Employment for mothers of pre-school children: evidence from Australia and 23 other nations

Seventy one per cent of Australian mothers think that mothers should not work when their children are of pre-school age and only two per cent think that they should work full time. Though 12 per cent of such mothers actually worked full-time during most of the time their children were under school age, some of them may have been working longer hours than they would have liked and 62 per cent in fact stayed at home through most of this stage of life. Family policy should reflect the diversity of preferences among parents of young children, but as most prefer full-time homemaking this is the option that should be given pride of place. Copyright. Monash University and the author/