Maternal Employment, Race, and Work Orientation of High School Girls

• Published in: Social forces Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 187 - 204
• Main Authors: Macke, Anne Statham, Morgan, William R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The University of North Carolina Press 01.09.1978; University of North Carolina Press
• Subjects: Black people; Children; Daughters; Employment; Girl/Girls; Maternal/Maternity; Mothers; Normativity; Parents; Race/Races/Racial/Racially (see also Relations, Race); Socialization; Work/Works/Working; Working mothers; Working women
• ISSN: 0037-7732; 1534-7605
• DOI: 10.1093/sf/57.1.187

Socialization by mothers, a key determinant of daughters' work orientation, has generally been thought to operate via positive role-modeling. But socialization also occurs through negative modeling, normative influence, and conditional modeling. Using a sample of Louisville high school senior girls and their mothers, we tested whether the differential presence of these processes helps to explain why higher percentages of black than white women work. Other than negative modeling for black girls whose mothers hold blue-collar jobs, both groups of girls have strong similarities, with conditional positive modeling predominating. To the extent that these racial patterns can be generalized, they predict that expanded economic opportunities for black families will reduce racial differences in rates at which mothers are employed. These and other findings suggest that at least for the near future, current family roles, in which breadwinning is primarily the husband's responsibility, are not likely to be radically altered by married women's increasing propensity to work.