U Magazine, Spring 1987

MY TURN New answers needed to working/parenting conflict

I t's quite clear in our society and throughout the indus– trialized world that unless women work the economic situation of children is inadequate. However.if the focus is only on women working, then we shortchange our children. Conside r this: More than one fifth of all children under the age of 18 in the U.S. were poor last year. These ch ildren lived in famil ies in which family income was below the poverty level - even after welfare and food stamps. During the past seven or eight years there has been a significant increase in the proportion of children who are poor. Why are so many ch ildren in the United States poor? Why is the poverty rate in the U.S. higher than in other countries?What might be done to reduce the ch ild poverty rate? The problem of child poverty has become increasingly one in which there is a family with only one parent and therefore , by definition, only one earner. If that wage earner is a woman she·s likely to be a low wage earner, leav– ing family income very inadequate. The end result is a pov– erty rate for ch ildren in mother-only families of about 54 percent in 1984, for example. Part of our child poverty problem, and a big part, has to do with the fact that as a country we continue to be ambi– valent about women·s roles. We haven·t made up our minds about whether women with young ch ildren should be in the workforce or whether they should be at home. Until we resolve our ambivalence. we cannot resolve the problem of child poverty. How then , can we deal with this situation? Fathers by and large are overwhelming in the work force. Most mothers are too. Look at the national statistics. About 70 percent of the mothers with school age children are in the work force. But it's not only a question ofprovidingjobs. It's also a question of dealing with the basic social support that"s necessary if you are going to be a working parent. That means everyth ing from receiving health insurance on the job to having good child care services accessible and affordable. In all of the discussion , there also tends to be inadequate attention to two very important issues. The first is that for family income to be adequate - even in single parent families - not all absent fathers can afford to pay the level of ch ild support necessary to assure a child a decent stan– dard of living. In addition , not all jobs pay wages adequate to meet the income needs of families . The problem of the gap between wages and family needs is not unique to the United States. Nor is the problem of the large numbers of s ingle parent, mother-only families. a phenomenon unique to the U.S. However. there are many other countries that do far better with regard to children because they provide far more in the way of financial support - both for children in single– parent families and also for families in which the wage earner is not able to earn a wage that meets family needs. What we have failed to acknowledge is what every other major industrial country provides - an income supple– ment for the working poor or the modest income families that becomes absolu tely critical if children are to have an adequate standard of living. Some of this stems from the fact that a lot ofother countries. unlike the U.S. , believe

that if adults have a child and the child is well cared for , and reared well. that child provides a benefit to the society at large. There is a recognition that ch ildren are a con– tribution to society as a whole. The objectives of public policies in a number of other industrialized countries are that you equalize the financial burden of the families with children and those without children. Among the special types of policies used are family or child allowances, refundable cash credits, housing and guaranteed minimum child support payments. The second issue is that we in the United States have to pay more serious and more systematic attention to those social supports which are so important to the working par– ent. Until now, most of the discussion about the problems of managing work and family life has been in the context of two highly educated professional couples. Until we recog– nize that managing work and family is going to be at least as difficult for those single mothers who have limited edu– cation and limi ted skills as it is for married and career women, we're not going to improve the situation for chil– dren very significantly. Other countries have essentially acknowledged that if adu lts are going to carry out parenting responsibilities and work responsibilities simultaneously, then there has to be a whole series ofadaptations at the work place and in the society to make this possible. For example, the prevail– ing pattern in European countries is for about six months of paid maternity leave and extended unpaid , but job-pro– tected leave in addition. Similarly, in a number of Euro– pean countries , if children are ill, working parents have the right to take off time from work to stay home and take care of the children. In this country, the most progressive employers in the country will announce proudly, 'we let our women take their own sick leave if they wish to stay home when their child is ill". That"s considered very gener– ous policy. Likewise, in this country we debate the issue of child care and who should provide it and where should it be and whether the quality should be regulated. Many other coun– tries already have in place universal public. free, voluntary pre-school programs for all three , four and five year olds. They go whether the mother is working or not, because people think it's good for kids. So ifwe really want to develop strategies to improve the s ituation and the condition of our children·s lives, strategies that ultimately lead to improved well being for children, then we have to pay attention to the fact that chil– dren have to be cared for and nurtured and reared and sup– ported in a variety ofways that include providing adequate financial support. We also have to begin to acknowledge that ifwe help adults to be more adequate parents and bet– ter parents, if we help them to manage better in terms of ach ieving a higher standard of living, ifwe help them become able to cope with working and family life some– what better, we're not making them more dependent. We 're really investing in the future of the children and in the future of our society. • This is an edited version of a lecture presented at USD by Dr. Sheila Kamerman. a social planning expert who teaches at Columbia University's School ofSocial Work. Dr. Kamerman was the lceynote spealcerfor USD's six– part series titled , "Dilemmas in Economic Policy ."

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