And more than half have felt discriminated against or penalised for having more children.
More than half of large-family mothers (56%) have felt discriminated against or penalised at some point in their lives for having more children and 51% believe that this circumstance – having more children – has made it more difficult for them to find employment. This is according to a survey of almost 800 mothers of large families, carried out by the Spanish Federation of Large Families (FEFN) to find out how they experience motherhood and what difficulties and needs these mothers have.
On the occasion of Mother’s Day, which is celebrated next Sunday, the FEFN wants to highlight the value of motherhood and call for greater social recognition that translates into real support for families, in this case focusing on mothers, who are the ones who suffer most from social and employment discrimination because of their children and who take on the most childcare and household tasks. ‘Mothers make a fundamental contribution to society and cannot pay a high price for this in the form of lost opportunities, overwork and the mental burden of not being able to do everything’, emphasises the vice-president of the FEFN, Encarni Álvarez.
The survey, carried out among 759 women with two or more children, shows that, in the eyes of the women themselves, motherhood is not valued or recognised by society, according to 86% of the mothers: 47% of them believe that society values motherhood ‘very little’ and 39% believe that it is ‘not valued at all’. It also reflects the workload they take on in caring for their children and family, their difficulties in getting everything done and the constraints they face in terms of time and money when it comes to combining work and family.
Economic factor
According to the sample collected by the FEFN, the majority of mothers of large families work outside the home (79%), 29% recognise that they do so for economic reasons, as ‘we need to have two salaries to cover all our needs’, although the majority, 49%, point to a double motive: economic and because ‘I do not consider not carrying out a professional activity’. Similarly, many women (40%) say that they enjoy spending time with their children, but ‘I would not stop working outside the home, I prefer to combine work and family’, while 43% say that they would stay at home to be able to look after their children personally and devote more time to them, but they know that ‘it is unfeasible for economic reasons’.
More work on a day-to-day basis
Of all the mothers who work outside the home, 59% do so full-time and 20% part-time, with a timetable more compatible with family needs, which are many in families with children and which fall more on women, according to their own opinion: 3 out of 4 mothers (76%) are clear that it is they who take on more work in the day-to-day care of the children and the home, although half of the mothers (51%) recognise that in large families there is a more equal distribution.
Within all the work, the biggest daily challenge for mothers of large families is the ‘family logistics: shopping, meals, washing machines, tutoring, paediatricians…’, according to 38%; followed by work-life balance, a complicated issue for 22% of mothers who say that ‘working outside the home, it is difficult to combine work and family schedules’.
Financial support and work-life balance
The survey makes it clear that financial support and work-life balance are the two issues most needed by families and, in particular, by mothers. Fifty-one percent call for direct aid ‘to be able to meet the needs of work-life balance with solutions tailored to each individual’ and 39% call for ‘real measures for work-life balance, within everyone’s reach, such as paid leave’.
The FEFN also insists on this, recalling the need for greater recognition of motherhood with specific measures, some of which have been on the table for years, such as ‘the universal childcare allowance or paid leave, which, if not accompanied by pay, is not an option for most families, as a very high percentage cannot afford to lose income, as is clear from the survey’, explains the vice-president.
Encarni Álvarez stresses that “children are an asset for society, women who decide to become mothers are contributing an asset to society as a whole and should have the same opportunities as the rest. They should be compensated for what motherhood entails, taking into account the social contribution they are making in the form of human capital and for the work of caring for dependents (minors and the elderly), which is mostly assumed by them”.