Proclamation 4786—Working Mothers' Day, 1980

In greater numbers than ever before, American mothers are taking on important job responsibilities outside the home. In workplaces across our Nation and in every occupation, more than 16 million employed mothers are contributing their valuable skills to the labor force. In fact, more than half of all the mothers in this country have taken on jobs outside the home, and it is estimated that by 1990, 75% of all two-parent families will have both parents in the work force.

On the job and in the home, working mothers are making a vital contribution to the national economy and to the strength of the American family. Working mothers do not shed homemaking and parental responsibilities; they merely add the demands of a job to those of wife and mother. As we recognize the hard work and dedication of these women, we also acknowledge the many special problems they confront in meeting their dual responsibilities. We have an obligation to reinforce and support them in their endeavors.

To give special recognition to working mothers for fulfilling their exceptional responsibilities in the home and in the world of commerce, the House of Representatives (House Joint Resolution 379) has requested that I designate August 31, 1980, as Working Mothers' Day. I fully support this Resolution.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate August 31, 1980, as Working Mothers' Day and call upon families, individual citizens, labor and civic organizations, and the business community to recognize publicly the unique contributions of mothers currently in the work force, and to honor former generations of working mothers for their important role in building American society.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifth.

JIMMY CARTER