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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Barbara Klein. Can a mother work outside the home and still take good
care of her children? This question has long been the subject of debate in
American society.
VOICE ONE:
And this week on our program, we examine the latest developments.
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VOICE TWO:
On a television talk show, two women look at one another with hostile eyes.
One says she knows the right way to be a mother. No, the other says SHE knows
the right way to be a mother.
The first one says a good mother stays home to take care of her children. The
other woman says a good mother helps her family by earning money. She says a
full-time working mother makes her time with her children more meaningful
because there is less of it.
"Impossible!?",the first one shouts. Voices rise. And so goes a unusually
heated example of what some people call the mommy wars. Even that name incites
reaction. Some find it insulting for such a serious subject.
The debate is emotional and deeply personal. The arguments involve issues of
equality, fairness and economic realities. They also involve struggles with
guilt and inner conflict as parents try to decide what is best for their
children.
VOICE ONE:
In America, seven out of ten mothers have paid jobs, either full time or part
time. These include more than half of women with babies or young children.
As many as twelve million children of working mothers are
too young for school. Two million of them in a recent year spent most of their
parents' workdays in day care
centers. Other children receive individual care, either in
their own home or someone else's.
Some are cared for by family members, and many go to a combination of places.
In some families where both parents work, they organize their jobs so that one
parent is always home.
VOICE TWO:
On one side of the debate are women who say mothers should not work,
especially when their children are very young. They say there are many good
reasons why raising a child should be a mother's full-time job. For one thing,
they say, children in day care are more likely to get sick.
Some studies support their opinions, but others do not.
On the other side of the debate are mothers who say day care helps children
learn social skills. They point out that early education programs in many day
care centers also help prepare children for school. And they note that some
medical studies show that day care helps children develop resistance, so they
get sick less often as they get older.
VOICE ONE:
Half a century ago, few American mothers with little children worked away
from home. But over the years, many families found they needed two earners to
pay for their houses, cars and other costs of living.
The women’s liberation movement in the 1960s and 70s also
changed American life. More and more young women were college educated.
Influential feminists like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan urged them to put
their knowledge and skills to work outside the home.
Today, half of mothers with babies under a year old return to work within the
first six months. Some say no one would ever question a man's desire to succeed
as an individual. But others have no choice. Their husbands do not earn enough
to support the family. Or their husbands have no job. Or they have no husband.
The poorer the family, the greater the pressure on the mother to work.
Women with more money can face a different kind of
pressure: social pressure. Some people condemn them if they want to work. Yet
others condemn them if they want to be traditional homemakers
.
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VOICE TWO:
Some commentators say the media are fueling the idea of "mommy wars" because
it makes a good story. But whatever they call it, this is a subject that women,
and men, discuss on talk shows. They write about it in newspapers, magazines and
Web sites. There are books on the subject. These include Beth Brykman's “The
Wall Between Women: The Conflict Between Stay-at-Home and Employed
Mothers.?nbsp;
Businesswoman and writer Leslie Morgan Steiner edited a book in which
twenty-six women describe their lives as mothers. The book is called "Mommy
Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their
Families".
VOICE ONE:
Carol Evans is founder of Working Mother Media, which publishes Working
Mother magazine. She notes that many women with young children find different
solutions in their lives. Some telecommute to their jobs from home by computer,
fax machine or even just a telephone. Others work just part time. And some leave
their jobs for years to raise their children.
Business schools at Harvard and other universities have created educational
programs to help prepare women to re-enter the working world.
VOICE TWO:
If that is their choice. There have been recent stories about young women at
top universities who say they want to become stay-at-home mothers.
Employment of women with babies under one year
dropped in the most recent period reported by the Census Bureau. The
rate decreased from fifty-nine percent in 1998 to fifty-five percent in 2002. The
Census Bureau said this was the first recorded drop since it began to keep
these records in 1976.
A new mother from Bethesda, Maryland, left a good job at a bank to raise
her child. That was in 2000. "Children are only young once," she says.
VOICE ONE:
Sometimes, though, mothers who decide to stay home find the change
surprisingly difficult.
In 1987, a postal worker named Joanne Brundage left her job
to become a stay-at-home mother. Soon she felt lonely. She wanted to talk to
other mothers. But most were working. So she formed a support group for mothers
who had left the workplace.
Today, her organization Mothers & More has seven thousand members around
the country. They work not only to improve the lives of mothers. They also try
to educate other people about the value of the work that mothers do.
Other groups for mothers include Mothers of Preschoolers. MOPS has members in
the United States and more than thirty other countries.
VOICE TWO:
Joanne Brundage made her own decision to leave her job after she became a
mother. Some women, however, have that decision made for them: mothers who lose
their jobs or their chances at better jobs. This is illegal, if a woman can
prove that her employer violated her civil rights.
Many new mothers and fathers take time off under a federal law, the
Family and Medical Leave Act. It lets an employee take up to twelve weeks a year
of unpaid leave for a number of family or medical reasons. Congress targeted
this 1993 law to employers with fifty or more workers. But many
smaller employers also offer unpaid family leave.
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VOICE ONE:
Research shows that married women who work still do much of the housework for
their families. Salary.com wanted to put a dollar value on all the work that
mothers do.
So the Web site asked women to identify their ten most important jobs at
home. These include housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook and computer
operator. Other jobs include washing the clothes and acting as the family driver
and mental health specialist.
Salary.com said that together these ten jobs would normally pay more
than 130 thousand dollars a year.
VOICE TWO:
Stay-at-home mothers point out that they avoid many of the costs that often
reduce the earnings of working mothers. Child care services can add up to
thousands of dollars a year. Working families also have less time to prepare
their own meals, so they eat out more.
A young mother of two in Alexandria, Virginia, works in a hospital far from
her home. She says she could not do her job and manage her family without the
services now offered for busy people. Her life is too busy, she admits. But she
also says that the money she earns makes life more pleasant for her family.
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VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I'm
Barbara Klein.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Steve Ember. You can read and listen to our shows at
voaspecialenlgish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA
Special English.
day care :
日托
homemaker : 家庭主婦
（來(lái)源：VOA 英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
