Caring for Children - Societal Changes And Working Mothers

In the second half of the twentieth century the "stayat-home mom" became less common. In the early twenty-first century women with young children were much more likely to work outside the home than they had been three decades previously. In 1976 31% of women ages fifteen to forty-four with a child under twelve months old worked; by 2003 that percentage had increased to 53.7%, down from a high of 58.7% in 1998 (Fertility of American Women: June 2002, U.S. Census Bureau, 2003, and "Labor Force Participation of Mothers with Infants in 2003," Monthly Labor Review, April 22, 2004). In 2003 62.8% of mothers with children under age six and 77.8% of mothers with school-age children worked outside the home. (See Table 3.1.)

Legislation passed in the late 1970s made it more possible for women to return to work after the birth of a child. In 1976 tax code changes allowed families a tax credit on child care costs, making it more financially feasible for women to return to work. In 1978 the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, making it illegal for employers to discriminate in hiring, firing, promotions, or pay levels based on pregnancy or childbirth. And in 1993 the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed, requiring employers to give eligible employees up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave for childbearing or family care each year.

Societal changes also contributed to the greater number of women with young children participating in the labor force. In Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns, 1961–1995 (U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P70-79, November 2001), Kirsten Smith and her colleagues reviewed the changing demographic profile of first-time mothers between the 1960s and 1990s to explain in part the increase. The report emphasized that during that period the incidence of first-time motherhood at age thirty or older tripled, and that first-time mothers in the 1990s tended to be better educated than their 1960 counterparts. These older, well-educated mothers often viewed their jobs as long-term careers and believed time lost could adversely affect their ability to hold a position and earn promotions and could decrease contributions to retirement funds.

Furthermore, the increasing number of single mothers meant that more women must work to support their families. In 1970 3,410,000 women maintained single-parent households; by 2002 that number had almost tripled, to 9,969,000. Changes in government programs providing assistance to poor families also resulted in increasing numbers of single mothers entering the workforce. In 1996 the federal government abolished Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and replaced it with a new program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). TANF placed a two-year time limit on benefits, requiring poor parents to work even if they had to place young children in day care. In 2003 two-thirds (65.4%) of single mothers with children under three years old were in the labor force, with a 16.7% unemployment rate. (See Table 3.2.)

Married women have also entered the workforce in larger numbers. A decline in men's real wages plus a rising cost of living has led some two-parent families to decide to maintain two incomes in order to meet financial obligations and pay for their children's future college expenses. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, 2003 Annual Social and Economic Supplement, the median income in 2002 for married couples with the wife in the paid labor force was $87,496, significantly higher than the $58,379 median income for married-couple families in which the wife was not in the paid labor force. Table 3.1 shows that 68.6% of married women with children under eighteen were in the labor force in 2003, and Table 3.2 shows that 56.8% of married women with children under age three were in the labor force in that year. Many families have come to depend upon women's economic contributions to the household.

TABLE 3.1

Employment status of population, by sex, marital status, and presence and age of own children under 18, 2003
(Numbers in thousands)
	2003
Characteristic	Total	Men	Women
With own children under 18 years
Civilian noninstitutional population	64,932	28,402	36,530
Civilian labor force	52,727	26,739	25,988
Participation rate	81.2	94.1	71.1
Employed	50,103	25,638	24,466
Employment-population ratio	77.2	90.3	67.0
Full-time workers1	42,880	24,762	18,118
Part-time workers2	7,223	876	6,347
Unemployed	2,624	1,101	1,523
Unemployment rate	5.0	4.1	5.9
Married, spouse present
Civilian noninstitutional population	52,476	26,049	26,427
Civilian labor force	42,776	24,638	18,138
Participation rate	81.5	94.6	68.6
Employed	41,128	23,712	17,416
Employment-population ratio	78.4	91.0	65.9
Full-time workers1	35,315	22,954	12,360
Part-time workers2	5,813	757	5,056
Unemployed	1,648	926	722
Unemployment rate	3.9	3.8	4.0
Other marital status3
Civilian noninstitutional population	12,455	2,354	10,102
Civilian labor force	9,950	2,100	7,850
Participation rate	79.9	89.2	77.7
Employed	8,975	1,926	7,050
Employment-population ratio	72.1	81.8	69.8
Full-time workers1	7,566	1,807	5,759
Part-time workers2	1,411	118	1,291
Unemployed	976	175	800
Unemployment rate	9.8	8.3	10.2
With own children 6 to 17 years, none younger
Civilian noninstitutional population	35,943	15,653	20,290
Civilian labor force	30,362	14,572	15,790
Participation rate	84.5	93.1	77.8
Employed	29,040	14,008	15,032
Employment-population ratio	80.8	89.5	74.1
Full-time workers1	25,116	13,558	11,557
Part-time workers2	3,925	450	3,475
Unemployed	1,322	564	758
Unemployment rate	4.4	3.9	4.8
With own children under 6 years
Civilian noninstitutional population	28,988	12,749	16,240
Civilian labor force	22,365	12,167	10,198
Participation rate	77.2	95.4	62.8
Employed	21,063	11,630	9,433
Employment-population ratio	72.7	91.2	58.1
Full-time workers1	17,764	11,203	6,561
Part-time workers2	3,299	426	2,872
Unemployed	1,302	538	765