The number of stay-at-home mothers rose dramatically in the US last year (2024)
Nearly a quarter of American mothers now identify as stay-at-home parents—a sharp rise from the 15% in 2022, according to a large survey of US women conducted by Motherly, an advocacy group.
The 2023 statistic—24%—means that nine percent of mothers have given up their jobs over the past year. The survey asked respondents for a primary reason in initiating this change in their job status, if they’d made such a change. The most common motivation, shared by 24% of surveyed mothers: wanting to stay home with children.
The survey’s findings also suggest that increased flexibility at work and more affordable childcare options would help women move back in to the workplace. Almost half of all the mothers surveyed (45%) said that if they wished to work in the future, affordable childcare would be necessary. And almost two-thirds (62%) said that they would need work flexibility in order to return.
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US workplaces just don’t work for mothers
As the answers suggested, many of the over 9,000 women who answered Motherly’s survey want to spend time at home with children. That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t also want a job outside the home. The reasons people choose full-time parenting over other structures are complex, taking into account money, available childcare, specific children’s needs, and what kinds of work are available.
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The US has, historically, been a culture that makes few allowances for the needs of parents, and working mothers in particular. Parental leave is not mandated, work hours tend to be long, and the state doesn’t provide free or subsidised countrywide childcare, as exists in many other countries. Unpaid domestic work tends to fall disproportionately on women.
In the survey, 67% of respondents said they pay at least $1,000 a month on childcare, and almost a third pay over $2,000 a month, enough to make a large dent in most salaries. A fifth said they were dissatisfied with the childcare they did have, and of those, almost 70% said the cost was too high.
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Women are significantly less satisfied at work too, according to data released last week by the Conference Board, a business research organization. And a global report on women at work released by Deloitte found that, in the US, a standout reason for that was lack of flexibility.
That dissatisfaction is also in evidence in Motherly’s parent-specific study. Answering the question “Which best describes your mentality around combining a career and motherhood under current circ*mstances?,” a quarter of all the women surveyed said they were “Frustrated—I want both but need a new arrangement at work to make that realistic.”
A stay-at-home mother (alternatively, stay-at-home mom or SAHM) is a mother who is the primary caregiver of the children. The male equivalent is the stay-at-home dad. The gender-neutral term is stay-at-home parent. Stay-at-home mom is distinct from a mother taking paid or unpaid parental leave from her job.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Stay-at-home_mother
almost doubled from 15 percent in 2022 to 25 percent in 2023. In addition, the SOM survey reports an increase in moms taking- on household and family responsibilities than during the height of the pandemic at 58 percent. That's up two-percent over 2022.
The share who are stay-at-home parents differs between men and women: 26% of mothers and 7% of fathers. Over the past 30 years, the share of stay-at-home parents has fluctuated, rising during periods of higher unemployment.
In 1967, 49 percent of mothers were stay-at-home mothers. That proportion steadily dropped through the decades until 1999, when only 23 percent of moms stayed at home. Since 1999, the percentage of mothers who stayed at home began to increase again, rising by 6 points to 29 percent in 2012.
Mississippi tops the list of places with the most stay-at-home parents in 2021, with 6.5% of households having one parent staying at home with their children. Delaware is second at 5.6% and Texas is third at 3.5%.
Depending on the size of the home, family, pets, and numerous other conditions, a stay-at-home parent may work upwards of 98 hours a week. According to 2019 data from Salary.com, if you are a stay-at-home parent and paid for your services, you would be looking at a median annual salary of $178,201.
Children who have a parent who stays at home may achieve better academic performance. One study found that 10th-grade children who had a parent stay at home when they were young achieved better grades in school than those who had working parents working away from home during early childhood.
The most recent study from the Pew Research Center found that approximately 20 percent of SAHMs file for divorce. A stay-at-home mom can have any number of reasons for wanting a divorce.
Salary.com estimates that a stay-at-home mom's work is worth over $184,820 annually. However, the reality is that a stay-at-home mom's compensation is a share of whatever their primary earning partner makes.
The results revealed that moms who work part-time or full-time outside of the home during their child's infancy and toddler years were happier and had stronger feelings of well-being than stay-at-home moms. Additionally, moms who worked outside of the home were healthier and happier overall.
One of the best titles for stay at home mom on your resume is Family Manager. An updated term for “homemaker,” this title does a good job of emphasizing your role of managing the daily activities of your family.
The US has, historically, been a culture that makes few allowances for the needs of parents, and working mothers in particular. Parental leave is not mandated, work hours tend to be long, and the state doesn't provide free or subsidised countrywide childcare, as exists in many other countries.
A stay-at-home mother (alternatively, stay-at-home mom or SAHM) is a mother who is the primary caregiver of the children. The male equivalent is the stay-at-home dad. The gender-neutral term is stay-at-home parent.
A different study discovered that about 17% of kids receiving childcare outside of their home had behavior problems. Being a stay-at-home parent gives you more time with your children, which can also help you identify possible behavioral or developmental challenges early on.
Among employed mothers, those with older children remained more likely to work full time than those with younger children. In 2023, 82.0 percent of employed mothers with children ages 6 to 17 worked full time compared with 77.2 percent of mothers with children under age 6.
In most families with children at home, the majority of mothers work outside the home for pay. Among married couple families, two-thirds of mothers are employed (67.3 percent), as are the nearly three-quarters of unmarried mothers (73.2 percent).
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