What We Are Reading, April 2022
Mom Congress
Here are the news articles and reports that caught our eye this month, including:
The annual State of Motherhood in the U.S., survey report – the results are reported by Mom Congress’ advisory board member Christine Michel Carter, and
Several new reports about how access to free or affordable child care can make all the difference in the world, to both families and employers. Child care will be a big focus at Mom Congress 2022 this September. Learn more about the event.
No One Wants to Go Back to the Office as Much as White Men
A study found that about a third of white men want to go back to the office full time and also found that only around 22% of women (Black and white) and only about 16% of Black men wanted the same. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-post-pandemic-offices-could-be-whiter-and-more-male/
Invite the Dads You Know to Push for Paid Leave
Through Father’s Day, June 19th, join dads around the U.S. to say #ThisWorkingDadCares about paid family leave and caring for their children just like mothers.
Black People Accounted For 90% Of Pregnancy-Related Deaths In D.C., Study Finds
Despite making up about half of all births in recent years, Black birthing people in D.C. made up 90% of birth-related deaths, according to a new study from a city-supported review committee — underscoring the severity of the city’s maternal health crisis, particularly for Black women.
New Report: The Economic Role of Paid Child Care in the U.S.
As the U.S. grapples with historic labor shortages, a record-high quits rate, and millions of unfilled job openings, the ability of many working parents—especially mothers—to participate in the labor force is highly dependent on access to paid child care. The Committee for Economic Development (CED) has released a new report, The Economic Role of Paid Child Care in the US: Part 2—Labor Force Participation, using timely data to better understand labor force attachment for mothers with children over time, as well as trends across gender, race, marital status, and more.
The report is part of a four-part series on the use of paid child care and labor force participation of mothers and includes state fact sheets, interactive data sets, and more.
New Report: Resilient But Not Recovered
A new report from the National Women’s Law Center notes two years since the arrival of the novel coronavirus in the United States upended our economy and our lives, ongoing uncertainty about the future has become a constant for many…This is especially true for women, who are more likely than men to work in health care, child care, and other jobs that have put them on the front lines of the pandemic and who are more likely than men to have lost their jobs or left the labor force entirely over the past two years.
The FDA’s Food Failure
A POLITICO investigation based on more than 50 interviews finds the FDA is failing to meet American consumers' expectations on food safety and nutrition.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has no doubt been focused on prescription drugs but has repeatedly failed to take timely action on a wide range of food safety issues, including dangerous pathogens found in water used to grow produce and heavy metal contamination in baby foods. The agency has been slow to acknowledge numerous other chemicals of concern, including PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, which can be found in the food supply and are used in food packaging.
Women Do the Most 'Invisible Work' at the Office — And It's Getting Us Nowhere
"'Oh, and thank you to Kelli for coordinating this event,' my manager said. After weeks of planning and stressing, the 'exposure' I received was barely a two-second mention."
How Companies Can Support Women With Childcare Initiatives
In this excerpt from Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani's latest book, the author discusses how moms really felt doing double duty early in the pandemic.
Young Women Are Out-Earning Young Men in Several U.S. Cities
Young women living in many major cities earned as much or more than their male peers in 2019, according to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean that wage parity has been achieved. These cities are exceptions to the rule, and as women age, their salaries tend to become even less competitive.
A Shortage of Baby Formula Is Worsening and Causing Some Stores to Limit Sales
A shortage of baby formula is getting worse and leading some retailers to limit how much customers can buy in a given transaction.
During the week of March 13, some 29% of baby formula products were out of stock at retailers across the United States.
C-Section Rates Are Persistently High in the South, Even Though the Risky Procedures Often Aren’t Necessary
Although C-sections are sometimes necessary, public health leaders say these surgeries have been overused in many places. Black women, particularly, are more likely to give birth by C-section than any other racial group in the country. Often, hospitals and even regions have wide, unexplained variations in rates.
2022 State of Motherhood Study: Mothers Have Proven Their Power
For the past five years, the community-driven lifestyle brand Motherly has conducted the largest statistically-significant survey of U.S. mothers. Co-founder and CEO of Motherly Jill Koziol explains how the annual State of Motherhood study not only validates hypotheses about working motherhood it also arms today’s mothers with data to advocate for change:
“This data is a reckoning for employers who must internalize and recognize that it is no longer a nice to have to support working mothers, but rather a business imperative — working mothers are essential to our country’s economic future and competitiveness.”
Dems Aim to Expand Maternal Care, Midwifery Coverage
A group of House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation that would expand Medicaid to cover midwife care in an effort to improve the state of maternal health care.
Introduced on April 8th during Black Maternal Health Week, the Mamas First Act would amend the Social Security Act to provide coverage under the Medicaid program for doulas and midwives. Medicaid currently covers 40 percent of all births, and 65 percent of Black mothers’ births, in the U.S. each year.