The study by Professor Jacqueline Scott of the University suggested growing number of people concerned about the impact of working mums on family life.

Scott said the “shine of the super-mum” was wearing off.

“While British attitudes are more egalitarian than in the 1980s, there are signs that support for gender equality may have hit a high point some time during the 1990s,” said Scott.

“When it comes to the clash between work and family life, doubts about whether a woman should be doing both are starting to creep in.”

Scott’s analysis is based on data from the international social survey programme and other polls of public opinion in Britain, the US and west Germany since the 1980s, each with sample sizes of between 1,000 and 5,000 people.

In 1994, 51 per cent of women in Britain and 52 per cent of men said they believed family life would not suffer if a woman went to work. By 2002 those proportions had fallen to 46 per cent of women and 42 per cent of men.

There was a decline in the number of people thinking the best way for a woman to be independent is to have a job.

Scott said, “The results are even more extreme in the US, where the percentage of people arguing that family life does not suffer if a woman works has plummeted, from 51 per cent in 1994 to 38 per cent in 2002.”