Mothers should give up work, survey finds

5 May 2005

MADRID – Almost half of all Spaniards believe women should give up work after they have had a child, a survey found.

Forty-five percent think women should abandon work altogether and stay at home to care for the child.

A third said mothers should work less hours once they have a child, according to the study by the Observatory for Equal Opportunities between Men and Women. 

But Rosa Peris, director of the institute which carried out the study, believes attitudes like this show the fundamental barriers between combining working and domestic life lay in traditional role models which are assigned to women.

Peris said these attitudes existed despite more women working.

“The labour market is designed by and for men and not for women even if we want to, can, or should assume this double role of work and home life,” she added.

She said workers and businessmen still had the same attitude that they should find some compromise for this problem instead of seeing it as an opportunity to be exploited.

The study found that 41 percent of those questioned believed finding a compromise to bring women into the labour market could harm competitiveness.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news