The Modern Working Mother
Gone are the days when most women stayed at home full-time to care for their children while their husbands went to work to support the family. This family arrangement is still prevalent, but is no longer the norm.
“It is an undeniable fact of American life today that a large majority of women with children—married and single, with children of all ages from infants to teens—are working outside the home. Most of these mothers work full time or would like full-time work.”
Working mothers’ income is critical to maintaining their family, according to the NWLC. According to the Center, 69.9 percent of American women with children under the age of 18 are employed, 74.4 percent of women with children aged 7 to 17, and 64.2 percent of women with children aged 0 to 6 are employed.
Furthermore, 58.1 percent of mothers with children under the age of one year work.
Unsurprisingly, single mothers work much more than their married counterparts. Single mothers with children under the age of 18 make up for 76.2 percent of the work force, while single mothers with children aged 6 to 17 make up 80.3 percent. What about single mothers who have children under the age of 6? According to the Northwest, 70.7 percent of them are employed.
3 Facts About U.S. Moms from The Pew Research Center
In the United States, motherhood has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. More mothers have college degrees today than ever before, and the majority of mothers with small children work rather than stay at home. There has also been a significant shift in the number of moms who are breadwinners for their families, which was virtually unheard of in the 1950s and 1960s.
More mothers than ever before are the single or primary breadwinners in their families in the twenty-first century.
According to Pew Research Center, there are three facts concerning American mothers:
- Women are starting families later in life.
In 1994, the average age for women in the United States to become mothers was 23, but now it is 26. While the decreasing prevalence of teen pregnancies is one reason behind this trend, American women in their 20s have continued to put off having children.
According to Pew, in 1994, 53 percent of women in their early 40s had their first babe by the age of 24, but that percentage has since dropped to 39 percent.
- Roughly one out of every four mothers are single.
While 68 percent of mothers in the United States are married, roughly a quarter of them are single. According to studies, almost 9 million American mothers who have a child under the age of 18 live without a partner or spouse. Only 7 percent of men, on the other hand, are parenting a child without the presence of a partner or spouse.
- More women with advanced degrees are becoming mothers.
We’ve witnessed a significant increase in the number of highly educated women becoming mothers. In 1994, 65 percent of women aged 40 to 44 with a Ph.D. or a professional degree became mothers; by 2014, that percentage had risen to 80 percent.
“In 2014, Rachel Zoe, a fashion designer and mogul, had five employees in her company who were pregnant and due within the year. What was her response? To keep her prized employees, she built a nursery next to the office. ‘…I feel good delivering the message to my staff that they work for a firm that supports and celebrates who they are in their personal lives, and that we aren’t scared to let those facts affect the atmosphere in the office in order to make us more productive and happy as a collective,’ she stated. Forbes published an article by Mary Beth Ferrante, a senior contributor.
The number of single Mothers in the U.S workforce is surging.
Single mothers are on the rise in the American economy, according to The New York Times, but it doesn’t mean they won’t encounter challenges like finding inexpensive childcare and having stable work schedules.
According to The New York Times, “something remarkable has transpired since 2015.” “The share of young single mothers in the workforce has risen approximately four percentage points, driven by women without college degrees, according to a New York Times analysis of Current Population Survey data. It’s a striking increase even when compared with other categories of women who have increased their labor force participation during this period of very low unemployment.”
The last time single mothers entered the workforce at such a rapid rate was in the 1990s, fueled by federal policy reforms such as tax breaks, welfare reform, and a booming economy. However, no federal legislative reforms have occurred in recent years that would promote a substantial number of single mothers to enter the workforce. Single mothers in the United States do not have a stable safety net, therefore working for income is becoming the most realistic alternative available to them. Minimum wage rises and paid leave have made it simpler for single mothers to enter the workforce on a local level.
Carol Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative, a group that aids working women, said, “Many safety net programs have been eviscerated, and work requirements have increased.” She explained that more single mothers are working for a simple reason: “They need the money.”
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