Last edited Fri May 28, 2021, 03:36 PM - Edit history (1)
'3 Women On What It's Actually Like To Have Universal Childcare: Sweden, Quebec, France,' -Ed. Elle, 2019.
The U.S. has always stood out among wealthy nations (and, often, less-than-wealthy nations) for its stark lack of policies that support families. We are the only industrialized country that doesn’t offer some kind of paid family leave. We lack any sort of child allowance, a monthly or weekly cash supplement from the government to help parents raise children, a policy that is standard fare in most other nations.
For one of the richest countries in the world, child poverty rates have remained persistently high in America. And the lack of affordable child care has become a national crisis, with daycare costing parents more than in-state tuition in half of the country. Elizabeth Warren, who made universal child care her first big policy proposal after she announced her presidential run, has helped to put the issue at the front and center.. In Wash. DC, the most expensive place for child care in the country, daycare costs parents $22,631 on average every year.. For a typical family living in DC, that amounts to putting 35% of their income towards infant care. Child care is only considered “affordable”—costing 10% or less of a family’s income—for the median family in 2 states.
- And the workers who are actually taking care of our children make dismally low wages.
.. Many other nations have developed policies that help keep child care affordable and accessible. We talked to 3 women from different countries or provinces—Sweden, Quebec, and France—about what it’s like to live with robust government-run or subsidized child care systems...the women ELLE spoke to all agreed that without affordable child care, they might have had to make drastically different life and career choices.
For many families in America, that choice doesn’t exist at all.
.."Access to public childcare and other family benefits was definitely a contributing factor when we decided to move from Australia to Sweden. Having grown up with comprehensive support systems I found it unacceptable when we had our first child in Melbourne that I was expected to be a stay at home mum full or part time until the baby was basically school age, with my husband providing for the family."...
https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a27496656/3-women-on-what-its-actually-like-to-have-universal-childcare/
= new reply since forum marked as read
