Meaning of Study Finding Married Working Moms Healthiest

A British study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health examines health and obesity in women in four major groups: married working mothers, homemakers, single mothers, and childless women. It focuses on 2,000 women born in 1946 and their health and obesity at ages 26 and 54.

As a group, women who were married, mothers, and worked outside the home were healthier and less likely to be heavyset in middle age than homemakers, single moms or childless women.

According to Reuters, “The researchers found that women who had been homemakers most of their lives were most likely to report poor health, followed by single mothers and childless women. Homemakers tended to gain weight more quickly and had the highest rate of obesity at 38 percent while women who were employees, wives and mothers had the lowest.”

One point that needs making is that the design of the study may contain a certain “fat-phobia.” It appears to make the assumption that slenderness is positive while heaviness is negative. This attitude is both part of, and a contributor to, continuing prejudice against the heavy. An individual’s weight is a product of many factors including the genetic and chemical.

However, it is true that being fat can contribute to health problems and is a condition people may legitimately wish to avoid. Thus, the finding that women who are wives, mothers, and pursue other jobs have lower rates of weight gain than others is significant.

Some people will instantly cry, “Feminist agenda!” when they learn the findings of this study – overlooking the fact that it indicates that wed moms are healthier than single ones and that moms are healthier than childless ladies.

To understand what this study means, we must first say what it does not mean. It does not mean that women who are happy (or even not-so-happy) as homemakers should instantly rush off to get paid work and leave their children with babysitters or in day care centers or even with their fathers. It does not mean that married women who wish to quit work for fulltime homemaking should alter their plans.

Nor does it mean that childless women should have kids. Although this writer believes that it is best for children to be born within stable and committed relationships, the study does not even mean that single moms should grab the first willing man for a trip down the aisle or to a justice of the peace.

So what does this study indicate? That homemakers are more likely to put on pounds is probably due to something they have in common with writers and others who work from home: proximity to the fridge and cabinet. Anyone who works from home might be well advised to pay extra attention to his or her diet as we have more opportunity to snack during the day than other workers.

On a deeper level, this study may mean that there is much to be said for diversification of interests and roles. Putting one’s eggs in multiple baskets is likely to leave a person feeling successful and competent at something, even if things are hitting a snag in another area. It is also possible that having diversified roles means being less likely to become obsessive about any one of them.

Superficially it seems that women who are wives and mothers and also tackle paid work are following patterns typically followed by men who are usually husbands, fathers, and employed outside of the home.

But they are not. The married mother’s success or failure in her paid job does not determine her success or failure as a wife or mom. On the other hand, men often consider themselves to have failed their wives and children if they are inadequate breadwinners. Thus, a man’s success or failure in the workplace determines success or failure in the home. His eggs are all in one basket.

Women have the privilege of true diversification because their roles as wives, mothers, and workers are separate. To improve the lives of men, we must find ways to make their roles of husbands, fathers, and workers independent of each other and so extend this privilege of diversification to them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2006 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. | 1 views | Trackback | Print this page |

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