Sunday News Update: October 12, 2014
Welcome to Brain, Child’s Sunday policy update where we look at issues impacting women and children with Valerie Young, Public Policy Analyst for Mom-mentum.
Some silly, some serious snippets that have crossed my desk this week about motherhood, parenting, and working while female:
Two things to make you laugh in this light news week (because Congress is not in session, pending the mid-term elections).
Does your spouse suffer from male pattern blindness? You know, when he makes it your problem that he can’t find what you know is right there.
And those crazy kids at The Onion parody what passes for family values at work – our current policy of permanent, unpaid maternity leave.
The US Department of Labor continues its strong support for paid family leave with its latest post, 4 Things You Need to Know About Paid Leave.
Pittsburgh passed a bill protecting pregnant workers from being forced out of jobs they could still successfully perform with reasonable accommodations. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is going nowhere in Congress, but Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and West Virginia have gotten bills through their state legislatures. Pittsburgh joins New York City and Philadelphia as cities who have taken the same step.
The White House released a nifty report about millennials last week, including some data on the change in hours parents devote to child care. Since 1965, dads have tripled their time, from 2.5 hours a week to 7.3 hours in 2011. Moms still do more, increasing their weekly hours in parenting by one-third, from 10.2 hours in 1965 to 13.5 in 2011. “Ramey and Ramey (2010) show that these increases have been particularly pronounced among college-educated parents, with college-educated mothers increasing their childcare time since the mid-1990s by over 9 hours per week, while less educated mothers increased their childcare time by only over 4 hours per week.” Note that mothers’ hours go up even as we spend more time doing paid work outside the home.
Follow Valerie on Facebook at Your (Wo)Man in Washington, and on Twitter @WomanInDC. Valerie went to a feminist conference in New York City last weekend. See her thoughts at Mom-mentum’s Your Woman in Washington blog.
Photo: Shutterstock
