The Daily Money: Superhero moms, mortgage fee twist, sayonora to Elon Musk and more
Hi, it's Medora wishing you a happy Fri-YAY, ahead of a special weekend that celebrates moms! Sunday is Mother's Day, so only a couple of more days to do or buy something special for her to show your appreciation.
In honor of all those special women, I'm sharing something new I learned about moms, and I'm one of them! I recently interviewed Misty Heggeness, professor at University of Kansas who's establishing a database on the care economy to quantify the often underrecognized work of providing care for others. We got off topic, and I asked why she wanted this database? Here's what she said:
During the pandemic, she kept hearing how women left the workforce and never fully returned because they had to take care of children at home. In a moment of frustration with a full house of her own and still working, she started scrutinizing data around women and work. What she discovered was a very different story. MOMS actually were among the first to return to work. It was 65+ women, single women and young women with fewer responsibilities who stayed out.
"College aged women could go back to live with parents or group up in home and survive on less, 65+ and single prime-age women didn’t have anyone dependent on them," Heggeness said. "But parents had people depending on them and were faced with the decision between go out and keep working in the community and support their kids or not work and not have money to feed them. Women’s earnings aren't just discretionary anymore."
But what about childcare?
"Let's face it, childcare's always an issue," she said. "It's always been super expensive with wait lines to get in pre-pandemic, and moms always historically figured out a way to get a thread together or quilted patchwork childcare coverage --- stay with neighbors, grandparents. No one is solving the problem for us, so moms get creative. Think of what happened during the pandemic when schools were closed - educational pods. Moms used their grassroots skills to solve a problem." Go Moms!
Unfortunately, women still generally get shafted when it comes to pay and top jobs, housework and retirement savings. But I have faith, we'll eventually get there. I hear the new CEO of Twitter will be a woman. That's a step!
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Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer news from Paste BN. We break down financial news and provide the TLDR version: how decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you.