Confronting Sexism in Child Care

10/09/2018

Confronting Sexism in Child Care

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. Crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy

Writing in US News and World report, author Sara Mead discusses the challenge of confronting sexism in how lawmakers and others sometimes think about child care.

She explains:
"The growing recognition of the importance of early childhood development, and of the skills that early childhood educators need to help young children learn, has stimulated advocacy and philanthropic efforts to raise compensation for early childhood educators. But these efforts face an uphill battle. Raising pay makes child care and early education programs more expensive. But many families already struggle to pay for preschool and child care. And public funding for child care faces the prospect of cuts due to federal sequestration and challenging fiscal climates in many states. Overcoming these barriers will require innovative thinking and new policy and advocacy approaches. But it also requires confronting another barrier we may be less comfortable talking about: Sexism.

Sometimes, this sexism is overt. A recent New York Times article about early childhood workers struggling to make ends meet quoted a child care worker who was told by a state legislator that, ‘You don't get into this for money, you're paid in love.’ Other advocates have told me of policymakers who believe that early childhood educators don't need more money because they aren't ‘breadwinners’ – a perception that data disputes."

Source: "Confronting Sexism in Child Care," by Sara Mead, US News and World Report, November 17, 2016.

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