A Growing Constituency For The View That Going To Work Isn't So Ideal

When increasing numbers of women express a preference for staying at home vs. going to work, it’s interpreted as a resurgence in traditional female domesticity. When increasing numbers of men voice the same preference, it’s seen as a repudiation of traditional gender roles. Little attention is given to the possibility that many Americans of both sexes just don’t think work is as much fun as the modern alternatives.

Whatever people’s motives might be, Gallup polling finds women and men more apt to prefer the home life than they did at the start of this decade.