It’s funny you should ask

Cross-posted at my blog.
As a working mom of an almost-2-year-old, I feel terrifically relieved when I read headlines like this: “Working mothers ‘don’t harm their children’s development’, major study reveals.” All along I’ve been so worried that I was single-handedly harming her development. Because, of course, if anything goes wrong with her, it must be my fault. In fact, I must have directly and selfishly caused it. You’ll notice that the headline isn’t phrased like this: “Having two parents who work full time outside the home does not harm a child’s development.” And it’s especially never, ever this: “Working fathers ‘don’t harm their children’s development,’ major study reveals.” Cause if you printed something like that everyone would be like “well, duh.”
This study obviously aims to answer the question “Do working mothers harm their children’s development?” And that tells you a lot about the assumptions and beliefs of the people who asked the question, the culture that the question came out of, and the people who are framing the results of the study. In Philosophy, we tend to think there’s a lot of significance in the way people phrase things and in the questions they ask. You can tell a lot about a person’s worldview by listening to the questions they think are worth pursuing. This is one of the most fundamental ways in which science is influenced by the culture in which it’s embedded. Why would anybody even think to do a study asking whether working moms damage their children? Because the attitudes and values of the larger culture saturate whatever kinds of research occur within that culture. It’s inevitable.

Another issue here is the complete denial of larger social forces at play in situations like this. If it’s the case that we now live in a world with a very different economy such that the breadwinner and stay at home mom model is no longer feasible (let alone desirable) for most people, then why is the mother to blame for potential issues with the kids? Did she bring about these changes in our economy? Obviously not, but then why is the responsibility for the well-being of her kids solely hers? It’s puzzling.
Similarly, an article about artificial sweeteners contains this gem:
But in the late 1960s, studies began linking cyclamate to cancer. One noted that chicken embryos injected with the chemical developed extreme deformities, leading scientists to wonder if unborn humans could be similarly damaged by their cola-drinking mothers.
Check out that phrasing. First, note that it’s not the cola or the chemical used to sweeten it that damages the babies. It’s their mothers. Second, pregnant women who have been told that the artificial sweetener is perfectly safe, who have had diet drinks with this sweetener in it relentlessly marketed to them, who probably couldn’t get their hands on the research regarding the risks associated with that sweetener if they tried, and who face intense social pressure to avoid gaining much weight while pregnant, are singled out as the sole cause of the potential damage. The industries that develop the products and ruthlessly push them into the market before adequate testing can take place carry no culpability here. The regulatory agencies that are in the industry’s pocket and thus fail to do their job carry no culpability here. And the giant marketing machine that produces the powerful and ubiquitous image of artificially sweetened drinks as safe and desirable has no culpability here. Nope, it’s just these horrible women who knowingly and intentionally guzzle unhealthy drinks while pregnant who are to blame. Right. Got it.