FINAL RESEACH PAPER
Working mothers is a subject that many people have an opinion on. Many people don’t believe that mothers should work while others support the idea of mothers working. Women are increasing in the workforce and the number will keep growing in the future. This is why the workforce needs to accommodate mothers who work.
For starters, mothers in the workforce are growing in numbers. These mothers work anywhere from part time to full time a week. According to an article written by Diana Lavery titled, More Mothers of Young Children in U.S. Workforce, two in three women with children younger than the age of six work part time. The article goes on to adding that in 2011 3% of mothers with children younger than six were self-employed. Mothers are leaving the average 9-5 jobs to pursue careers in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a great option for mothers because it offers them the flexibility of the hours that they need between raising a child and working.
Women are still taking over the workplace while a lot of them are leaving to be stay at home moms but women are still making less than men are. According to The Economist Newspaper, 49% of women do not work outside of the house and after the millennium it dropped to 23%. Not all mothers can stay at work due to high cost of daycare and having no benefits for example maternity leave, so they have to quit their jobs and stay home with the kids. If the work environment was more accommodating then mothers would be able to work and take care of their children. The article also says, “How can women be taking over the workplace while simultaneously opting out of it? The answer is that men have been quitting the labor force even faster. Overall labor-force participation (for both sexes) has been declining since 2000, but for men it has fallen faster (from 75% to 69%) than for women (60% to 57%). In 40% of households with children a woman is now the primary breadwinner, though in most of those cases (26% of the total) that is because she is the only one.” That should be a huge wakeup call to assist mothers in the workforce since a lot of women in the workforce are the only bread winners in their families.
If women feel they need to leave their jobs because they had a baby then the workforce is doing something wrong. Attendance for women at work lacks comparing to men due to many reason, one being the fact that they are mothers. Adding a daycare for children at work could be very beneficiary for working mothers even for single working fathers. Childcare is very expensive and can hold a major toll on finances. Sometimes the mother cannot afford to put her child into daycare so she has to quit her job to stay home with the baby. This can cost companies a lot because at the end of the day what is happening is that they are losing an employee. To prevent this from happening, big companies can possibly look into getting an onsite day care. If companies had on-site daycare or offered to pay for child care they would save more money than firing and replacing the working mother. The only downfall to that would be that the daycare costs could end up being higher than expected, hurting company profit. Companies would have to budget in daycare costs.
The Guardian News and Media published an article called, The Costs of Childcare: How Britain Compares with Sweden, and the article compares child care costs between 3 countries. It compares costs between The United States, England and Sweden. The article reads, “According to a recent report by the Family and Childcare Trust, British parents are handing over more than $7,500 a year for childcare for two children, around 4.7% more than the average mortgage bill. One in three mothers say they have been put off having another child by the cost of childcare, while 77% of parents say they would choose to work less and spend more time with their children if childcare in the UK was more affordable.” In the United States parents don’t receive any kind of financial aid for childcare. Sometimes mothers in the Unites States do not have any paid maternity leave. This goes for both mothers and fathers. If your employer employs more than 50 employees the mother should be allowed 12 weeks unpaid leave but that does not happen. The article interviewed a women by the name of Angela Lewis who got to take some time off after having a baby but she goes on to saying, "I would love to have an extra day off with my daughter every week, but in the States you're expected to be either a full-time mom or hold down a full-time job. There's a lot of pressure and if you go part-time, you don't get health insurance." Angela Lewis pays $15,000 a year for her daughter to be in childcare full time which is about the average for childcare costs in the United States. In Sweden, the country places children as their top priority so they get an even balance between work and family whereas in the United States it seems to be work is the priority.
Women should be allowed maternity leave within their company no matter how big or small the firm is. Maternity leave is time off a working mother takes either during or after her pregnancy. Maternity leaves differ with pay, some companies offer it, others don’t. Maternity leave varies state to state and it also varies with different companies. Some companies are less lenient than others. According to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (created in 1978), the law denies employers to fire or move an employee down from their position just because she is pregnant. An article posted in the Bloomberg news titled, Can the U.S. Ever Fix Its Messed-up Maternity Leave System: Why U.S. maternity leave policies still fail women and children, there are only two countries in the entire world that don’t offer some type of maternity leave and they are Papua New Guinea and the United States. 78 countries offer some kind of leave to new fathers. A good point was made across in the article saying that, “We have these policies set up for them Mad Menera when dads worked and moms stayed at home. But that doesn’t reflect the American workforce anymore.” That is a very good point that we don’t think about in the workplace and that is an issue when the United States lags in maternity leave.
