Once children come along, women are still “opting out” or downscaling their careers to take care of their new family, even though some countries have stepped up the support for working parents. It is starting to become noticeable that this is actually a worldwide phenomenon, most of the time due to one partner earning enough that the mother can afford not to work, or for the mother’s job not paying enough to cover childcare costs. The main drivers are educational attainment and childcare issues. In the US, mothers at the top of the “educational ladder are disproportionally opting out” according to Joni Hersch, professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Women with bachelor’s degrees from the most elite universities are 20% less likely to work, if they are married with children, than those who do not have children. Women with the same degree from lesser-ranked schools are only 13.5% less likely to work. These percentages are magnified when Women who receive bachelor’s degrees from the most-selective schools continue to earn an MBA. 35% of women with bachelors degrees from these schools will also hold an MBA and work full time, in comparison to 66% of women MBA holders from less-selective schools. “For a lot of women, when they’re struggling through that tough pipeline mid-career phase when everything is on their shoulders at work and at home, what women need is to have really strong opportunities to make it worth it for them and their families” says Ilene Lang, president and CEO of Catalyst, a New York-based non-profit that advocates for executive women.
The other reason for women leaving the work force for their families is the cost and quality of childcare. Another pull for women is that especially in the media, there is an attitude that women should start focusing more on their kids when they are young, says Julia Broussard, the country program manager of UN Women’s China office. In Sweden the availability of high-quality childcare is plenty, there is a guaranteed spot at public preschools for all children, and the parents are charged no more than 3% of their salary for the care. Other European countries are not the same. A report in 2007 by McKinsey & Co showed that employment rates for mothers “ranged from a high of 78% in Sweden to a low of 42% in Spain” (Schoenberger), and probably lower for mothers in the hardest-hit countries since the European financial crisis.
Are you a working mother? How do you balance work life and family life?
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