ELMHURST, Ill., Aug. 6, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- (WITH PACKAGE) Americans profess to place great value on motherhood, yet the American workplace undervalues the economic contribution of mothers and penalizes mothers financially, according to the national women's organization Mothers & More.
"People like to say 'nothing is more American than apple pie and motherhood.' If we truly hold motherhood as an American value, we need to wake up and recognize the financial sacrifices mothers make," said Mothers & More President, Pam Hainlin. "Child-rearing is important and difficult work. We need to make changes in employment and retirement policies so that they don't penalize women for taking time away from the paid workforce to focus on raising children."
Mothers & More represents sequencing women -- mothers who have scaled back their careers in order to care for their children at home. Nationally, roughly half of mothers with children under 18 work less than full time.
According to author Ann Crittenden in The Price of Motherhood, Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued, about 65% of part-time workers are women, mostly mothers. "No equal pay or benefits are required of employers for equal work. Only 22% of part-timers have health insurance and only a quarter have any pension," said Crittenden. She notes that there is a 20% wage gap between part- and full-time workers in similar jobs, and that the wage gap between childless women and mothers under age 35 now exceeds the gender wage gap between men and women under 35. "We need equity and fairness for the people who do the job we claim to respect the most," claims Crittenden.
"The raising of good citizens is tremendously valuable to our society," said Mothers & More's Hainlin. "Let's make sure our workplace and public policies acknowledge and reflect that value."
Mothers & More is an international not-for-profit organization supporting sequencing mothers -- women who have altered their career paths in order to care for their children at home. Mothers & More addresses women's personal needs and interests during their active parenting years, advocates for public and employment policies that accommodate sequencing, promotes recognition and respect for sequencing mothers, and recognizes the right of all women to choose if and how they combine parenting and paid employment. The organization has 8,000 members and 180 chapters in the United States. For more information, log onto www.mothersandmore.org.
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CONTACT: Mothers & More
Catherine Carbone Rogers
(630) 941-3553