of single motherhood, experts noted.

The census report, “Fertility of American Women: June 1995,” surveyed nearly 57,000 households across the United States and found the American birthrate in general is up substantially over the last 20 years. While 56 babies were born for every thousand women in 1976, the figure had jumped to 84 babies in 1995.

Demographers attributed the rise to the influx of immigrants who lean toward larger families--particularly Mexican-born women, who have an average of two children each.

But the study also showed that once here, Mexican-born women began to mirror the birthrate of women born in the United States, dropping to 1.2 babies each, the national average.

“They are not emulating their mothers, they are assimilating to the culture exactly like native-born Americans,” said Amara Bachu, the demographer who produced the report.

The shift in attitudes is true for most foreign-born mothers once they settle in the United States, where the cost of raising children is higher and there may be no extended family on hand to assist with child care, experts said.

In California, the census study showed the average birthrate was just a notch above the national pace, with women averaging 1.3 babies each, probably a function of the state’s substantial Mexican-born population.

The highest birthrate was recorded by Utah at 1.4, with Massachusetts coming in last at less than 1 baby per 1,000 women.

All told, the study reflected increases in an array of child-bearing choices, suggesting women are choosing varied paths to suit their lifestyles rather than the confines of strict societal rules.

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For instance, a continued increase in the so-called “Murphy Brown” syndrome was recorded, with a steadily growing number of never-married, older mothers opting to have a child. In the 1995 study, 21% of such women were mothers, up from 18% in 1990 (the first year for which the statistic was available).

At the same time, more women were feeling free to decide to remain childless, an option once frowned upon in American culture. While just 10% of women between 40 and 44 years old were without children in 1976, 18% had made that decision in 1995.

Among those mothers most disposed to working, the birth of a second child increased the incentive to stay home, according to the report. While more than three-quarters of the older, college-educated mothers returned to work after the first child, only 56% went back after the second came along.

Experts said today’s women are bucking the lifestyles they grew up with and doing it in a society not at all sure that motherhood and professional work mix. That cultural debate was highlighted by the overwhelming public attention given to the recent trial of a British au pair convicted of killing her 8-month-old charge while both parents were at work.

“I suspect many women are struggling with trying to figure out the balance they need to achieve in their lives. They probably came from a mother who stayed at home and they are dealing with the image of what a ‘good mother’ does,” Bianchi said.

“Society is also dealing with the image--if it was ever true--of the ideal family where women knew they were supposed to stay home and provide for the children and men knew they were the breadwinners. And that really has changed for lots of reasons.”

Bianchi and other experts pointed to the figures as reasons for employers to recognize that U.S. families are changing and help workers--male and female--to balance their lives.

“What concerns me is these issues are framed as women’s issues or mothers’ issues,” Bianchi said. “For some of us, the goal is also to have men more invested in the nurturing of families.”

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BABY INDEX

The nation’s overall birthrate continues to rise.

Births per 1,000 women

1980: 60

1995: 84

Note: Women, working and non-working.

Source: Census Bureau