It looks like women have caught up to men in the workforce - if we only look at women who have never had children and never taken a leave from work. Of course, between women and men , women are still far more likely to take that time off work for a child. And there is no catching back up for most women. A recent article in the NYTimes spelled this out.
What to do about it isn't clear cut. Yes - more quality and affordable childcare options are a must. Of course, to do that we also need to place a reasonable value on the work of childcare. The numbers I can find say that in 2002 childcare workers in daycares earned a median income of $7.18 an hour, with "minimal benefits". I can attest from experience that running a home daycare meant that I had to work 50 hours a week and I only reached minimum wage ($8 an hour here) once I was watching 4 children in addition to my own two. Yes - it did have the benefit that I didn't have to pay out daycare for my own kids to someone else, so all of that minimum wage was actually mine to keep. Woopdie do.
You don't get a lot of quality from folks under those circumstances. So maybe the solution is to just stay home with your kids.
Well, it's pretty hard to live on one income, and you'll end up in that mommy (or daddy) trap when you want to re-enter the workforce.
A few parents manage to make it work. Wow - that is an achievement. I won't debate how good a job they did as parents - that is the road of the so-called Mommy Wars and the needless internecine fighting that just tears us apart.
The whole thing is just making me mad today.
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