As women increasingly entered the labor force throughout the late 20th century, the challenges of balancing work and family came to the forefront. We leverage pronounced changes in the availability of public schooling for young children--through duration expansions to the kindergarten day--to better understand mothers' and families' constraints.…

Public schools in the United States saw unprecedented reductions to in-person instruction during the 2020-2021 school year. Using the Elementary School Operating Status database, the American Community Survey, and the Current Population Survey, we show remote instruction was associated with reduced employment among mothers compared with fathers…

This qualitative grounded theory study delves into the profound impact of the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic (COVID-19) on Black working mothers, shedding light on its consequences on their pursuit of education and mental well-being. While prior research has explored the effects of COVID-19 on Black working mothers, this study focuses on the…

This phenomenological study extends the current research on working mothers to teacher mothers. Themes highlighted include work/life enrichment, support for motherhood role, challenge to find balance, challenging cultural norms, financial challenges, and strategies for managing multiple roles. Findings reveal and highlight challenges and…

Achieving prosperity for all Americans could not be more urgent. Although the United States remains the most prosperous nation on earth, millions of citizens are losing faith in the American dream of upward mobility, and in American-style capitalism itself. This crisis of confidence has widened the divide afflicting American politics and cries out…

Access to quality child care profoundly impacts the life chances of low-income single mothers and their children. Tennessee is among the top 10 states with the worst poverty numbers for children, with a poverty rate of 31% for children under six years old. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) sets forth guidelines adopted by state…

In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama made a historic pledge to provide universal, high-quality pre-K education to the nation's children. Early childhood education has myriad benefits, including better, more equitable long-term outcomes for children of divergent economic backgrounds Moreover, investments in these programs…

This paper focuses on the methodology of a study that asked what factors English mothers of very young babies consider when making employment decisions and childcare choices, and sought their views on the idea of carers in day care settings "loving" their children. After a characterisation of life historical study, a four-staged process…

The role of grandparents and other close relatives in caring for the children of working mothers has been diminishing in modern societies everywhere including Jordan. Concurrently, the dependence on housemaids to care for the children of working mothers has been on the rise. The impact of housemaids on young Jordanian children (4-5 years old) was…

Many argue that childcare costs limit the labor supply of mothers, though existing evidence has been mixed. Using a child's eligibility for public kindergarten in a regression discontinuity instrumental variables framework, I estimate how use of a particular subsidy, public school, affects maternal labor supply. I find public school enrollment…

Professional women with children are inundated with conflicting messages about how to manage their careers and personal lives and whether they should "opt in" or "opt out" of the workforce. Using in-depth interviews with 23 professional women, this study focused on the career choices that women make after having children. The authors found that…

Families across the United States must routinely make difficult choices about child care arrangements because of the need to resume a job, continue an education or training program, or care for other family members. Leaving children in the care of others for the first time can be difficult (Sayer, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004; Van Horn, Ramey,…

With increasing numbers of women joining the workforce, there is a need for quality childcare. This project, conducted in Japan and using a large number of participants, sought to standardize an evaluation scale to measure the development of children. The development of children under six years of age (N = 22,819) who are enrolled in childcare…

Hays (1996) was the first to describe the construct of intensive mothering beliefs, yet little empirical research exists to substantiate its prevalence among contemporary mothers and its implications for their lives. The purpose of this study was to examine the construct of intensive mothering beliefs and its longitudinal associations with…

This study examined the use of multiple, concurrent, nonparental child-care arrangements among children under 5 with employed mothers in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N= 759). Older children, those primarily cared for in informal child care, those living in cohabitating or single-parent households, and those whose…