The knowledge that for women in middle adulthood, multiple roles can tie in with well-being should help younger women who are stru...ggling with the pressures of small children and a job, and who may be tempted to abandon or severely curtail their career goals.... The woman who manages to hang onto her career may be in for some stress in her younger years when the pulls and tugs of family and career can be intense, but if she can persist, her chances for much smoother sailing in her mature years seem very good.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One of the most important findings to come out of our research is that being where you want to be is good for you. We found a very... strong correlation between preferring the role you are in and well-being. The homemaker who is at home because she likes that "job," because it meets her own desires and needs, tends to feel good about her life. The woman at work who wants to be there also rates high in well-being.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When men and women across the country reported how happy they felt, researchers found that jugglers were happier than others. By a...nd large, the more roles, the greater the happiness. Parents were happier than nonparents, and workers were happier than nonworkers. Married people were much happier than unmarried people. Married people were generally at the top of the emotional totem pole.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Having an identity at work separate from an identity at home means that the work role can help absorb some of the emotional shock ...of domestic distress. Even a mediocre performance at the office can help a person repair self-esteem damaged in domestic battles.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Combining paid employment with marriage and motherhood creates safeguards for emotional well-being. Nothing is certain in life, bu...t generally the chances of happiness are greater if one has multiple areas of interest and involvement. To juggle is to diminish the risk of depression, anxiety, and unhappiness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Juggling produces both practical and psychological benefits.... A woman's involvement in one role can enhance her functioning in a...nother. Being a wife can make it easier to work outside the home. Being a mother can facilitate the activities and foster the skills of the efficient wife or of the effective worker. And employment outside the home can contribute in substantial, practical ways to how one works within the home, as a spouse and as a parent.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If we confine ourselves to one life role, no matter how pleasant it seems at first, we starve emotionally and psychologically. We ...need a change and balance in our daily lives. We need sometimes to dress up and sometimes to lie around in torn jeans. . . . Even a grimy factory can afford some relief from a grimy kitchen and vice versa.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Work is a responsibility most adults assume, a burden at times, a complication, but also a challenge that, like children, requires... enormous energy and that holds the potential for qualitative, as well as quantitative, rewards. Isn't this the only constructive perspective for women who have no choice but to work? And isn't it a more healthy attitude for women writhing with guilt because they choose to compound the challenges of motherhood with work they enjoy?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
True balance requires assigning realistic performance expectations to each of our roles. True balance requires us to acknowledge t...hat our performance in some areas is more important than in others. True balance demands that we determine what accomplishments give us honest satisfaction as well as what failures cause us intolerable grief.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »