A recently-released survey of American employees showed that 41 percent believe it’s better if the “man earns the money and the woman takes care of the home and children.” This figure, downplayed by writers of the report as evidence of weak support for traditional roles, is strikingly high given the constant veneration of career women in the press and the historically high numbers of women in the workforce. Many more people than is generally acknowledged lack confidence in the current model for family life.    

Surveys that examine the effects of the cultural revolution of the last 100 years rarely take into account the full significance of the changes, and often blatantly downplay them. This report by the Families and Work Institute, funded in part by IBM, is no exception, presenting with rosy optimism figures that confirm the popularity of the dual-income model. A majority of the respondents, for instance, said that a mother who is employed outside the home can have “just as good a relationship” with her children as a woman at home, implying that the most important thing about the parent-child bond is the personal satisfaction it gives to parents.  

The report confirms the growing feminism of men, but concludes that men still endorse traditional sex roles in higher numbers than women. While 80 percent of the women who responded said working women can have just as good a relationship with their children as mothers at home, only 67 percent of men did.

A staggering 25 percent of women now earn ten percent or more than their husbands, according to figures included in the report. In 1920, less than one in ten married women worked outside the home.

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