Day Care
Frank A. Loda MD1
1 Professor of Pediatrics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
The fundamental and noncontroversial fact about day care is that increasing numbers of children will be in some form of day care during the next decade as their mothers join the work force. Only a major unforeseen economic or social upheaval will prevent this trend from continuing. More than 37% of women who have children under the age of 6 years—more than 5 million—now work. One third of mothers of children under 2 years of age are in the work force.
REASONS WOMEN WORK
Most women work because of economic need.1 For some women, such as those in single parent families, economic need means providing the basic necessities. For other women, the economic need is to maintain a middle class living standard or to finance educational programs for their children. Other considerations are important. Many women feel the need to escape the constant responsibility of child care. Many find the work-related social contacts and achievements fulfilling. The latter are particularly important to middle and upper class women who possess the job skills appropriate to achievement of professional or managerial status. Most women who lack specific job skills are limited to low-paying and low-status positions. Women also join the work force because of the growing belief in our society that homemaking and child care are not a worthwhile, full-time task.
