In the last twenty years the cost of childcare has outstripped every other item in the family budget. Meanwhile the quality of care is lower than any other developed nation in the world. According to the latest Pew Research Center study, a growing number of parents are opting out of the workforce as a result -- and despite the Lean-In and feminist revolutions -- the parent dropping out of the workforce is still, usually, a mom. Is the exploding expense of childcare setting back the clock on the women's movement? Should the government subsidize childcare as aggressively as higher education? Should the United States have federally mandated paid parental leave and more subsidies for childcare?
When Childcare Costs as Much as College
More
- Childcare Aware on the cost of childcare
- Kurtzleben on the cost of raising an American child
- Dillon Matthews on who gets the biggest childcare tax breaks
- UNICEF's overview of child well-being in rich countries
- Moms Rising
- Straus on what stalled the gender revolution, the cost of childcare
- Amsterdam Mamas on the Dutch childcare system
Credits
Guests:
- Danielle Kurtzleben - NPR - @titonka
- Arlie Hochschild - University of California, Berkeley
- Tamara Straus - University of California, Berkeley
- Emmy McCarthy - Amsterdam Mamas - @IAmEmmyMcC