David Leonhardt devotes his column today to the motherhood problem in the workplace. He cites research showing that many of the differences in earnings and promotion between women and men stems from women taking time off -- or moving to a part-time schedule -- for family reasons. On the other hand, women without children earn almost as much and do almost as well as men (though there's still a difference).
Latoya Peterson found much the same thing when she wrote about the wealth gap for TAP in March: The gender gap in pay and wealth is largely a motherhood gap. Black and Hispanic single mothers, unsurprisingly, earn the least on average than any other group. Part of the problem is also an earnings threshold: Mothers tend not to earn enough to access certain tax benefits that help increase wealth. Leonhardt says one of the big problems is that feminism addressed the way women were treated at work, but not the way mothers are penalized for taking a path that deviates at all from a traditional career.
It's not entirely true that feminists haven't concerned themselves with this; women's rights groups have been working on family issues for some time. Still, more family-friendly policies would be better for all. On that front, we could try to force employers to stop punishing mothers. However, this might make it seem that women need a crutch to play catch-up. A better solution is to enact policies, like paid parental leave for everyone, that would more equitably narrow the work gap at home as well as in the workplace. Encouraging fathers to make the same kinds of familial choices women do might be better at removing barriers for women and put both sexes on equal footing.
-- Monica Potts
