A Peaceful Revolution series will continue with a weekly blog about work/life satisfaction done in collaboration with MomsRising.org. Read a blog by a leading thinker in the field every Tuesday.
In a recent PEW Research survey, half of moms working full-time said they would prefer part-time work, as did one-third of stay-at-home moms. And the full-time employed mothers rated their parenting lower than those who worked less. If that wasn't enough to drive ambitious mothers off the career track, only 11 percent of employed mothers said it was ideal for kids when mom works full-time.
So why don't mothers work part-time? Part of the problem is that part-time jobs are usually bad jobs, with low pay and no health insurance. If we had universal health care and pay equity for part-timers, more mothers would work part-time. The discrepancy between what mothers want and what they do would vanish.
But would this solve the problem? In Striking a Balance, I answer that question by looking at moms in a similar country -- Australia -- that does provide universal health insurance and equal pay for part-time work. What happens there? Mothers are twice as likely to work part-time.
But are they happy with the situation? A comparison of birth rates tells a bleak story. Among full-time employed young women in the U.S. and Australia, U.S. women are seven times as likely to be moms. Australian women face a much starker choice between work and family: work full-time or be a mom and work part-time.
Behind that figure lies an unintended consequence of Australian health care and pay policies: Australian dads are let off the hook on housework and childcare because moms typically work part-time. The PEW study effectively does the same thing for the U.S. Although we learn that 12 percent of the fathers prefer part-time work (far fewer actually do so), nowhere does the study ask whether fathers should work part-time and whether that would be better for the kids, much less whether both mothers and fathers should work part-time.
Health care and pay equity may be valuable for many reasons, but ignoring fathers is hardly a recipe for supporting families or promoting gender equality. And American fathers have dramatically expanded the time they spend with their children in recent decades. The bottom line is that part-time options should be enhanced for mothers and fathers, and fathers should be lauded for ramping down work in favor of family.
Fortunately, a single but very important number suggests this will happen: 57. That is the percentage of college and university degrees going to women today, and it means that only 43 percent of degrees are going to men. Given the high value our economy places on education, that number means we will see more and more families where the woman earns more than the man. Simple economics tells us that more dads are going to want part-time in the future. Savvy employers and policy-makers will start making the 'dad-friendly' workplace a reality.
Robert Drago is a Professor of Labor Studies and Women's Studies at Penn State University, and the moderator of the workfam newsgroup. His latest book is Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life.