Revisiting the Mommy Track - the generation that has it all? "by Jane Bryant Quinn, July 17, 2000, for Newsweek Magazine."
"Jane Bryant Quinn, best-selling author of "Making the Most of Your
Money," published by Simon and Schuster."
About choice:
As feminists would say, it's all about choice, and choice is
influenced by circumstance. The stagnant 70s and downsized 80s sent
mothers to work even against their will. The more prosperous 90s freed
many of them to reconsider.
I asked economics professor Diane Macunovich of Barnard College in New
York City to look at the data on women and jobs. It's too early to reach
definitive conclusions, she says, but the changes all run in the same
direction:
Young men's real wages are going up. In particular, they're going up in
relation to what their parents earn. This gives them more confidence that
they'll reach or exceed their parents' standard of living, Macunovich
says. It also give couples more confidence that they can rely on the
husband's earning power. (In only a small percentage of couples does the
women's career take the lead.)
Young women's fertility rates have tended to follow the changes in young
men's relative wages - an interesting factoid if ever their was one. And,
yes, for twentysomethings fertility is up. Macunovich isn't suggesting
the kind of sexy frolic that instantly leaps to mind. She thinks that
higher male earning power leads to earlier marriages and then to babies
(whew).
Among mothers 36 to 40, work schedules are changing. More are opting
for part-time jobs. During those years, which often coincides with the
birth of a second child, more are leaving the labor force altogether.
The women most likely to go part time are those who earn the highest
hourly pay. "Many economists thought that higher female earning power
would kill off the family," Macunovich says. "Instead, women are using
their earnings to buy back personal time." TO keep them even part time,
employers have to offer flexible schedules, telecommuting or shorter
hours. Joanne Brundage, a former postal worker and founder of a support
group, Mothers & More, in Elmhurst, Ill., calls it "sequencing" -
switching in and out of the work force depending on your time of life.
Still homemaking remains a luxury purchase. Among mothers with lower
hourly pay, rising numbers are taking full-time paying jobs. They can't
afford to stay home.
A higher portion of women are choosing "women's work", such as nursing
and teaching. It's no coincidence that these jobs offer many options for
part-timers.
