Midwestern moms more likely to be working
That's one of the findings in a new piece of research out from the U.S. Census. The headline news from Fertility of American Women: 2006 is that 20% of women aged 40 to 44 have no children, twice the level of 30 years ago.
But what was really surprising to me was that of the women still having kids, those in the Midwest are more likely to go back to work within the first year. Check out this map:
Jane Lawler Dye, the author of the report, speculates that maybe it's because there are more day care options for mothers in that part of the country. I called her up, and she pointed me to this other map:
Pretty similar, no?
I guess I always assumed new mothers go back to work for reasons related to either career (they want to) or finances (they have to). That the number of working mothers could be tied to a structural element—more working mothers because more entrepreneurs decide to open day care centers—is pretty interesting.
It's also, I should point out, half-baked. That's not a knock at Dye—she was clear that her linking of these two things was not a scientifically tested conclusion. She didn't say there was cause and effect; she simply highlighted the data overlap.
To learn more, she suggested I talk to her colleague, child care expert Lynda Laughlin. Laughlin took me to some data tables that showed children under five in the South are more likely to be in day care than children in the Northeast, Midwest or West. Just because mothers in the Midwest have more access to day care doesn't mean they use it at a higher rate.
So what's going on? Beats me. It's not exactly perfect methodology to mix these data sets, since one is measuring women and the other is measuring their kids (and the number of kids per mother varies by region). We're also being pretty lose with our definitions—the statement that there are more working mothers "in the Midwest" comes from eyeballing a map. Still, I think it's a fascinating area for more research, and I told Dye and Laughlin that. Or maybe someone should put in a call to Steven Levitt.
Barbara!
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Or it could be precisely the opposite. There are more day care centers because women in that area go back to work.
However, neither theory is actually true. Since the free market balances these things out, both sides of the equation are providing inputs as to the number, price, and quality of day care in the region.
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Barbara wrote: I guess I always assumed new mothers go back to work for reasons related to either career (they want to) or finances (they have to). That the number of working mothers could be tied to a structural element—more working mothers because more entrepreneurs decide to open day care centers—is pretty interesting.
Now I bow to your extensive knowledge of economics; what I know about the subject could fit into a thimble, along with my general interest in it if I'm being honest with you. But is relationship between the availability of daycare and the number of working mothers really such a surprise?
Or perhaps I misunderstand...entirely possible.
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The thing that surprised me was that a higher percentage of women with children under a year old are working in places like Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Minnesota. Feel free to call me out-of-touch, but I would have expected stay-at-home moms to be a bigger slice of the pie in those places, considering that cost of living is generally lower than on the coasts, and society is maybe -- how should I say this? -- a little less judgemental about women who decide to "not work." (Full disclosure: I'm about as familiar with child rearing as Lulu Lulu claims to be with economics.)
As for the day care connection: I'm not arguing against supply and demand, rrsafety, just raising the question of which came first. Maybe I read too much behavioral economics, but especially since a higher percentage of kids are in daycare in the South, I can't help but wonder if more women in the Midwest wind up going back to work because when they're driving around they go past so many day care centers -- and think about how easy it would be to drop the kid off in the morning and pick him up on the way home from the office.
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But that's also defining daycare as a CENTER. One of the links above defined daycare this way: "Child care providers can be broadly classified as being relatives or nonrelatives of children. " That means that daycare isn't just those cute little shops with painted windows and alphabet carpets; they are also the woman in the neighborhood who watches three kids at home or the grandmother who keeps her grandchildren while her son or daughter goes to work. That actually fits in much better with what I've seen in Ohio (not so affluent) and in the DC area (more affluent)--most of the working women I have known either leave their child with a relative or a babysitter, not in a drop-off center. It's cheaper (sometimes free!)and more flexible than true daycare businesses.
I'm certainly no expert, though. If you are so inclined, try Table 5 and 6 listed on this page: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/child/ppl-2005.html . I can't download them because I'm at work, but they would certainly shed some light on all of this.
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Also...since I'm having a great time beating a dead horse...while the highlighted areas have a lower cost of living, they also have lower incomes and it's extremely difficult to make it financially with only one income.
The choice of working outside the home is a "choice" for very few. While those areas might embrace more "traditional" values with regards to women working outside the home, the reality is two incomes are needed to achieve a decent standard of living.
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@Lulu Lulu: If you're having a great time on the Curious Capitalist, beating a dead horse or otherwise, I'm happy. You're right that those data tables show other sorts of child care options, like kids being watched by grandparents, though, to be clear, all the numbers I quoted above were for formal day care centers. There's a lot of fodder for further research... if only we knew someone whose job it was to do that sort of thing.
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