Working moms who think they can do it all should accept the fact they can not, the author of a new study says. "Women are sold a story that they can do it all, but most workplaces are still designed for employees without child-care responsibilities," Katrina Leupp, a University of Washington sociology graduate student who led the study, said in a statement. Juggling home and work lives requires some sacrifices such as cutting back on work hours and getting husbands to help more, she said.
Leupp's study showed that working mothers who are convinced that work and home lives can be blended with relative ease showed more depression symptoms than working moms who expected that they would have to forego some aspects of their career or parenting to achieve a work-life balance. "You can happily combine child rearing and a career if you're willing to let some things slide," Leupp said.
The results are based on responses from 1,600 women, all 40 years old and married, from across the US. The participants, a mix of stay-at-home moms and working mothers, answered questions about work-life balance by ranking how much they agreed with statements such as "A woman who fulfills her family responsibilities doesn't have time for a job outside the home," "Working wives lead to more juvenile delinquency," and "A woman is happiest if she can stay at home with her children."Leupp will present her study Aug. 21 at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Las Vegas.