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An article in The Economist, Female Power: Women in the Workforce, states, “The economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years.”  Women all over the world have entered the workforce in record numbers.Despite women’s greater participation in the workforce, most men have yet to increase their share of domestic duties. This means that the majority of working mothers are also responsible for housework and looking after their children.

Being a ‘devoted mother’ is not easy. It is more than a full-time job. A full-time job lasts only for 8 or 9 hours whereas a mother’s job lasts 24 hours, 7 days a week. There are no holidays or leaves. But of late, this most important job is becoming the least valued job.

In a new book, The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued, author Ann Crittenden looks at how a lack of social supports for modern moms forces them to make bitter choices
Crittenden’s research shows that despite the overall advancement of women, mothers’ work remains unappreciated in an economic sense, even though moms are cultivating “human capital.” Raising productive citizens directly contributes to the overall health of the economy and wealth of the society.But in our modern culture, “mothering” is substantially, but not uniquely, a woman’s role.

According to Prof Kerryn Phelps, the traditional notion of the family has been expanded beyond the restricted definition of a nuclear biological family to include step-families, blended families, single parents, gay parents, international adoption and surrogacy.It is not a rocket science. What children need in order to flourish is a safe, loving home environment. And central to that is the mother of all roles: mothering.

When this role is neglected, even to the slightest degree, you end up with a ‘feral generation’, a generation of violent, illiterate young men who live outside the boundaries of civilised society and who pose a threat to the established social order. Even the government has no idea how to deal with them. The world’s cities are overun by this class, jails are bursting at the seams and nobody has any clue on how to fix this problem.
A good place to start would be home.