What is the Role of Government? Young STEM Professionals Perceptions of Work-Family Supports

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 12: Policy and Family

Abstract

For many young Americans, transitions into marriage and parenthood have become increasingly protracted. They frequently express concerns with the high costs of parenthood and cannot look to the federal government to alleviate these costs, as the United States lacks paid parental leave and other government supports for families with young children. In this paper, we explore what young people think the government should be doing to provide them with a stable foundation for the future. Young professionals in the United States, particularly those with STEM degrees, are advantaged in terms of their job prospects and earnings relative to Americans overall. Perhaps they expect more, from either their country or their employers, to enable them to manage optimizing their ability to work while raising families. Drawing on longitudinal qualitative data from 70 racially diverse STEM graduates in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, we analyze how young professionals understand the role of the federal government and employers in ensuring young people have a stable foundation to support a family. Preliminary findings indicate that respondents rarely framed family support as a federal responsibility. Instead, they emphasized employer-provided benefits as appropriate mechanisms for managing work and caregiving demands. While women more often mentioned the importance of caregiving supports, both men and women viewed work-family conflict as very individualized. Many struggled to articulate reasonable expectations for what they would like the government to provide. Our results suggest that one of the reasons Americans receive so little in the way of family supportive policies federally is because they do not feel entitled to such supports. Five and counting decades of discounting the role of government has provided an electorate that does not look to the federal government to provide the support they need in their transition to adulthood.

Authors

• Sharon L. Sassler, Cornell University

• Nicole Lum, Cornell University