The Tyranny of Modern Motherhood? Motherhood, Competing Time Use, and Environmental Practices

• In Event: 046 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Race, Class, Gender, and the Environment

Abstract

Studies of gender and environmentalism have found that women have higher levels of environmental concern with mixed data on levels of participation in environmental activities and a significant attitude-behavior gap. We argue that this is due to the narrow list of environmental behaviors that have been measured and that different kinds of environmental practices are enabled and constrained by differing gendered social institutions. We explore this by investigating how the gendered social institution of motherhood interacts with biographical availability factors to influence environmental practices. We hypothesize that expectations around pro-environmental behaviors that constitute being a “good mother”, particularly in keeping children safe from potential harms of all forms, will translate to higher levels of environmental consciousness in women with children and higher frequencies of certain risk reducing activities (some “green”, and some not). We expect that biographical availability, as measured by paid work time and commute and resources, will also influence environmental practices. These hypotheses about the way motherhood may be influencing environmental practices are tested using survey data collected from an on-line survey in February 2013 (N=1001). The findings so far indicate that women with children actually look more like men when it comes to their ecological consciousness. Mothers report being less likely to purchase an efficient vehicle. They cite safety more often and gas use less often as considerations. Further analysis will be presented analyzing the role of economic and time resources in the undertaking of a variety of environmental practices and how they interact with parental status.

Authors

• Rachael Leah Shwom, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers

• Lori Beth Baralt, California State University-Long Beach

• Norah MacKendrick, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers