PEER EVALUATIONS OF HOMEMAKER-MOTHERS AND WORKING MOTHERS

This study examined the ratings made of a stimulus woman who chose either a traditional or nontraditional mothering role and either a high or low level of family income, as judged by women who themselves were homemaker-mothers or working mothers. Ninety-six women, half traditional-role homemaking mothers and half nontraditional-role working mothers, served as subjects. Participants read one of four scripts depicting the fictional mother, wrote a brief description of her, and then rated her on three pencil-and-paper measures. A factor analysis revealed that the responses clustered along four dimensions: Motherliness, Interpersonal Attractiveness, Level of Conflict, and Evaluation. The results indicated that the similarity or difference between the stimulus woman's role choice and the evaluator's (participant's) own choice strongly affects the nature of the judgments made about the stimulus woman. A woman who chose a similar role was rated significantly more positively than one who chose a dissimilar role. Characteristics of the stimulus woman herself (her role choice or income level) had much less impact on the evaluations. The traditional and nontraditional roles were not evaluated differently in general, though the traditional-role mother was judged to be somewhat higher on Motherliness than the nontraditional-role mother. The income level of the stimulus woman did not differentially affect the nature of the judgments.