Working Moms May Benefit Children
媽媽在職可能對子女有利
By Claire Cain Miller

Nearly three-quarters of American mothers with children at home are employed, though that fact doesn’t necessarily make it any easier for mothers to drop a toddler at day care or miss school plays.
美國有小孩在家自己也有工作的母親，幾乎占3/4，此一事實卻未必能讓母親決定把學步中的小孩寄在托兒所，或錯過子女在學校的表演時，好過一些。

The mommy wars might seem like a relic of the 1990s, but 41 percent of adults say the increase in working mothers is bad for society, while just 22 percent say it is good, according to the Pew Research Center.
媽媽戰爭也許看似1990年代的遺跡。但丕優研究中心民調顯示，41%成年人覺得在職媽媽人數增加對社會有害，認為有利者只有22%。

Yet evidence is mounting that having a working mother has some economic, educational and social benefits for children of both sexes.
然而，愈來愈多證據顯示媽媽有工作，在經濟、教育和社會層面，對兒子和女兒都有某些好處。

That is not to say that children do not also benefit when their parents spend more time with them – they do. But we make trade-offs in how we spend our time, and research shows that children of working parents also accrue benefits.
倒不是說家長花多些時間陪伴子女就沒好處，對子女那的確有益。而是我們對如何支配時間精打細算，研究顯示父母親有工作的孩童也能獲利。

In a new study of 50,000 adults in 25 countries, daughters of working mothers completed more years of education, were more likely to be employed and in supervisory roles and earned higher incomes. Having a working mother didn’t influence the careers of sons, which researchers said was unsurprising because men were generally expected to work – but sons of working mothers did spend more time on child care and housework.
針對25國、5萬名成人的新研究，媽媽有工作的女兒受的教育程度比較高，更有可能找到工作、擔任主管職、比較高薪。媽媽有工作對兒子的事業沒有影響，研究者表示並不意外，因為男性通常被期待就業，但是媽媽有工作的兒子，的確花比較多時間顧小孩和做家事。

“Part of this working mothers’ guilt has been, ‘Oh, my kids are going to be so much better off if I stay home,’ but what we’re finding in adult outcomes is kids will be so much better off if women spend some time at work,” said Kathleen McGinn, a professor at Harvard Business School and an author of the study.
「在職媽媽的愧疚部分始終是『喔，我要是待在家，孩子們就更有出息了，』但我們在成年後的孩子身上發現的結果是，如果母親花些時間在工作上，子女長大後表現會更好，」哈佛商學院教授凱瑟琳．麥金如此表示，她也是該研究的作者之一。

“This is as close to a silver bullet as you can find in terms of helping reduce gender inequalities, both in the workplace and at home,” she said.
她說：「就協助降低職場與家庭的性別不平等而言，這可說是難得的靈丹妙藥。」

Other researchers are less confident that the data has proved such a large effect. “The problem is we don’t know how these mothers differed,” said Raquel Fernandez, an economics professor at New York University. “Was it really her mother working who did this, or was it her mother getting an education?”
其他研究人員對於調查數據是否這麼神，沒那麼有把握。「問題是我們不知道這些母親之間的差異性，」紐約大學經濟系教授拉奎．費南德茲表示。「造成結果的究竟是女孩的母親有工作，還是受過教育？」

The new study is part of a shift away from focusing on whether working mothers hurt children and toward a richer understanding of the relationship between work and family. A 2010 meta-analysis of 69 studies over 50 years found that in general, children whose mothers worked when they were young had no major learning, behavior or social problems, and tended to be high achievers in school and have less depression and anxiety. The positive effects were particularly strong for children from low-income or single-parent families; some studies showed negative effects in middle-class or two-income families.
新研究使焦點從在職媽媽對子女是否有害，轉向更加理解工作與家庭的關係。2010年一份對69項研究結果進行的整合分析發現，大體而言，母親在子女年幼時外出工作，子女沒有重大的學習、行為或社會問題，在校成績可能比較好，也比較不會憂鬱和焦慮。正面效果對於低收入戶或單親家庭的子女格外明顯；部分研究則顯示在中產階級或雙薪家庭，在職媽媽對子女有負面影響。

Ms. McGinn said parents seemed to be serving as role models. “This is our best clue that what’s happening is a real role modeling of skills that somehow conveys to you, here’s a way you can cope with the various demands of work and home,’” she said.
麥金說父母親似乎扮演角色楷模。她說：「這是我們理解角色楷模傳遞技巧的最佳線索，『這是行為的方式，那是可以應付職場和家庭不同需求的方法。』」

Across 25 countries, 69 percent of women with a working mother were employed, and 22 percent were supervisors, compared with 66 percent and 18 percent of those whose mothers stayed home. Daughters of working mothers earned 6 percent more.
在25國當中，兒時媽媽有工作的女性，69%自己也有工作，22%是主管。小時候媽媽沒工作的女性，成年後有66%就業，擔任主管者有18%。有在職媽媽的女性，薪水多6%。

Sons of working mothers in those countries spent an additional hour a week caring for family members and 17 minutes more per week on housework.
在這些國家裡面，媽媽有工作的兒子，成家後每周平均多花一小時照顧家人，每周多花17分鐘做家事。

The effect was strongest in countries in which there was a bigger divide in opinions about the role of women, like the United States and Israel, and in countries where gender attitudes were more conservative, like Russia and Mexico. It was smallest in countries where there was widespread acceptance of working women. In the United States, attitudes about working parents depend a lot on a family’s circumstances.
對女性角色民意比較分歧的國家，像是美國和以色列，以及性別態度較為保守的國家，像是俄羅斯和墨西哥，上述效果最為強烈。在普遍接受女性工作的國家，效果最不明顯。在美國，看待父母工作的態度主要取決於家庭環境。

“We found that most people believe the right decision for a family is the one that works best for them,” said Kathleen Gerson, a sociologist at New York University.
紐約大學社會學教授凱瑟琳．葛森說：「我們發現大部分的人認為，對家庭最好的決定，就是正確的決定。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/upshot/mounting-evidence-of-some-advantages-for-children-of-working-mothers.html

2015-06-09聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報十版下