Ann Romney, stay-at-home moms and the real facts about women at work

Ann Romney, stay-at-home moms and the real facts about women at work

US government researchers find most women who stay home with kids are less educated and can't afford to pay for child care
Dominic Rushe in New York
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 April 2012 15.03 EDT

Hilary Rosen's attack on Ann Romney handed husband Mitt a rare PR opportunity with women. But the debate over the value of stay-at-home motherhood obscures the real picture of women in the workforce, and without.

• The number of stay-at-home mothers dropped from 9.8 million in 1969 to 5.7 million in 2009, according to a paper by Rose Kreider and Diana Elliott, of the US census bureau.

• From 1969 to 2009, the number of women with a bachelor's degree rose from 9% to 42%, according to Kreider and Elliott. They concluded that women who stay home are increasingly those who are less educated and can't earn enough money to make working outside the home worthwhile.

• Low-wage mothers are particularly hard hit by the difficulty in finding child care. Funding for pre-school programs recently hit a decade low, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/apr/12/ann-romney-stay-home-moms