Designing 21st Century Policies for U.S. Families Balancing Work, Parenting, and Economic Security

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Employment and earnings are central to families’ economic security, shaping their capacity to support child well-being while balancing the dual roles of earning income and providing care. Working mothers make up over one-third of employed women. In nearly half of two-parent families both mothers and fathers work full-time. The majority of people in the U.S. agree that children benefit when they are raised by both parents who focus equally on work/career and home/family life.  At the same time, the composition of U.S. households with children has dramatically shifted along dimensions of family structure, who contributes to earnings in households, and who is providing care of children. The U.S. has a robust and also fragmented array of public policies that shape and intersect with the realities of work and parenting. Many existing systems and policies across the labor market (e.g. scheduling, wages, benefits, earned income and opportunities for earnings growth), early education and child care (including the reliability, accessibility, and cost) and direct supports for children (safety, quality, and educational enrichment at home and outside of the home) often conflict and sometimes collide in delivering on the financial necessity of earnings, safe nonparental care, and supportive developmental contexts for children.  

How can policy making in the 21st century support and meeting goals across parenting, work, and children’s development, honor the reality and lived experiences of mothers and fathers as both earners and nurturers, and do so within political and government budget priorities? Key policy domains include family and medical leave, child care, early intervention and education, workplace flexibility and scheduling, minimum wage, child benefits and allowances, child support and custody arrangements, and a range of policy considerations such as immigration and immigration enforcement and incarceration.What are promising visions for designing 21st century policies for U.S. families balancing work, parenting, and economic security?  Can and how can policies coalesce around infrastructure with ingredients to enhance the dual roles of parents as earners and generate stable government revenue? What is the role of government in investing in families and in children and how is this balanced with family responsibility? What are key policy and design approaches to align safety and development of children with parents’ employment? What are successful examples of policy innovation and investment?  What considerations are at play regarding who benefits and who is excluded?  

This roundtable, moderated by Lisa Gennetian, will explore trade-offs and challenges in re-imagining policy for the 21st century in meeting goals of work, parenting and economic security in the context of contemporary family life in the U.S. Roundtable panelists include economist Elizabeth Ananat, an expert on the labor market, family formation, child allowances; economist Chloe Gibbs, an expert on early childhood and education and child care; policy scholar Heather Hill, an expert on paid family leave and child well being; Clinton Boyd Jr., an expert on life course events of men of color and their experiences as parents; and developmental psychologist, Natasha Cabrera, an expert on parenting, father involvement, and Latino family experiences.

Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Moderator

• Lisa Gennetian, Duke University

Organizer

• Lisa Gennetian, Duke University

Speakers

• Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat, Barnard College

• Chloe R Gibbs, University of Notre Dame

• Heather D Hill, University of Washington

• Clinton Boyd, Fathers, Families, & Healthy Communities