According to Excelle, a network for the career-minded women, 47% of the American workforce is female and of those working females 85% are or will become mothers. Workplace accommodations should take place in the workforce. Whether that be daycare in the workplace, maternity leave or even giving a private for mothers who breastfeed. Excelle confirms that, “The US Breastfeeding Committee estimates that for every $1 invested in breast-feeding support, a company saves $3 for an average savings of $400 per breast-fed baby over the first year.” This not the only saving the companies will make. If women were allowed to bread feed at work they decrease absences by 57%. That saves companies money by keeping everyone on track at work and not having to hire someone else to catch up on things that are needed to be done. There is an economic and social benefit to breast feeding that employers need to understand. They can have a private room for women choosing to breast feed their child. This is a law in 10 states. The article also mentioned daycare facilities at the workplace saying, “New mothers have other workplace concerns besides breast-feeding, including infant care. Misty Rose is CEO of KidCentric, a Livermore, California, firm that helps companies organize child-care programs. Although most of her work involves 2-to-5-year-olds, she recalls one small company where two key employees were due to deliver at the same time. KidCentric helped convert a portion of a warehouse into a care facility licensed for four infants. Both women returned to work within six weeks.” This goes on to proving a point that if companies supported new mothers then the working mothers could return to work faster, again, saving the company more money.
During this course we read a textbook written by L. Dias called Human Resource Management. In this textbook we learn about all different things having to do with Human Resource Management. Specifically, in chapter 7 of the textbook it talks about retention and motivation. This adds to everything written above about mothers in the workplace. It would cost more for a company to replace the new mother than to fire her and find somebody new. In chapter 6 of the textbook it talks about compensation and benefits. This part of the chapter went along perfectly with different benefits that employers could offer to working mothers like maternity leave, daycare in the workplace and breastfeeding.
Working mothers are on the rise in the United States and the numbers are not going to decrease. If companies focused on keeping their employees and helping mothers having a good balance between work and home their companies would strive and prosper. The United States needs to work on adding in these kinds of benefits that are both beneficial socially and economically.
Works Cited
"What's the Future for Women in the Workplace?" The Balance. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan.
2017.
Lavery, Diana. "More Mothers of Young Children in U.S. Workforce." More Mothers of Young Children
in U.S. Workforce. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.
Suddath, Claire. "Can the U.S. Ever Fix Its Messed-Up Maternity Leave System?" Bloomberg.com.
Bloomberg, 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
"How Employers Can Accommodate New Mothers at Work." Excelle. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
"Day Care in the Workplace." Day Care in the Workplace | Chron.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Ferguson, Donna. "The Costs of Childcare: How Britain Compares with Sweden." The Guardian.
Guardian News and Media, 31 May 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
"The Return of the Stay-at-home Mother." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 19 Apr. 2014.
Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Dias, L. (2011). Human Resource Management. Saylor.org/books. ISBN 13: 978-1-4533194-3-7.
Downloaded Jan. 15, 2014
For starters, mothers in the workforce are growing in numbers. These mothers work anywhere from part time to full time a week. According to an article written by Diana Lavery titled, More Mothers of Young Children in U.S. Workforce, two in three women with children younger than the age of six work part time. The article goes on to adding that in 2011 3% of mothers with children younger than six were self-employed. Mothers are leaving the average 9-5 jobs to pursue careers in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a great option for mothers because it offers them the flexibility of the hours that they need between raising a child and working.
Women are still taking over the workplace while a lot of them are leaving to be stay at home moms but women are still making less than men are. According to The Economist Newspaper, 49% of women do not work outside of the house and after the millennium it dropped to 23%. Not all mothers can stay at work due to high cost of daycare and having no benefits for example maternity leave, so they have to quit their jobs and stay home with the kids. If the work environment was more accommodating then mothers would be able to work and take care of their children. The article also says, “How can women be taking over the workplace while simultaneously opting out of it? The answer is that men have been quitting the labor force even faster. Overall labor-force participation (for both sexes) has been declining since 2000, but for men it has fallen faster (from 75% to 69%) than for women (60% to 57%). In 40% of households with children a woman is now the primary breadwinner, though in most of those cases (26% of the total) that is because she is the only one.” That should be a huge wakeup call to assist mothers in the workforce since a lot of women in the workforce are the only bread winners in their families.
If women feel they need to leave their jobs because they had a baby then the workforce is doing something wrong. Attendance for women at work lacks comparing to men due to many reason, one being the fact that they are mothers. Adding a daycare for children at work could be very beneficiary for working mothers even for single working fathers. Childcare is very expensive and can hold a major toll on finances. Sometimes the mother cannot afford to put her child into daycare so she has to quit her job to stay home with the baby. This can cost companies a lot because at the end of the day what is happening is that they are losing an employee. To prevent this from happening, big companies can possibly look into getting an onsite day care. If companies had on-site daycare or offered to pay for child care they would save more money than firing and replacing the working mother. The only downfall to that would be that the daycare costs could end up being higher than expected, hurting company profit. Companies would have to budget in daycare costs.
