A Choice?

A childfree woman in the work force does not face the obstacles that a mother does. While discrimination at work still exists a huge part of the wage gap is a result of mothers who have to stop working or work less in order to take care of their children. There are many women who would like to still have a successful career after having children but must choose between that and spending adequate time with their children. Also there are women, including single mothers who cannot afford to work less and thus spend little time with their children. We should not leave these women out of the discussion. Also its important to understand that the choice to work more and have less family time, it not always a choice.
In MPR’s “When There’s A Baby Between You and the Glass Ceiling”, Guy Raz interviews Kay Hymowitz who describes what she believes the cause of the gender gap to be at the top of the American workforce. Hymowitz describes how because of children women choose to work part time and take off more maternity leave to spend time with their children. Raz responds by asking her if this means that women are being penalized for having children. Hymowitz says that Raz’s question “implies that there are no differences between men and women; they all want the same thing and want similar amounts of time with their children, similar things from the work place. That may not be true. So I think the presumption that this is really what women want – they want this absolute parity with men in the workplace, it really remains to be proven.” Hymowits discusses how women are choosing to spend less time at work possibly because they are different then men.
Is that really true? No, fathers indeed to express their desire to spend similar amounts of time with their children as their mother. In Kathleen Gerson’s “Dilemma of Involved Fatherhood” she finds that men do want to spend time with their children and that not all men are necessarily career oriented like Hymowitz presumes. Gerson quotes Arthur who says “If it was feasible I would love to spend more time with my child. That would be more important to me than working.” I think that men do want to spend more time with their children then they possible can. Family’s who have the choice often try to split family time and work time so that mothers and father can have equal amounts of family time. Gerson quotes Wesley who says he would rather share the economic responsibility with this wife rather than carry the entire burden. If his wife was a stay at home mom “…that would probably mean I would have to either get another job or work overtime on the job I have. I would do it. She knows I would. But she doesn’t want me to. We spend more time with each other this way.” However even though having both spouses spend equal times in the work place and equal adequate times in the home is ideal, it is not always feasible because child-care is expensive.
Also I don’t feel that women are really ‘choosing’ to spend less time in the workplace if they are forced to make that choice. Raz asks Karen Kornbluh, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, to comment on Kay Hymowitz’s commentary on women’s choice to spend more time in the home and less in the workplace or quit their job entirely. “I wouldn’t call it a choice in the classic sense because I don’t think they have a lot of options. We don’t have the option to work and have you children in a safe, high-quality child care situation” Kornbluh says. And I agree that women will be forced to make these kind of choices until they are given real options of good quality and affordable child care, paid maternity leave and flexible work hours. Kornbluh also points to how when we discuss women in the workforce we often focus on the alpha women and the high-wage earner and not enough on the minimum wage earning mother. She suggests that quality childcare similar to public education could have huge and quick impact.

-Corinne Mann