Meaning of Study Finding Married Working Moms Healthiest
- From: "MCP" <gf010w5035@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 07:03:53 GMT
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/05/25/meaning-of-study-finding-married-working-moms-healthiest/
May 25, 2006
Vox Populi
By Denise Noe
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.
Posted in Vox Populi at 4:33 pm by Denise Noe | Permalink |
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