<commit_before>---
title: Women Are Working More Than Ever, But They Still Take On Most Household Responsibilities
date: 2019-05-06 11:00:00 -04:00
published: false
categories:
- lifestyle
image: "/uploads/charisse-kenion-704696-unsplash.jpg"
---

*This piece was originally published in March on my [Forbes Women](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiegermano/2019/03/27/women-are-working-more-than-ever-but-they-still-take-on-most-household-responsibilities/#fb77a352e9eb) column.*

Women’s History Month has ended, but there is still time to celebrate how far women have come, while also pointing out areas where we can still do better as a society. Women have come a long way in terms of progress and equality, especially in the workplace.

* The wage gap between men and women has fallen over the past several decades.

* For the past 20 years, women have outpaced men in college attendance and degrees.

* Forty-nine percent of employed women in the United States, including 42 percent of working mothers, say they are their family’s main breadwinner.

Of course, women have not achieved true equality in the workplace. In fact, according to a [2018 McKinsey Report](https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2018), gender-based progress has stalled in recent years. The wage gap, gender-based discrimination, and sexual harassment still persist. ([Fun fact:](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/12/05/10-facts-about-american-women-in-the-workforce/) Almost 60 percent of women would earn more if they were paid the same as men with equivalent levels of education and work hours.) But we definitely are better off than we were 50 years ago.

However, while women are more educated and more employed than ever, they are still taking on most of the household and familial duties. And it’s not just about chores and childcare; women are also much more likely to be the ones who care for sick or elderly family members. Although working mothers spend more time on work, household labor, and child care than fathers, they are not more likely to have access to workplace policies such as paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, and affordable childcare.

**How does this imbalance affect women?**

* Fifty-four percent of women took leave from work when first becoming a parent as opposed to 42 percent of men. Plus, women take ten times as much temporary leave from work as men upon the arrival of a child. Without a national paid leave policy, this usually means that women are taking home less or no money during their time off. This can lead to long-term financial consequences, due to loss of income and benefits, missed raises and promotions, and inability to fund their retirement accounts and Social Security.

* Women are eight times more likely than men to look after sick children or manage their children's schedules, which will take time out of their work day or other daily responsibilities.

* After becoming a parent, women are more likely to switch to a job with greater flexibility and work more from home, which can result in lower pay. Twenty-one percent of women said they were paid less for doing the same work they did before they took time off to care for their children.

* Women are more likely than men to stop working to care for elderly family members, which completely removes them from the workforce, cutting their earnings and ability to save for important things like retirement.<commit_msg>Updated Women Are Working More Than Ever But They Still Take On Most Household Responsibilities<commit_after>---
title: Women Are Working More Than Ever, But They Still Take On Most Household Responsibilities
date: 2019-05-06 11:00:00 -04:00
categories:
- lifestyle
image: "/uploads/charisse-kenion-704696-unsplash.jpg"
---

*This piece was originally published for Women's History Month in March on my [Forbes Women](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiegermano/2019/03/27/women-are-working-more-than-ever-but-they-still-take-on-most-household-responsibilities/#fb77a352e9eb) column.*

Women’s History Month has ended, but there is still time to celebrate how far women have come, while also pointing out areas where we can still do better as a society. Women have come a long way in terms of progress and equality, especially in the workplace.

* The wage gap between men and women has fallen over the past several decades.

* For the past 20 years, women have outpaced men in college attendance and degrees.

* Forty-nine percent of employed women in the United States, including 42 percent of working mothers, say they are their family’s main breadwinner.

Of course, women have not achieved true equality in the workplace. In fact, according to a [2018 McKinsey Report](https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2018), gender-based progress has stalled in recent years. The wage gap, gender-based discrimination, and sexual harassment still persist. ([Fun fact:](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/12/05/10-facts-about-american-women-in-the-workforce/) Almost 60 percent of women would earn more if they were paid the same as men with equivalent levels of education and work hours.) But we definitely are better off than we were 50 years ago.

However, while women are more educated and more employed than ever, they are still taking on most of the household and familial duties. And it’s not just about chores and childcare; women are also much more likely to be the ones who care for sick or elderly family members. Although working mothers spend more time on work, household labor, and child care than fathers, they are not more likely to have access to workplace policies such as paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, and affordable childcare.

**How does this imbalance affect women?**

* Fifty-four percent of women took leave from work when first becoming a parent as opposed to 42 percent of men. Plus, women take ten times as much temporary leave from work as men upon the arrival of a child. Without a national paid leave policy, this usually means that women are taking home less or no money during their time off. This can lead to long-term financial consequences, due to loss of income and benefits, missed raises and promotions, and inability to fund their retirement accounts and Social Security.

* Women are eight times more likely than men to look after sick children or manage their children's schedules, which will take time out of their work day or other daily responsibilities.

* After becoming a parent, women are more likely to switch to a job with greater flexibility and work more from home, which can result in lower pay. Twenty-one percent of women said they were paid less for doing the same work they did before they took time off to care for their children.

* Women are more likely than men to stop working to care for elderly family members, which completely removes them from the workforce, cutting their earnings and ability to save for important things like retirement.
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.050978735389381774, 'fraction_numerical': 0.018588931136459652, 'mean_word_length': 4.544106167056987, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 3, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 3, 'https://': 6, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 6, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '4338644', 'n_tokens_mistral': 1810, 'n_tokens_neox': 1652, 'n_words': 1039}