Why Women Should Vote: For Help in Meeting Family and Work Responsibilities!

Millions of women struggle to meet their dual responsibilities at work and at home. By voting, women can make sure our leaders in Washington support workplace reforms that will enable them to take time off to care for their children or elderly family members, and ensure they have access to reliable, affordable, and high-quality child and dependent care.

Most women with children work outside the home, and parents are working longer hours.

• Women work in order to support, or help support, themselves and their families. Women make up half of all workers on U.S. payrolls. This is a dramatic change from 1969, when women made up only a third of the workforce.
• More than half of women with children under age 6 are in the labor force, and over two-thirds of those women are working full time.
• The number of hours worked by parents in families where both parents work has increased dramatically.  In 1979, couples with children worked 60 hours a week, and by 2008 they worked 80 hours a week.

Women lack the supports they need at home and at work.

• Nearly half (49%) of working mothers report that they do not get paid when they miss work to care for a sick child.
• Good child care is often unavailable or unaffordable. The average cost of full-time care for one child in a center is more than $4,100 to $18,800 a year, depending on the location and age of the child.  The average cost of adult dependent care can be even higher.

Efforts to expand paid family and medical leave have not succeeded, and child care is inadequately funded.

• The Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers to take leave for up to 12 weeks for the birth or adoption of a child, or to care for themselves or a family member in the event of serious illness. But it doesn’t require paid leave, it doesn’t cover part-time workers, and nearly 50 percent of workers are ineligible because they work for employers with fewer than 50 employees or have not been employed long enough.  Bills to expand it have not yet passed, and the Bush Administration implemented regulations that seriously weaken protections for workers under the Act.
• Funding for child care assistance falls far short of meeting the need.  Only about one in six children eligible for child care assistance under federal law receives it.  Many states’ child care assistance programs have long waiting lists, restrictive income eligibility criteria, and/or low payment rates for child care providers.

If women vote, Washington will listen.
REGISTER.  VOTE.

The National Women’s Law Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that has been working to advance and protect women’s legal rights since 1972.  NWLC takes no position on candidates or elections, and nothing herein should be construed as an endorsement of any candidate or party.