Reply to NYT: In the Covid-19 Economy, You Can Have a Kid or a Job. You Can’t Have Both.

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Reply to "NYT: In the Covid-19 Economy, You Can Have a Kid or a Job. You Can’t Have Both."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Pre-COVID:  Who schedules doctor appointments and takes the kids in your house?  Who monitors the kids homework and all the paperwork that comes home from school?  Who researches, selects, registers, and arranges transportation for the kids to get summer camp every year? [b]I am a man, I did (and do) all that and more.[/b]

Post-COVID:  Who is responsible for providing childcare during the days the kids aren't at school? [b]Good question. We both have jobs.[/b]

"Stepping up" means don't leave it all for the mom to make it work. [b]I never did that before.[/b]  Pre-COVID moms did the vast majority of this work but they largely were able to balance it with paid work.  That isn't possible post-COVID and it means for most dual income families, that someone is going to have to sacrifice.  It shouldn't always be the mom.

And before you default to "well, my job pays more", you should take a second to appreciate that many women are paid less because they do the vast majority of the unpaid work and the gender pay gap itself is tied to parental leave (in countries with equitable parental leave policies, the gender pay gap closes). [b]I don't agree with the "because" here. My wife gets paid less because she has less education and less responsibility, a choice she made long before she had kids, and indeed, long before she met me. And in any event she does not do, and never has done, "most of the unpaid work.".[/b]

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Man answering.[/quote]

That's great, but also not most families.  The question was what does "stepping up" mean and I answered that.  Regardless of YOUR family's situation, the fact is in most families it is the mom who provides the vast majority of the childcare and it is the mom who will be assumed to be responsible for providing additional childcare in this situation where our existing childcare systems are broken.  That she likely makes less money will be used as justification for why she should make additional career sacrifices regardless of the fact that women's incomes are already lower due to sacrifices they make for childcare.

My personal situation is also different in that my DH has been 100% WAH for years now and I, WOH, make the majority income.  That doesn't stop me from recognizing that this NYT article is spot on that the current plans are going to run a lot of women's careers right off the cliff just as women were beginning to close the gap.

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