Home | Education & Distance Learning Articles | Article

Women in the workplace—the unfinished revolution: "society has not focused on the need to provide alternative types of care, particularly for children

USA Today (Magazine) - November 1, 2003

AMONG THE MANY remarkable upheavals of the 20th century, the huge increase in women's employment stands out. The shift of women to paid labor has led to a widespread transformation of the traditional rules and practices of daily life, not only at workplaces, but in families. As work and family changed, there were reverberations throughout society. The roles women play today would be unrecognizable to our forebears of 100 years ago.

Still, for all the change, the revolution remains incomplete. The arithmetic is simple--if women's jobs require 30, 40 or more hours a week, they cannot spend those same hours caring for their families. Society has not focused on the need to provide alternative types of care, particularly for children and the elderly, during the time that caregivers are employed. To finish the revolulion, new institutions and new arrangements are in order.

In 1900, 20% of workforce women were married. Only in minority, immigrant, or destitute families were married women likely to be engaged in paid work. Employed mothers were even rarer. Over the course of the next 100 years, though, a variety of forces drew additional females, including mothers of very young children, into the labor force.

Throughout the last century, employers particularly sought women for several rapidly growing occupations, including clerical duties, teaching, and nursing. These were jobs that men usually declined, in part because they were relatively low paying and offered little chance for advancement, and in part because they were stigmatized as "women's work." At the same time, more and more women completed the high school or college degrees necessary to hold these jobs. In the last 25 years, fields have opened up that virtually had been closed to females and vast numbers were educated in law, medicine, business, and engineering. Women's earnings increased commensurate with their education, making employment even more attractive.

Women became interested in paid employment because, as the economy became more complex, they and their family members began to want new products and services. This required additional income. For example, as medical advances were made, women no longer found it sufficient to provide nursing care directly to their seriously ill children as their mothers and grandmothers had done. They needed income to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medications. In later years, they wanted medical benefits that crone with being employed.

In the latter part of the century, women found yet another reason to seek paid work. Specializing in childrearing and homemaking became too risky. In a climate where half of all marriages ended in divorce, and one out of three children spent a part of his or her childhood in a single-parent home, wives no longer could trust that their husbands would support them financially "'til death do us part." Some women also saw paid employment as insurance in case they wanted to initiate a divorce or leave an abusive or loveless marriage. As single mothers increased in number, they, too, found their way into the job market.

By the end of the century, women had come to see paid work as a standard part of their lives, even if they were married and raising young children. As of 2000, 61% of women over the age of 16 were in the work-force (as compared to 74% of men), including nearly 80% of mothers with kids aged six to 18, almost 75% of mothers with children aged three to five, and slightly more than 50% of mothers with infants. These figures reflect an extraordinary change throughout the entire century, particularly over the past 30 years. For example, in 1970, about 25% of mothers with a child under the age of three were in the labor force.

As each woman with a family came into the workforce, she made private arrangements for the care of her children or other relatives. In some cases, particularly where the woman earned a high salary, she could hire multiple replacements for her previously unpaid caregiving with good results. However, in the vast majority of cases, relying on private arrangements is difficult, as many families do not have sufficient income. Moreover, solutions to work-family balance require systemic changes--new types of institutions to provide care and new rules and practices at the work-place--that cannot be created privately one family at a time.

At the forefront of these new institutions are childcare centers, slightly more than half of which are run by private nonprofit agencies, and a little less than half by for-profit businesses. Employer--provided childcare represents a very small share. Among preschoolers with working mothers, around one-third are enrolled in childcare centers, about 15% are in family daycare homes, and approximately five percent are cared for by nannies. That leaves around 48% under the care of a relative. Sometimes, a combination of arrangements is necessary, stressing out parents as they monitor multiple caregivers and deliver children to and from severed sites each week. Some mothers and fathers are forced to work separate shifts, a solution that often is tough to sustain and results in a straining of the parents' relationship.

There are two major problems with childcare centers--affordability and quality. Childcare costs between $5,000 and $10,000 per year per child, sometimes more. Infant care may be as much as $17,500 per year. Research by psychologists maintains that quality childcare is not harmful to children. Indeed, they find it has numerous social and educational benefits. Yet, only about 25% of preschoolers and less than 10% of infants and toddlers receive good, developmentally appropriate care. Centers run by public agencies, private educational institutions, or those sponsored by employers or the military are more likely to provide good quality care.

