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Survey shows 'super-mum' backlash
7 August 2008
Despite years of the gender equality movement, most men and women in the UK now feel having a career woman as a mother is bad for the family.
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A Cambridge University study found that more people now think a woman's place is in the home looking after her family.
The research was conducted over a 30-year period and reveals that the attitudes of both men and women are changing.
According to the study, more people feel that a woman who has a successful career will forfeit her chances of being a successful mother and having a successful family.
Research conducted in the mid-1990s showed that 50 per cent of women and 51 per cent of men did not think the quality of family life would be negatively affected by a mother going out to work.
However, this had fallen to 42 per cent of men and 26 per cent of women in the most recent survey.
Professor Jacqueline Scott, who led the study at the Department of Sociology at Cambridge, said the idea that more people now think a woman should pursue a career instead of a good family life is "a myth".
She said: "Instead, there is clear evidence that women's changing role is viewed as having costs both for the woman and the family.
"It is conceivable that opinions are shifting as the shine of the 'super-mum' syndrome wears off, and the idea of women juggling high-powered careers while also baking cookies and reading bedtime stories is increasingly seen to be unrealisable by ordinary mortals."
Her research also showed that most women no longer believe they have to forge a successful career to have financial and social independence.
Nearly 65 per cent of female respondents in 1991 said having a job was the best way a woman could guarantee her independence.
However, this has now dropped by 11 per cent to 54 per cent, according to the new study.
While she recognised her study was significant, Professor Scott ad
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