Jodi Kantor Quotes Harvard Study: Children With Working Moms Grow Up To Succeed In Life
Jodi Kantor Image by Getty Images
New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor and her colleague Megan Twohey have gone where no man or women has gone before. The daring mother of two and her workmate exposed Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault scandal through incriminating exposés, sparking the #MeToo movement. It came as no surprise when they both won a Pulitzer Prizefor their reporting on Weinstein’s story.
What still comes as a shock is how the best-selling Jewish author juggles both motherhood and working at a major publication. This morning, Kantor appeared on CBS speaking about working parenthood. But there was one catch: Ironically, she had told the producers that she didn’t have someone to watch her toddler, Violet, while she was on air. Kantor tweeted: “Bring Violet said the producers at CBS This Morning when I told them I didn’t have childcare.”
The study showed that 71% of employed women in the US have children 18 years and younger and that daughters of working moms are more likely to advance in their own careers. If sons of working moms start a family, they spend 50 minutes more each week caring for them.
“In some ways, it intuitively has confirmed what we’ve already known in our own lives — which is these kids turn out just fine, but the headline in certain ways is what happens to the sons of working mothers because it turns out that this has a transformative effect in their lives. Not so much in their employment, but in who they choose as a partner and the time they spend in their own household with their own kids,” she said.
There’s no denying that mother’s guilt is very real, but Kantor explains that women who have to work to provide for their family are still caring for their children when they are out working, but in a different way. Mother’s guilt aside, she makes sure to speak of “parent guilt,” — a term we’re not accustoming to hearing.
“Parent guilt is so real, so much of gender progress is about equitably sharing both the joys and burden in our life. Men feel a real guilt leaving their children, even more so now that parental leave is on the rise,” she explained.
She ended the segment by saying: “There’s no evidence or deleterious effect on who they become.” We can hear working mothers all across the globe audibly breathing a sigh of relief.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
