A recent study performed by two sociologists at the University of Virginia shows housewives are happier with their marriages than women who work outside the home.

The statistics, part of a larger study about marital happiness, appeared in the March issue of the journal Social Forces and has since garnered media attention about a possible trend among young women who want to be stay-at-home mothers.

After the study was released, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and other media outlets ran stories and op-ed columns about its possible implications. But do the study’s findings parallel how female students at Northwestern see their futures?

Nicki Beisel, a professor of sociology at NU, said it’s difficult to say if such a trend is occurring because of the media attention that surrounds it.

“There’s so much talk in the media that this might be a made-up thing,” she said.

She said she thinks women tend to leave the work force due to the conflict between careers and motherhood, not because today’s young women have decided that they don’t want careers.

Many NU students agreed with this idea. Weinberg sophomore Sandra Dickison said she hasn’t seen a trend of girls at NU who want to be stay-at-home mothers, but she said she has friends from her hometown who don’t want to work outside the home.

“At Northwestern, people are more career-oriented,” she said.

Beisel said married women who are at the top of the income distribution are more likely not to stay at home. She said this is reflective of the “big difference” between Americans who are at the top of the income distribution and those who are in the middle.

Beisel also said there’s a possibility more women are staying at home because more pressure is being placed on teenagers to get into elite schools, causing mothers to put more time into helping their kids get into college.

Beisel said no recent data exists to explain college women’s expectations about how to balance motherhood and careers. She did say a 1986 study showed that graduating female students at the University of California at Berkeley expected to to have high-powered careers and to take extended time off to be mothers.

Although balancing a powerful career and motherhood has been a concern among college women for many years, many female NU students say they don’t know how they will deal with this issue after they get married and have children.

“I’m a little worried, to be honest,” said Weinberg sophomore Emily Kern, who hopes to practice medicine in the future.

Kern said she thinks she’ll work fewer hours after she marries and has a family.

Other students also said they would consider taking time off after getting married and having children.

Music freshman Laura Thompson said that although it would be nice to take some time off after getting married and having a family, she would go back to work eventually.

“I’ve never thought about being a housewife,” she said.

Beisel said the concerns young women have about how to handle meaningful careers and motherhood are real.

“It’s taking a beating in high-powered careers,” she said.

Reach Christina Amoroso at [email protected].