Childcare workers typically earn between seven and $11 per hour--and have poor (or nonexistent) health and retirement benefits. Turnover rates are high as well, between 35 and 50% per year. Moreover, less than 50% have a bachelor's degree and of those who do not, a mere 10% have an associate degree from a two-year college. Because there is such a shortage, childcare workers often are employed on an "emergency" basis, with no classroom training in child development at all.

In a world where research repeatedly tells us that the first few years of life are central to a child's emotional and cognitive development, and where the majority of mothers of young children are employed, childcare needs to be considered a public good. It is estimated that providing affordable, quality childcare to all working parents would cost an additional $26,400,000,000 per year. Childcare for families under the poverty level should be fully subsidized, and those above the poverty level should pay according to a sliding scale based on income. The cost of additional regulation and accreditation of facilities as well as increased training for providers are included in that figure, but increased compensation for childcare workers is not. The U.S. currently spends $20,000,000.000 on childcare. Of that, $2,200,000,000 goes to tax rebates for middle-class families while the balance supports care for poor children.

To help advance the revolution begun by women's burgeoning employment, parents should receive paid leave of up to one year to care for newborns. The U.S. is the only major industrialized nation that does not provide such paid leave. The funding for this should not come from the parents' employers. Paying for infant-care leaves should derive from Federal tax funds. State and Federal law also must ensure that employers guarantee that they will hold the jobs of men and women who are on infant-care leave, or give them similar jobs when they return. Discrimination against parents or parents-to-be has to be made illegal.

Continuing the revolution started by women's employment also involves providing alternative care arrangements for the elderly, as increased life expectancy and aging baby boomers are bringing this issue to the forefront. Indeed, critics have called it our secret social time bomb. A number of workers are making provisions for their own future by purchasing long-term care insurance. In the event of severe disability, such insurance pays for nursing home stays. However, many seniors need much less-intensive care than nursing homes provide, and such coverage is expensive. Still, many older Americans will require the equivalent of daycare as they begin to face disabling infirmities. We as a society have thought little about how to design and finance such care. A White House conference or other prestigious brainstorming opportunity, perhaps with participants from other industrialized nations, is sorely needed to make progress in this area.

1 2 Next »

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article with hundreds of other Education & Distance Learning enthusiasts from around the world, please feel free to visit the discussion forums & post a message.

Discuss this article in the discussion forums now.

Popular Education & Distance Learning Discussions From The Past

LEAP TO YOUR FUTURE,WITHA FAST TRACK DEGREE PROGRAM... (4 posts)
by leap@teacher.com - Last post on: 10-13-04 15:41
The opportunity to pursue college degrees online is growing at an unprecedented rate. Tens of thousands will receive an online degree at the associate's, bachelor's, master's and PhD level this year. University Clearinghouse determines the best alternatives for online education by sharing with y... (Read More)

Re: Excelsior and TESC (1 posts)
by Rich Douglas - Last post on: 08-29-03 16:13
The University of the State of New York, which is the educational system in New York, began in the 18th century. But the predecessor to Exelsior College, the Regents Externa Degree Program (which conducted the degree programs leading to the award of the degrees by USNY), was started in the 1970... (Read More)

Web-based admission system (1 posts)
by Kumar Singh - Last post on: 07-15-04 13:00
Hi all. Our admissions office is looking into ApplyYourself for a web-based application submission solution. Before we get their sales spiel, I wanted to check if anyone has any experience with them. We're interested in their pricing ballpark, pricing model (flat, subscription based), quality ... (Read More)

Message for UIGrad (2 posts)
by TheFew - Last post on: 09-04-03 05:39
UIGrad: Thank you for replying my message regarding to Indiana University. And congratulation for graduating from Indiana University - School of Continuing Studies. Actually, I have a little problem with this school because my enrollment is under United States Marine Corps' Tuition Assistance.... (Read More)

You must register before posting in the Education & Distance Learning discussion forums. It's free & only takes a few seconds. Please also remember that no advertising is allowed...
Enter The Forums Here