The Chicago Tribune reports:
The days of stay-at-home mothers are behind us, asserts a new report from the Center for American Progress, which analyzed national labor data and found that, across the country, the share of moms who financially support their families continues to grow.
Nearly two-thirds of American moms these days (64.4 percent) are breadwinners, the researchers found. That's a hop from 63.3 percent in 2012, the year of the last analysis , and a leap from 1970, when roughly a quarter could claim the title.
"Long gone are the days when the majority of middle- and upper-income women stayed home to raise families full time," the authors wrote. "Instead, in most families, either both parents work or the household is headed by a single parent."
Forty-two percent of mothers in the United States solely or mostly pull the wagon, while 22.4 bring home at least a quarter of household earnings.
There's more:
One middle-class income can no longer support most households, and culture has shifted away from the rigid gender roles of generations past. But public policy hasn't caught up, argues Sarah Jane Glynn, senior policy adviser at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank in the nation's capital.
"The fact that women are bringing home a significant portion of their families' incomes does not mean that there is gender parity in the workforce, nor does it mean that working parents and caregivers have the supports they so vitally need," she wrote. "A lack of policies such as universal paid family and medical leave, paid sick days and workplace flexibility still hold women back from reaching their full economic potential."
The Soros-Steyer funded Center For American Progress is pushing their next big goal: raising the cost of hiring women of child bearing years via federal mandates.
