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INTRODUCTION TO 2024 DIGITAL EDITION
Loving and Working was first published in 1989. Thirty-five years have passed, and the authors are nearly twice the age they were when the book was conceived and written. We offer this free digital edition because, while much has changed for women since its publication, there are many challenges remaining.Many women now take it for granted that they will be able to combine a professional career with a full relational life, and/or motherhood. While this choice has become marginally easier and more acceptable, it is still not easy for most middle- and working-class women to do so successfully.
Women working full-time still make only about 84% of what men make. The inequity is even greater for Hispanic and Black women. Women with advanced degrees make only 77% of what their male counterparts make. On average women need to have one level higher of education than their male counterparts to make the same wage.In 1988, women made about 72% of what men made.
The current average of 84% is an improvement, but it is not yet full equity. Discrimination in wages still occurs, but much of the inequity stems from a workplace that is not well-attuned to women’s life-patterns and that is not always “family-friendly.”
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The cost of childcare, especially for very young children, remains extraordinarily high, leading many women to interrupt their careers to bear and care for children, or to work part-time in order to juggle child-care with their own and their partner’s ongoing career. And these challenges occur precisely at the time of life (20 - 40 years of age) when workers are expected to leap ahead in their careers.
Some of the solutions that we proposed in this book in 1989 have been partially realized. Many men take a much more active role in child-rearing and household work than was the case in the 1950s through 1980s. However, in 2021 an American Time Use Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that full-time working women still end up doing the bulk of household chores.
On average men spend seven fewer hours per week on housework than women do, and women spend nearly twice as much time per day caring for children or other household members than men do. (Ashley Austrew,”Working Women Still Do Far More Housework than Working Men,” www.care.com, May 19, 2021)
Food shopping and preparation is one area where there may be some improvement. Online shopping for food and household needs is readily available, although it may be more expensive than in-person shopping. There are a variety of more affordable and nutritious “take out” meal options, at supermarkets, restaurants and through online ordering. These innovations help, but only at the margins.
Some workplaces and managers seem much more accommodating to women’s life patterns and to a more balanced lifestyle for both men and women than they were thirty-five years ago. But deeper societal changes are still needed.
One of the themes of this book, which we believe is still very relevant, is that women have a need and a right to assert their influence in the workplace and in the larger society. We need to support ourselves and other women and men in seeking the changes in the structure, timing and balance of work and family life. We need to continue to strive for gender equity in pay and opportunity, for affordable childcare, and for paid parental leave.
Our daughters and sons have inherited an improved work culture. Let us hope that their sons and daughters will experience full equity.
Of course, numbers, particularly the amount of salaries, childcare, etc. have changed since 1989. A dollar was worth about 2.5 times as much in 1988 as it is today. So a salary of $30,000 in 1988 would be about $75,000 now. If full-time childcare for one child cost $500 in 1988, it would probably cost about $1250 today. We hope that the reader can recognize the relative values cited in the book and appreciate the overarching themes despite changes in the hard data.