Motherhood is Getting More Expensive and Its Hurting These Women the Most

Motherhood is Getting More Expensive and Its Hurting These Women the Most Motherhood isnt cheap. Its no surprise that raising children costs a pretty penny, but college-educated women, in particular, underestimate the demands of parenthood and the difficulties that come with being a working parent, according to new research. Thats why, though most plan to, mora moms arent sticking in the workforce.The research (which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal) suggests that motherhood has been becoming ever mora demanding since the 1990s when the share of women in the United States labor force leveled off after steadily climbing for half a century. While today, the share of women ages 25 to 54 years old work about the same as women of their age group did in 1995, according to The New York Times,more women have college degrees and access to jobs that entice them to delay marriage and family plans. But aswomen penetrate new positions in droves, men have not bumped uptheir s hare of child care and home and family responsibilities quite the same.As a result, parents now spend more of their incomeon child care, and they have more pressure to engage in enriching activities with their children when they do indeed find the time away from work. Of couse, those activities can also cost them. In fact, in the U.S. alone, mothers spend $2 trillion each year, controlling 80 percent of household spending.But working women underestimate the cost of parenting especially college-educated women whod assumed theyd invest in an education, establish themselvesa career and maintain and build that career over time, according to the studys authors,Ilyana Kuziemko and Jenny Shen of Princeton, Jessica Pan of the National University of Singapore and Ebonya Washington of Yale.The researchers, who pulled datafrom the Labor Departments National Longitudinal Surveys, the University of Michigans Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the British Household Panel Survey, found that juggl inginflexible work hours and parenting demands is largely responsible for a sharp decline in womens employment after the birth of their first child even despite the fact thatthoughprevious research finds mothers to actually make better employees.For example, a study for Microsoft that surveyed 500 employers and 2000 women, researchers found both groups of participants believed that women became better employees after giving birth. Sixty-two percent of employers said moms made better team players. Almost two-thirds of moms said their multitasking skills improved after having a baby, and almost half said their time management skills got better. More than 25 percent of moms said they became more organized, too.For many women, not going back to work welches never the plan. In fact, for more than three decades, no more than two percent of female high school seniorsplanned to be homemakers by the time they reached 30 years old, even though they did want to be mothers. And although women arentany less satisfied with their jobs after giving birth, according to the new research, between 15 and 18 percent of women stayhome nonetheless.Highly educated women were less likely to quit working than less educated women, but they were more likely to admit that being a parent was harder than theyd ever anticipated. Its hard for a lot of them because the cost of child care has increased, women still dont earn equal pay, theres a lack of family-friendly policies like paid family leave and subsidized child care in the United States, and working mothers work the equivalent of two and a half full-time jobs.The average cost of daycare in the United States is$11,666per year (or $972 a month), according to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. Prices range from $3,582 to$18,773a year (or $300 to $1,564 monthly). In fact, the cost of child care has jumped by 65 percent since the 1980s, according to the research. And without child care, women who still only earn about 80 cents to the male dollar and arent afforded as family-friendly paid leave policies as women in some other countries are working nonstop. A recent Welchs study showed that, when you factor in family duties, working moms pretty much never stop. They work the equivalent of two full-time jobs, clocking in an average of 98 hours per week. The average working mom typically begins her day at 623 a.m. and doesnt stop working until 831 p.m.It is deeply puzzling that at a moment when women are more prepared than ever for long careers in the labor market, norms would change in a manner that encourages them to spend more time at home, the researchers wrote.The rising cost of motherhood rises is outpacing the rising number of women in the workforce and, consequentially, stalling the increaseof women who stick in the workforce, too.--AnnaMarie Houlis is a multimedia journalist and an adventure aficionado with a keen cultural curiosity and an affinity for solo travel. Shes an ed itor by day and a travel blogger at HerReport.org by night.