8 hours ago
Women's Earnings Never Really Recover After They Have Children
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By the time they hit their mid-30s, women raised on the expectation of ' having it all ' often face a rude reality: There are only so many hours in the day. Juggling full-time jobs, young children and household tasks leaves scores of women burned out and exhausted. Corinne Low, a professor of business economics and public policy at the Wharton School, calls this familiar phenomenon 'the squeeze.' It shows up clearly in time use data the US government collects from households, she says: 'You see just this mountain in child care and housework time at the same time as women are trying to invest in their careers.' For men, the time use impact of those converging demands looks more like 'a little anthill,' she says.
In her forthcoming book, Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women's Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours, Low presents a powerful case that the squeeze reverberates through families' lives long after kids are out of diapers. For the typical US woman, time expenditure at home peaks before income does. This means women can't afford to outsource tasks such as housecleaning or food preparation so they can carve out more hours to focus on getting ahead at work. Their careers can suffer: Some move into less taxing, lower-paying jobs or drop out of the workforce entirely. Others keep grinding but get passed over for promotions. Low cites a study from Sweden that found companies don't give as many promotions to women as men—even women who never have children—to avoid the work disruption and cost of a potential maternity leave.