The Guardian News and Media published an article called, The Costs of Childcare: How Britain Compares with Sweden, and the article compares child care costs between 3 countries. It compares costs between The United States, England and Sweden. The article reads, “According to a recent report by the Family and Childcare Trust, British parents are handing over more than $7,500 a year for childcare for two children, around 4.7% more than the average mortgage bill. One in three mothers say they have been put off having another child by the cost of childcare, while 77% of parents say they would choose to work less and spend more time with their children if childcare in the UK was more affordable.” In the United States parents don’t receive any kind of financial aid for childcare. Sometimes mothers in the Unites States do not have any paid maternity leave. This goes for both mothers and fathers. If your employer employs more than 50 employees the mother should be allowed 12 weeks unpaid leave but that does not happen. The article interviewed a women by the name of Angela Lewis who got to take some time off after having a baby but she goes on to saying, "I would love to have an extra day off with my daughter every week, but in the States you're expected to be either a full-time mom or hold down a full-time job. There's a lot of pressure and if you go part-time, you don't get health insurance." Angela Lewis pays $15,000 a year for her daughter to be in childcare full time which is about the average for childcare costs in the United States. In Sweden, the country places children as their top priority so they get an even balance between work and family whereas in the United States it seems to be work is the priority.
Women should be allowed maternity leave within their company no matter how big or small the firm is. Maternity leave is time off a working mother takes either during or after her pregnancy. Maternity leaves differ with pay, some companies offer it, others don’t. Maternity leave varies state to state and it also varies with different companies. Some companies are less lenient than others. According to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (created in 1978), the law denies employers to fire or move an employee down from their position just because she is pregnant. An article posted in the Bloomberg news titled, Can the U.S. Ever Fix Its Messed-up Maternity Leave System: Why U.S. maternity leave policies still fail women and children, there are only two countries in the entire world that don’t offer some type of maternity leave and they are Papua New Guinea and the United States. 78 countries offer some kind of leave to new fathers. A good point was made across in the article saying that, “We have these policies set up for them Mad Menera when dads worked and moms stayed at home. But that doesn’t reflect the American workforce anymore.” That is a very good point that we don’t think about in the workplace and that is an issue when the United States lags in maternity leave.
According to Excelle, a network for the career-minded women, 47% of the American workforce is female and of those working females 85% are or will become mothers. Workplace accommodations should take place in the workforce. Whether that be daycare in the workplace, maternity leave or even giving a private for mothers who breastfeed. Excelle confirms that, “The US Breastfeeding Committee estimates that for every $1 invested in breast-feeding support, a company saves $3 for an average savings of $400 per breast-fed baby over the first year.” This not the only saving the companies will make. If women were allowed to bread feed at work they decrease absences by 57%. That saves companies money by keeping everyone on track at work and not having to hire someone else to catch up on things that are needed to be done. There is an economic and social benefit to breast feeding that employers need to understand. They can have a private room for women choosing to breast feed their child. This is a law in 10 states. The article also mentioned daycare facilities at the workplace saying, “New mothers have other workplace concerns besides breast-feeding, including infant care. Misty Rose is CEO of KidCentric, a Livermore, California, firm that helps companies organize child-care programs. Although most of her work involves 2-to-5-year-olds, she recalls one small company where two key employees were due to deliver at the same time. KidCentric helped convert a portion of a warehouse into a care facility licensed for four infants. Both women returned to work within six weeks.” This goes on to proving a point that if companies supported new mothers then the working mothers could return to work faster, again, saving the company more money.
During this course we read a textbook written by L. Dias called Human Resource Management. In this textbook we learn about all different things having to do with Human Resource Management. Specifically, in chapter 7 of the textbook it talks about retention and motivation. This adds to everything written above about mothers in the workplace. It would cost more for a company to replace the new mother than to fire her and find somebody new. In chapter 6 of the textbook it talks about compensation and benefits. This part of the chapter went along perfectly with different benefits that employers could offer to working mothers like maternity leave, daycare in the workplace and breastfeeding.
Working mothers are on the rise in the United States and the numbers are not going to decrease. If companies focused on keeping their employees and helping mothers having a good balance between work and home their companies would strive and prosper. The United States needs to work on adding in these kinds of benefits that are both beneficial socially and economically.
Works Cited
"What's the Future for Women in the Workplace?" The Balance. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan.
2017.
Lavery, Diana. "More Mothers of Young Children in U.S. Workforce." More Mothers of Young Children
in U.S. Workforce. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.
Suddath, Claire. "Can the U.S. Ever Fix Its Messed-Up Maternity Leave System?" Bloomberg.com.
Bloomberg, 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
"How Employers Can Accommodate New Mothers at Work." Excelle. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
"Day Care in the Workplace." Day Care in the Workplace | Chron.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Ferguson, Donna. "The Costs of Childcare: How Britain Compares with Sweden." The Guardian.
Guardian News and Media, 31 May 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
"The Return of the Stay-at-home Mother." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 19 Apr. 2014.
Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Dias, L. (2011). Human Resource Management. Saylor.org/books. ISBN 13: 978-1-4533194-3-7.
Downloaded Jan. 15, 2014