More about Women

Posted by Sheila Redick on March 13, 2006

Media, like most industries, tend to run in packs.  A few months ago, the big story was women dropping out of the workforce to raise children.  Turns out, that's not true.

In fact, most women with children "work outside the home."  (I've always found that nomenclature a bit strained.  If women who stay at home "work," then women who "work outside the home" must have two jobs -- one inside the home and one outside the home.)  Women who are most likely to stay home with their children are younger than 24 and only have high school diplomas.  Older, more educated moms are more likely to keep working.  And when when women quit to raise children, they rarely retire for good, according to Newsweek's Peg Tyre.  "According to a report issued in December by the Census, 75 percent of women with school-age children are employed or looking for work.  By the time their children are 12 or older, that number rises to 80 percent," wrote Tyre.  "'The nature of the economy,' says Kathleen Gerson, a New York University sociologist, means that only a very tiny percentage of women -- very wealthy ones' can afford to leave the workforce entirely." 

Actually, the percent of both men and women working has dropped, and with an uncertain job market (and changing family circumstances), Tyre writes that young women at home are prepared to go back to work if necessary.