News
What’s going on with working moms? | Welcome to the Jungle (Opens in new window)
“When we start seeing the gender wage gap really rear its head is when people start having children,” Heggeness explains. “Then, all of a sudden, we see this gap in earnings, and it’s a hit that happens to women’s earnings right at the moment of birth. It lingers throughout their...
Blue-collar hiring and pay gains stay hot in a cooling job market | NBC News (Opens in new window)
High demand for miners, loggers and construction workers — and slowing job prospects for software and IT professionals — has taken a bite out of income inequality. ...
We Don’t Have to Choose Between Ethical AI and Innovative AI | Time (Opens in new window)
How exactly does paid leave advance equality? Because there’s no federally guaranteed paid family leave in the U.S., many workers—especially low-income women—take unpaid time off to care for family members or themselves. That time comes at a price: lack of paid family and medical leave costs working families $22.5 billion...
How a Dashboard on the Care Economy Came to Be | Revaluing Care (Opens in new window)
"I decided it was time to get strategically smart about the lack of data, and the idea of a care dashboard (Care Board for short) was born. Could we construct a dashboard of statistics describing the care economy that were not blinded by traditionally male-dominated perspectives? A...
New Project Would Quantify Participation in the ‘Care Economy’ | Spotlight on Poverty & Opportunity (Opens in new window)
The coronavirus pandemic brought into stark relief the critical role caregivers of all kinds play in the American economy, as well as highlighting how limited the statistical data is on the caregiving economy. University of Kansas professor Misty Heggeness is leading a new project to collect data on the care...
Study argues 'girly economics' data necessary for full picture of economy, equitable policy
LAWRENCE — Any parent can tell you that work doesn’t stop when you leave the office and go home. Yet national and international economic statistics only consider the work that happens “at the market,” or outside the home — not caring for children, cooking, cleaning or caring for elders, tasks...
Return of working moms defies pandemic expectations | Axios (Opens in new window)
"At the beginning of the pandemic, we were all asking ourselves if mother's labor force participation would ever recover," said Misty Heggeness, a former Census Bureau economist. "Definitely, the answer is a resounding yes. Not only did it recover, it is currently on fire." ...
What we get wrong about the "care economy" | Axios (Opens in new window)
The "care economy" is the backbone of the whole economy — yet the U.S. doesn't have centralized, easy-to-understand data on it. A project launched by a former Census Bureau economist this week aims to change that. ...
KU researcher leading project to quantify care economy, make stats available in central location
LAWRENCE — People might not often think of work done in the home as part of the larger economy. But a University of Kansas professor is leading a new project to collect data on the care economy to quantify the often underrecognized work of providing care for others and make...
The Pandemic Has Been Punishing for Working Mothers. But Mostly, They’ve Kept Working. | NY Times (Opens in new window)
For mothers during the pandemic, the usual push and pull of work and family life has felt more like a tug of war. Yet despite concerns that they would quit their jobs en masse, most succeeded in keeping them, two new data analyses show. ...
Moms with access to remote work were most likely to leave their jobs in pandemic, new research shows | The 19th (Opens in new window)
When loss of child care and the pandemic collided, the already shaky foundation that kept mothers in the workforce cracked completely. But until recently, it was unclear where those fissures occurred and which mothers in particular fell through the cracks. ...