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American Morning
Moms & Stress
Aired February 19, 2003 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now from Boston, the author of the study, Rosalind Barnett, the director of the Community Families and Works Institute at Brandeis University.
Good morning, Rosalind. Thanks for joining us.
So I guess if you thought you had a logical mind, you would expect that women who cut back their hours at work to be able to spend more time with their children and husbands, and that's not what you found in this study?
ROSALIND BARNETT, AUTHOR OF BRANDEIS STUDY: They did have more time, but they didn't use their time in a way that really benefited them. A lot of the women who cut back picked up more household tasks that were very stressful tasks, so they ended up losing out at work because of the way part-time jobs in America are structured, especially in the professions, women or anyone who does part-time work is not as highly valued and ended up at home doing a larger share than they had done in the past of these difficult tasks, so they ended up not doing so well in terms of how they felt about their husbands in particular.
ZAHN: Yes, I want to come back to how it impacted the marriages. But I want to put up on the screen now some of the household tasks you thought that these women who had more free time on their hands had to do -- you know, paying bills, yard work, car repairs, everything up there on the screen. What makes these tasks either stressful or not stressful?
BARNETT: Well, stressful tasks tend to be ones that have to be done at a certain point in time. When your kids are hungry and they want to be fed, it doesn't do for you to say let's wait until the weekend when I have more time. You have to stop what you're doing and take care of that. If there's no food in the house, you must stop and get the groceries bought and so forth.
So we call those low-schedule control tasks, tasks where you personally have little to do or say about when they get done. When women are at home, men are at home, too, whoever is working less, they tend to do more of those kinds of jobs and those jobs are stressful. And those jobs are stressful, and they end up having negative effects for people.
ZAHN: We're looking at a nice picture of a family of four eating dinner together.
Now the women who cut back their hours, did it improve their marriages? Did it improve their relationships with their children?
BARNETT: Well, we know more about the marriages right now. We know that mealtime, for example, is really quite a stressful time, and when women are home more, they end up doing more than meal planning, and meal preparation and cleanup than women who are working more, and than do men who are not usually at home for breakfast or dinner, or often are not at home. These women who have more free time are doing more of these kinds of tasks, and the net effect is that they're not feeling so great about their husbands.
ZAHN: So is your final piece of advice stick with the full-time job, or just understand some of the traps if you cut back on your hours?
BARNETT: Right. I think the take-away message is if you're going to cut back, you need to negotiate with your husband or your partner so that you're not doing more of these stressful tasks than he is. And if you share that up and you use your newly-found free time to do things that are leisure, and fun and fulfilling for yourself, then you may get the benefits at home that you were looking for. Otherwise, it's not much of a solution for your work family problems.
ZAHN: And of course you're talking about striking a balance that's hard whether you work or not, when it comes to parity with the spouse.
Rosalind Barnett, thank you for your time this morning.
BARNETT: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 19, 2003 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now from Boston, the author of the study, Rosalind Barnett, the director of the Community Families and Works Institute at Brandeis University.
Good morning, Rosalind. Thanks for joining us.
So I guess if you thought you had a logical mind, you would expect that women who cut back their hours at work to be able to spend more time with their children and husbands, and that's not what you found in this study?
ROSALIND BARNETT, AUTHOR OF BRANDEIS STUDY: They did have more time, but they didn't use their time in a way that really benefited them. A lot of the women who cut back picked up more household tasks that were very stressful tasks, so they ended up losing out at work because of the way part-time jobs in America are structured, especially in the professions, women or anyone who does part-time work is not as highly valued and ended up at home doing a larger share than they had done in the past of these difficult tasks, so they ended up not doing so well in terms of how they felt about their husbands in particular.
ZAHN: Yes, I want to come back to how it impacted the marriages. But I want to put up on the screen now some of the household tasks you thought that these women who had more free time on their hands had to do -- you know, paying bills, yard work, car repairs, everything up there on the screen. What makes these tasks either stressful or not stressful?
BARNETT: Well, stressful tasks tend to be ones that have to be done at a certain point in time. When your kids are hungry and they want to be fed, it doesn't do for you to say let's wait until the weekend when I have more time. You have to stop what you're doing and take care of that. If there's no food in the house, you must stop and get the groceries bought and so forth.
So we call those low-schedule control tasks, tasks where you personally have little to do or say about when they get done. When women are at home, men are at home, too, whoever is working less, they tend to do more of those kinds of jobs and those jobs are stressful. And those jobs are stressful, and they end up having negative effects for people.
ZAHN: We're looking at a nice picture of a family of four eating dinner together.
Now the women who cut back their hours, did it improve their marriages? Did it improve their relationships with their children?
BARNETT: Well, we know more about the marriages right now. We know that mealtime, for example, is really quite a stressful time, and when women are home more, they end up doing more than meal planning, and meal preparation and cleanup than women who are working more, and than do men who are not usually at home for breakfast or dinner, or often are not at home. These women who have more free time are doing more of these kinds of tasks, and the net effect is that they're not feeling so great about their husbands.
ZAHN: So is your final piece of advice stick with the full-time job, or just understand some of the traps if you cut back on your hours?
BARNETT: Right. I think the take-away message is if you're going to cut back, you need to negotiate with your husband or your partner so that you're not doing more of these stressful tasks than he is. And if you share that up and you use your newly-found free time to do things that are leisure, and fun and fulfilling for yourself, then you may get the benefits at home that you were looking for. Otherwise, it's not much of a solution for your work family problems.
ZAHN: And of course you're talking about striking a balance that's hard whether you work or not, when it comes to parity with the spouse.
Rosalind Barnett, thank you for your time this morning.
BARNETT: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
