McQuillan Julia, Greil Arthur L, Scheffler Karina M, Tichenor Veronica
University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
Gend Soc. 2008 Aug 1;22(4):477-496. doi: 10.1177/0891243208319359.
We contribute to feminist and gender scholarship on cultural notions of motherhood by analyzing the importance of motherhood among mothers and non-mothers. Using a national probability sample (N = 2,519) of U.S. women ages 25-45, we find a continuous distribution of scores measuring perceptions of the importance of motherhood among both groups. Employing OLS multiple regression, we examine why some women place more importance on motherhood, focusing on interests that could compete with valuing motherhood (e.g., education, work success, leisure), and controlling for characteristics associated with becoming a mother. Contrary to cultural schemas that view mother and worker identities as competing, we find that education level is not associated with the importance of motherhood for either group and that valuing work success is positively associated with valuing motherhood among mothers. Consistent with feminist explanations for delayed fertility, valuing leisure is negatively associated with valuing motherhood for non-mothers.
我们通过分析母亲和非母亲群体中母亲身份的重要性，为关于母亲身份文化观念的女性主义和性别研究做出贡献。利用一个全国概率样本（N = 2519），样本为年龄在25至45岁之间的美国女性，我们发现两组人群中衡量对母亲身份重要性认知的分数呈连续分布。运用普通最小二乘法多元回归，我们探究为何一些女性更看重母亲身份，重点关注可能与重视母亲身份相竞争的兴趣（如教育、工作成就、休闲），并控制与成为母亲相关的特征。与将母亲身份和工作身份视为相互竞争的文化模式相反，我们发现教育水平与两组人群中母亲身份的重要性均无关联，并且重视工作成就与母亲群体中重视母亲身份呈正相关。与女性主义对生育推迟的解释一致，重视休闲与非母亲群体中重视母亲身份呈负相关。
