ABSTRACT
Though the employed mother is a norm today (Zill 1991), many mothers are in conflict concerning their roles as worker and mother. Historically, women have participated in productive labor concurrently with child-bearing and child-rearing (Rossi 1977). It is only recently that the Industrial Revolution has created an economy that allows some women to be full-time mothers. In contemporary American society, women feel pressure to stay at home and raise their children and to enter the labor force (McCartney and Phillips 1988). This return to the labor force, after the birth of their infant, is often compelled by a financial need (Owen and Cox 1988).
