Relief for working moms: A Harvard study says your kids will be better off
A new study led by a Harvard University professor found that children of working moms might be better off in a number of ways. According to their research, daughters of working moms are more likely to advance in their own careers and sons of working moms go on to spend 50 minutes more each week caring for their own families.
CBS News contributor and New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor — a working mom herself — joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss how this study really just confirms what we already intuitively know: kids of working moms will be just fine.
"The headline, in certain ways, is what actually happens to the sons of working mothers because it turns out that this has a transformative effect on their lives. Not so much on their employment but on their personal lives, on who they choose as a partner and the time they spend in their own household and with their own kids," Kantor said.
The study tracks a generational change in which women have flooded into the workplace out of necessity. Working is simply another way of providing for your kids.
Asked about "mom guilt" by co-host Gayle King, Kantor said this study should offer women some relief. She said her own reporting shows men actually feel much more guilty about leaving their kids.
"This is a generation reared on paternity leave and the men I interview in the workplace they feel a real tug to be with their children as well," she said.
The most important message of the study, according to Kantor, is how having a working mom affects gender equality. Kids who grow up with working moms "tend to conduct much more equitable home lives when they become adults."