The effects of children and employment status on the volunteer work of American women

Abstract

Competing demands from work and family make it difficult for women to do volunteer work. An analysis of data from the Young Women's Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey (1978-1991) shows that homemakers are more likely to volunteer than are full-time workers, followed by part-time workers. Mothers of school-age children are the most likely to volunteer, followed by childless women and mothers of young children. Mothers of school-age children are even more likely to volunteer if they are homemakers, and mothers of pre-school children are even less likely to volunteer if they work full-time. © 2007 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.