Some time ago, on another site, in no way affiliated with this one, I got into a scrap over abortion rights. The argument presented was that since women can choose abortion, they are now responsible for all consequences of their decisions. A woman can abort. A man can’t. Therefore, women who choose to have the child, should absorb all financial obligations and exempt unwilling fathers from child support costs. It amazes me how much women are expected to absorb. We really haven’t come very far, have we? No matter what options a woman has, it still comes down to “You play, you pay.” No matter how many rights we acquire, our costs and responsibilities still exceed them.
An article in today’s Chicago Tribune underscores one of the many injustices that still confronts women of child-bearing age. While women, across the board, make less than men, working mothers make less than anyone. And, the more children we have, the worse the pay gap gets.
— some stats below the fold —
The newest term is the “Mommy Wage Gap,” and it addresses the discrepancy between what employed mothers and other women earn.
According to Heather Boushey, an economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, women with children “earn from 3 to 10 percent less per child compared to employed women without children.”
Boushey adds that when the figures are further broken down, “there is a bigger penalty for women with children for their second child than for their first.”
The numbers: For the first child a woman has, the wage differential in comparison to non-mothers is from 2 to 10 percent less.
For the second child, the gap is from 4 to 16 percent less than for women with no children.
I saw a bit of the “Mommy Track” in action when I worked in publishing. I saw one woman demoted while she was on maternity leave. I saw a woman derided as she stepped onto the elevator at 5:00: “Going home at 5:00, I see. That’s what motherhood does for you.” This from a married man, with children, who apparently thought fatherhood had no such downside. Another co-worker was told that things would be “taken off her plate” when she got married, because she now had 2 jobs. This stuff is real, folks.
I hate to post and run, but I’m off to squeeze in a client while my little one is napping. I wouldn’t trade motherhood for anything, but it costs, my friends. It costs.