For the past several years, research has revealed—and we've heard anecdotally—that more and more working moms dream of working part-time. Now, new study results fly in the face of that trend.

The number of moms who prefer to work full-time has risen to 32 percent from just 20 percent five years ago, according to a report released on March 14 by the Pew Research Center. While somewhat surprising, that number is understandable. The annual unemployment rate for 2007 was 4.6 percent but rose to 8.1 percent in 2012. So in general, a lot more people—moms, dads, teenagers, seniors—want jobs, period. Plus, when dads lost jobs during the recession, moms felt the need, and often the desire, to step up.

Additionally, the study shows that moms and dads increasingly share not only the duties of earning money and taking care of kids, but also the emotional burdens associated with each. In fact, half of working fathers call work-family balance very or somewhat difficult, and 46 percent worry they don’t spend enough time with their kids. 

But the new data showing that dads want to spend more time at home and that moms are pursuing substantial careers illustrate the cultural shift we’ve all been living, and that the Working Mother Research Institute has been tracking. In our national surveys, we’ve found that some moms are motivated to work primarily for the money (we call them paycheck moms). In contrast, those who find more meaning in their work and feel they’re moving forward in careers (we call them career moms) find more satisfaction in every part of their lives: They feel more respected at work and more supported by their spouses at home. Our 2011 research report, What Moms Choose, explored the reasons why some of these career moms leave the workforce when they have kids—44 percent of them cited their kids’ needs and 35 percent cited the cost of child care; 26 percent said the salaries they earned didn’t justify the costs of working. Yet more than half of these at-home moms said they’d rather be working.

Still, the new Pew Research data make it clear that two-parent families have made strides in sharing the day-to-day tasks of supporting the household: Dads have more than doubled the time they spend on housework and child care since 1965 and have decreased their hours of paid work from 42 to 37 hours during that period. Moms, however, have increased the time they spend both working for pay (up to 21 hours per week from 8 hours in 1965) and taking care of kids (up to 14 hours per week from 10 in 1965), while cutting back on their housework (down to 18 hours per week from a staggering average of 32 hours in 1965).

This sea change is happening alongside other major forces, including the steady advance of flexible work schedules (Yahoo’s recent edict aside). Telecommuting and flexibility in start and stop times continue to grow in popularity—every one of the 2012 Working Mother 100 Best Companies offer both programs. We at Working Mother also continue to advocate for programs that allow employees to slow down and speed up their career tracks as their home lives require.

If both parents had the option to work fewer hours during high-maintenance child-rearing phases without leaving their jobs entirely, we’d all feel less anxiety about both neglecting our kids and losing out on career opportunities.