Szuman, Alicja2013-07-152013-07-152004Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny 66, 2004, z. 2, s. 203-229.0035-9629http://hdl.handle.net/10593/6709The aim of this paper is to discover the reasons behind mothers’ decision to practice a profession and to determine a possible relationship between their material/non-material motivation to work and the family/occupational status of mothers in different stages of family life. The analysis of working mothers’ reasons to be employed has been based on the source data gathered in a state-wide opinion poll carried out by Poznań University of Economics Family Research Center. The research was carried out in 1999 on a sample of 2484 working mothers, living in cities. As the research shows, the material motivation to work was the principal and sole reason for only 4.8% of working mothers living in cities. 22.4% of the respondents pointed to non-material motives. The dominant group in the sample consisted of married women who claimed both matérial and non-material reasons (72.8%). Taking into account additionally the stages o f family life, the married women in the 1st stage of family stabilisation (see 3.1) are the most remarkable group in terms of the structure of the declared reasons for working. Material reasons were stated the least often, and non-material reasons - the most often by them. In general, with greater number of children in the family, mothers are less likely to declare non-material grounds as the most important and the value of non-material grounds in an overall ratio is smaller. The motives are also conditional on the type of family. Three-generation families are noteworthy here as the respondents from these families mentioned the non-material grounds most often. The age of the mother, the child and the year of contracting the marriage has a far smaller impact on the structure of reasons for working. As for socio-occupational factors, the level of education is the most discriminatory: the higher the mother’s education, the more frequently she declares the non-material motives as the most important. Finally, motivation is also related to the way the mother handles her professional career. The influence of the financial situation of a family is undisputable. Respondents who described their standard of living as very good declared the non-material motives most often, and were most likely to mention them first.plArtykuł