Sarah Palin as a Working Mother

Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin pulls people in many directions in terms of her views on a variety of issues. But, one of the most talked about matters is her dual role as a parent and working mother, particularly since she is the mother of a newborn.

There is no shortage of opinions about Palin as a mother, parent or politician. A Google search of the terms "Sarah Palin and working mother" produces more than 32,000 hits in the blogosphere alone.

The debate over whether a woman should work or not is as active today as ever. However, the notion of a working mother has evolved. Today, few people might question the notion of a woman working as being an available option, particularly in difficult economic times. Or do they? In a Pew Research Center study that examined the period from 1997 to 2007, full-time work outside the home was discovered to be less appealing to mothers (a response that was the same for mothers who have outside-the-home jobs and those who don't). According to the study, only 21 percent say full-time work is acceptable for them, down 11 percent since 1997, and 60 percent say they'd prefer part-time work, compared to 48 percent who said that in 1997.

Even when they do work, women are often criticized - something Governor Palin is all too familiar with.

A 2004 study published in the Journal of Social Issues suggested that working mothers are viewed as either a homemaker-type, meaning warm but incompetent, or a professional type, meaning competent but cold and ruthless. It's of little surprise that men don't suffer from the same stereotypes, according to the study. The negativity by which working mothers are viewed is echoed by a study published this year in the Journal of Education Policy that found that during the 1990s, as the employment rate of mothers with young children rose, fewer mothers themselves believed that their pre-school children suffered as a result of having a working mother. However, the research suggested that others often defined working mothers as poor mothers.