The role of a mother has not changed much over the years, but being a mother has, according to a Slippery Rock University.

“I think what ... it means to be a mother has undergone significant change,” said Cindy LaCom, head of SRU’s women’s studies program.

Women now make up more than 50 percent of the workforce. LaCom said the idea of a stay-at-home mom rarely applies in modern times.

“That truly has become a myth in current life,” LaCom said.

She said the image of a stay-at-home mom is not really historically accurate.

In some parts of the United States and England, up to 40 percent of women worked in factories during the second half of the 1800s.

“Women have been working outside the home for centuries,” LaCom said.

The image of the 1950s stay-at-home mother? That’s not entirely accurate either, she said.

During World War II, most of the working men went overseas to fight, and women had to take their place in the workforce. LaCom said that many of the women found that they enjoyed working.

“They enjoyed the economic freedom,” she said.

When the war ended, all of the men needed their jobs back. To help persuade women to give work up and head back to the home, advertising campaigns and television programs emphasizing stay-at-home mothers were created, LaCom said.

The image was reinforced by politicians pushing family values in the 1980s, she said.

LaCom also said that the idea of a traditional nuclear family is not as true as it once was.

“The reality is that there are more and more single mothers,” LaCom said.

Although the image of mothers has changed, what a mother does has remained relatively constant.

She said the main role of mothers is to find a way to be honest with their children in a rapidly changing world and to protect a child’s innocence as long as possible.

“(Mothers should) let their kids know that they’re loved,” LaCom said.

She also advised for mothers to let their children know that they have high expectations of them. If a mother lets them know that, she said the children will try to meet those expectations.

Another constant is mothers not being valued as much as they should.

“We tend to undervalue mothering,” LaCom said. “Being a good parent is one of the most difficult jobs.”

LaCom said that when she and her sister, a stay-at-home mother, socialize with others, people talk more to LaCom and tend to be dismissive of her sister.

This should change, she said.

“I think we need to value mothers, and we need to do it more than one day a year,” LaCom said.

With Mother’s Day coming up, LaCom has one simple piece of advice.

“Thank your mom,” she said.