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Not only are working mothers multitasking more frequently than working fathers, but their multitasking experience is more negative as well, according to a new study [American Sociological Review, 76 (6): 809-33].

"Gender differences in multitasking are not only a matter of quantity but, more importantly, quality," said lead author Shira Offer, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. "Our findings provide support for the popular notion that women are the ultimate multitaskers and suggest that the emotional experience of multitasking is very different for mothers and fathers."

Working mothers spend about 10 more hours per week multitasking than working fathers - 48.3 hours per week for moms compared to 38.9 for dads.

"This suggests that working mothers are doing two activities at once more than two-fifths of the time they are awake, while working fathers are multitasking more than a third of their waking hours," said study coauthor Barbara Schneider, PhD, professor in the College of Education and Department of Sociology at Michigan State University.

But an even bigger issue than the time discrepancy is the difference in the way multitasking makes working mothers and fathers feel.

"There is a considerable disparity in the quality of the multitasking experience for working moms and dads," Dr. Offer said. "Multitasking is a negative experience for mothers on the whole, whereas it is not for fathers. Only mothers report negative emotions and feeling stressed and conflicted when they multitask at home and in public settings. By contrast, multitasking in these contexts is a positive experience for fathers."

The study relied on data from the 500 Family Study, a multi-method investigation of how middle class families balance family and work experiences. The study collected comprehensive information from 1999 to 2000 on families living in eight urban and suburban communities across the United States. Most parents in the study are highly educated and employed in professional occupations. On average, they work longer hours and report higher earnings than middle class families in other nationally representative samples. Although the 500 Family Study is not a representative sample of families in the United States, it reflects one of the most time-pressured segments of the population.

The Offer-Schneider study used a subsample of 368 mothers and 241 fathers in dual-earner families from the 500 Family Study. The researchers said their study shows that at least some of the difference in the way multitasking makes working mothers and fathers feel is related to the types of activities they perform.

"When they multitask at home, for example, mothers are more likely than fathers to engage in housework or child care activities, which are usually labor-intensive efforts," Dr. Offer said. "Fathers, by contrast, tend to engage in other types of activities when they multitask at home, such as talking to a third person or engaging in self-care. These are less burdensome experiences."

Among working mothers, more than half (52.7 percent) of all multitasking episodes at home involve housework, compared to 42.2 percent among working fathers. Additionally, 35.5 percent of all multitasking episodes at home involve child care for mothers versus 27.9 for fathers.

The authors believe that multitasking - particularly at home and in public - is a more negative experience for working mothers than for fathers because mothers' activities are more susceptible to outside scrutiny.

"At home and in public are the environments in which most household- and child care-related tasks take place, and mothers' activities in these settings are highly visible to other people," Dr. Schneider said. "Therefore, their ability to fulfill their role as good mothers can be easily judged and criticized when they multitask in these contexts, making it a more stressful and negative experience for them than for fathers."

Working fathers typically don't face these types of pressures. "Although they are also expected to be involved in their children's lives and do household chores, fathers are still considered to be the family's major provider," Dr. Offer said. "As a result, fathers face less normative pressures and are under less scrutiny when they perform and multitask at home and in public."

To improve the situation for mothers, fathers need to step up, the authors said.

"The key to mothers' emotional well-being is to be found in the behavior of fathers," Dr. Offer stated. "In order to reduce mothers' likelihood of multitasking and to make the experience less negative, fathers' share of housework and child care has to increase."

Policy-makers and employers can help facilitate this, the authors said.