Politics & Government

Mothers on the Campaign Trail

Area politicians share fond memories of mom.

Though the identity of “mom” has changed over the past century – and beyond – the importance of the woman who gives us all life is resolute.

Everyone has his or her idea of the perfect mother, says Michele Hoffnung, Ph. D. and professor of philosophy at Quinnipiac University.  

“We all think we should know what a mother should be,” says Hoffnung. “There’s a lot of mythology with that concept.”

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North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda’s mother, who is now 82 years old, seems to fit the classic image of the stay-at-home mother.

“The memories that are crystal clear in my mind are coming home from school … her always having meals on the table, the house in immaculate condition, clothes always washed,” says Freda. “As I look back I didn’t really appreciate it in those years but I certainly appreciate it now.”

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Still, Hoffnung says the conventional image of the stay-at-home mother only tells half the story.

“If you look back to the colonial period when the woman ran the household … when they were needed, they helped outside, too,” says Hoffnung.

Then, as the decades passed and more women began pursuing or continuing careers after childbirth, a term called the “second shift” was born to define the hours spent on “motherly” chores before and after and in addition to a mother’s workday, says the Quinnipiac professor. She says this includes time spent preparing lunches, ironing clothing, cleaning the house, etc.

“If a mother is a full-time employed woman and a father is a homemaker, mom is still mom when she comes home,” she says.

A lot of Hoffnung’s research involves the study of this “second shift.”

Since 1993, she has been tracking the progress of 200 women, starting when they were college seniors. The goal of the study is to uncover the best way to arrange a life that combines being a mother and having a career, says Hoffnung.

Now most of the women have children, she says, adding that half of the mothers continued with their professions and half have either reduced employment to part time or volunteering.

“Women that choose to be working [full time] say it’s better to have the distance,” Hoffnung says. “Women who choose to stay home think the opposite.”

She says the next step in her research is to analyze potential factors that might have led to a woman’s decision to continue or alter her career path after childbirth.

Regardless of those findings, Hoffnung says past research has concluded that a motherless child is less likely to have a routine and more likely to have health and educational problems because the loss is “so psychologically disruptive” to a child.

East Haven Mayor April Capone says her mother helped her become the person she is today, that being the first woman elected to the office of mayor in East Haven.

“Growing up throughout my entire life my mother could not be bullied, she could not be intimidated,” says Capone. “She set a great example for me.” 


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