In Ann Crittenden’s book, “The Price of motherhood”, she writes of a letter from the author Harriet Beecher Stowe to her sister in law. The letter, written in 1850, cites all the activities she had accomplished during the past year. Beecher had made two sofas, a chair, various bedding such as bedspreads, pillowcases, pillows, bolsters, and mattresses. She had repainted rooms in her new house, re-varnished furniture. Beecher also gave birth to her eighth child and read all the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Plus she had all the day to day chores of running the household. She accomplished all this and yet she writes to her sister in law “I am constantly pursued and haunted by the idea that I don’t do anything.” Women today no longer need to build their couches from scratch, or have such large families. But they are still working hard, working more than men, and they still feel that they are not doing anything. And our society reinforces this feeling. On one hand it says it values motherhood, and on the other it does not do anything to help mothers.

Women who work outside the home face many obstacles, one of which is pay inequity. A woman’s earning power is only 73% of a man’s despite the Equal Pay Act of 1973. ((Kesselman, McNair and Schniedewind 181) The National Committee for Pay Equity attributes the wage gap to certain job sectors being dominated by women workers and people of color. The more dominate these types of workers are in a given field, the more likely that the jobs will be undervalued.

The undervaluing of jobs ties in with jobs of lower status. Women often hold jobs that are perceived as having lower status than traditionally male professions. These jobs often have nonstandard schedules. Of the top ten occupations that work nonstandard schedules, nine are considered traditionally female jobs – cashiers, retail sales workers, waitresses/waiters, cooks, janitor/cleaners, supervisors and owners of sales jobs, registered nurses, managers of food service, nursing aides. The only traditionally male job on the list is truck driver. (Presser 20) The effect of a nonstandard schedule on a working mom is difficulty finding suitable arrangements for care of the children.

Nonstandard schedules also pay less. Those who work nonstandard schedules earn an average hourly wage of $8.00 versus $9.50 for workers on a fixed schedule. The only exception is Registered nurses and their higher earnings are due to the fact that they have many union members, and union membership is associated with higher earnings.  (Presser 22) Single mothers and married women with children under 5 are the most likely group of people to work off hours. (Presser 60) Research suggests that working odd hours has a detrimental effect on the stability of the marriage because the couple has less time to spend with each other. (Presser 109)

Women are more likely to take time off from work than men are. Taking time off of work damages a worker’s work record and threatens future promotions and earning power. Upon the birth of a new child, the Family Medical Leave Act ensures that a mom can take an UNPAID leave of absence. What working mother can afford that? And after her leave ends, childcare options are limited. If Mom has a 9-5 job, she can put her child in a (costly) childcare center. If she has a job with an odd schedule she would need to utilize a private home. Private homes often are not regulated, and children in them receive substandard care.  Some women do have the option of having a family member watch their children, but many do not.
           

Women's responsibility for childcare remains one of the biggest obstacles to economic equality for women. (Kesselman, McNair and Schniedewind 182)

Some statistics about working women:

• 46% of the workforce is women. (Kesselman, McNair and Schniedewind 181)
• Over ¾ of women who have school aged children are in the workforce.(Kesselman, McNair and Schniedewind 182)
• 62% of mothers with children under 3 work outside the home. (Kesselman, McNair and Schniedewind 189)
• Only 1/5 of families have the mother at home while the father works. (Kesselman, McNair and Schniedewind 190)

There are a lot of children who need to be looked after while their parent's work, and there is a lack of affordable childcare for working families. Working women who work odd hours find that child care centers only cater to those who work the standard Monday – Friday 9-5 job. This leaves the nonstandard schedule mom to patch together childcare. Most women feel that the childcare arrangements are their responsibility. “Defining childcare primarily as women’s sphere reinforces the devaluing of women and prevents their equal access to power.” (Berry 220)

Women face another set of inequities inside the home. Women feel more responsible than men to take care of the house work and worry about the kids. The woman is the most likely parent that will go to a parent meeting at school, take a child to the doctor, or worry about new clothes. Coping strategies many women resort to include accepting that they must do the extra work because they are women, using sex as a weapon to get the man to do his share, or cutting things out such as working less, forgoing leisure activities, or doing less house work. (Hochschild 196) In “The Second Shift”, Arlie Hochschild’s research indicated that how much housework and childcare the husband did was proportional to the perceived happiness of the marriage. (211)

Stay at home moms fare no better than working moms in our society. Some moms have the economic luxury of choosing to stay home or not, some women are forced to stay at home out of economic necessity. The cost of childcare often outweighs any monetary benefit that the family would receive from the mother working, and if she is a single mother, childcare costs are a hardship. Women who stay home often put their own career goals on hold. Women who stay at home lose any status they may have had. An MBA does not get you any respect in playgroup; you are still just a housewife. A stay at home mom also loses out accumulating social security benefits, and this contributes to women having a higher rate of poverty in old age than men. . Motherhood is the single biggest risk factor for poverty in old age. (Kesselman, McNair and Schniedewind 200)

 And the worst thing about staying at home is it is not considered work by society, even though raising children is supposed to be so important.

What can be done to improve the situation for mothers?  Start with paid leave for a mother or a father upon the birth of a child for a year, like some European countries. Then enforce the Equal Pay Act of 1973, to eliminate pay inequity. Government subsidized programs like quality affordable childcare and national health insurance could follow.  A future solution to the women and work problem is given in Mary Frances Berry’s book, “The Politics of Parenthood”. Berry suggests that parenting and child care classes be started in middle school, to teach the boys of this nation that care of the children is as much a mom’s job as it is the dad’s, and to dispel the notion that caring for your kids makes you less of a man. (219)

Works Cited:

Berry, Mary Frances. “The Politics of Parenthood”. New York: Penguin Books, 1993

Crittenden, Ann. “The Price of Motherhood”. New York: Metropolitan Book, 2001

Hochschild, Arlie, and Anne Machung. “The Second Shift – Working Parents and The

       Revolution At Home”. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1989

Kesselman, Amy, Lily D. McNair and Nancy Schniedewind. “Women: Images and

       Realities”. 3^rd Ed.  New York: 2003.

Presser, Harriet B, “Working In A 24/7 Economy”. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 

     2003.