A backlash against the way their mothers worked?
This chapter explores the idea that one should expect a backlash from the daughters against wanting to work as long hours as their mothers due to having seen their mothers try to ‘have it all’, or because of how they feel their mothers' working hours impacted upon them. The research did not find much evidence to support this notion of a backlash. The chapter then looks at other research which argues that mothers working long hours experience greater work–life conflict in the context of societal expectations that women should work part-time when they have primary school-age children. The implication of the existing research is that mothers may have transmitted feelings of stress to their daughters. On the other hand, other recent research has focused on the effect on children of maternal employment.