Full-Time Mothering

Emergence of Full-Time Mothering

The child-rearing approach known as full-time mothering emerged in the United States as the economy transitioned from agrarian to industrial. Prior to the industrialization of the U.S. economy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was no distinction between the public world of work and the private realm of the home. Work and family were intricately connected as the entire family engaged in the work necessary for the survival of the family, including children who took up tasks as soon as they were able. Childhood as we know it today did not exist; the prevailing view of the time was of children as miniature adults. Children were not considered a separate category from adults; therefore, there was no need for full-time mothering. Child rearing was not a distinct set of tasks; it was performed by parents as they did their daily work. Though mothers and fathers performed separate tasks, they both participated in the care of children and trained them in gender-specific work at young ages.

With the industrial economy emerged the distinction between the private sphere of the family and the public sphere of work. In 1900, men made up over 80 percent of the paid workforce, leading to the social definition of work as masculine and the home as feminine. As work and family evolved into separate spheres, childhood was redefined as a distinct developmental stage. Children were viewed as necessitating a full-time caregiver, a role for which women were viewed as naturally suited. This new definition of childhood justified the existence of the private family and established full-time mothering as the gold star standard for proper child rearing.

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