working mother/working wife/working woman
While women represent half the global population and one-third of the labor force, they receive only one-tenth of the world income and own less than 1% of world property. They also are responsible for two-thirds of all working hours (former Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, "Report to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women"). All women work. Most often, you do not need labels to distinguish among them, nor is their sex usually relevant (sometimes it is) or the fact that they are mothers. (At work, too often men with children are men, and women with children are mothers.) Should you need to convey something specific, use a job title (programmer, lawyer, librarian, teacher, physician, electrician, farmer) or one of the following: worker, employee, employed at ..., employed outside the home/in the paid workforce, laborer, member of the labor force, wage-earner, salaried worker, job-holder. If you must specify the status of a woman who is not in a paying job, consider: woman who works as a homemaker, woman who is her own childcare giver (these first two are used by the U.S. Department of Labor), homemaker, nonsalaried/unsalaried worker/woman/mother, woman/mother who is working/employed inside the home/at home, at-home parent, home-working mother. (Lady L. McLaren pointed out in 1908, "The great majority of wives are devoting their time to unpaid work, and when the importance of the work is considered, it appears extraordinary that the services of wives have no money value placed on them.... A wife who works diligently and devotedly to the family service should be entitled to such wages of a servant or housekeeper as are usual in that station of life in which she lives and this in addition to her board.") When there are two adults and they both work, use: a two-income/two-paycheck family, two-earner/dual-career/dual-income couple/household. Avoid terms that imply a woman who cares for her children at home doesn't work; even phrases like "stays home" imply passivity. The issue of women employed outside the home seems to be such a contemporary one, yet women have always worked—and in great numbers. The 1861 census in Great Britain, for example, indicates that of the total adult female population, some 60% were salaried (Eleanor S. Riemer and John C. Fout, eds., European Women); in the late 19th century, guidebooks were written for women on how to choose an occupation or profession. Although working mothers have been criticized for destroying the traditional family, they have, on the contrary, kept millions of children from sinking below the poverty line; two-thirds of the women in the workforce today are either the sole support of their children or have husbands who earn less than a living wage. Senator Christopher J. Dodd once wrote to Ann Landers, "Ann, please keep telling your vast readership that American women haven't turned their backs on their children by entering the workforce. They have gone to work to keep their families together." See also career girl/career woman, family, housewife, housework, maternity leave, traditional family, woman's work, working poor, workman.
