Childcare in the United States has long fallen disproportionately onto the shoulders of low-income women of colour. During the 19th century, the American public believed that a woman’s place was in the home, and they were supported either by a husband’s income or governmental widows’ or mothers’ pensions. In response, the women’s movement advocated for white women’s participation in the workforce, while at the same time, the expectation differed for Black mothers and they were not given the same pensions that white mothers received.
Instead, Black women were encouraged to attend schools that would equip them with skills to raise other families’ children, which allowed white women to leave the domestic sphere. Furthermore, immigrant women joined the childcare industry to serve mainly middle and upper class white women in domestic life, and today there are about 1.9 million immigrant women in the care workforce. Childcare duties were often viewed as custodial and became associated with poor minorities and immigrants.
The United States spends just 0.33% of its GDP on early childhood education (ECE) compared to the average of 1.3% in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, placing the burden on individual families. American parents generally pay the full price of childcare, which averages to around $1,100 per month – approximately 21% of the US median income for a family of three. Often, there are more children than there are spots, and within this, only a percentage of options are considered to be high-quality. Despite the high costs of childcare, childcare providers are often barely making minimum wage, earning an average of less than $13, with few benefits. In turn, there are high turnovers and varying quality standards that negatively impact both childcare providers and children.
Childcare in the United States is a multi-pronged problem: women of colour are overrepresented in the industry, and children have disparate experiences with life-long consequences.
The intersecting identities of being both a person of colour and a woman in the United States has long been used against those who fall into both of these categories. Current statistics show that 74.2% of childcare workers are women, and they earn 93 cents for every 1 dollar earned by a man. Further, Black and Hispanic childcare workers make up 10.1% and 17% of the industry, despite making up 13.4% and 18.5% of the total US population, respectively. This disproportionate representation is prevalent in other low wage and essential jobs, with women of colour making up 60.3% of maids, 50.3% of nursing assistants, and 45.7% of personal care aides. Jobs like these tend to be undervalued and opportunities for upward social and economic mobility are limited. This is part of the rising trend of economic inequality in the US, and makes it more difficult to narrow the racial wealth gap. Currently, a typical Black family’s net wealth is around one-tenth of a white family’s, and data shows that income and wealth inequalities have not improved significantly in the past 70 years. This shows that historical disparities have not been properly addressed and may continue on this path if change is not implemented.
The advantages of early childhood education have been shown to not just come from the academic benefits, but from the fact that it is reliable childcare for young children. Studies show that children from low income backgrounds experience more chronic instability, which often comes in the form of inconsistent childcare, with the average childcare arrangement persisting for only one year. Those most affected by this are children who experience persistent childhood poverty, which means living below the federal poverty level for at least half of childhood. Black and Hispanic children are most likely to experience poverty, at 26.5% and 20.9% as a percentage of each racial group, respectively. Black children account for 14% of children in the United States, but represent more than 25% of impoverished children as a whole.
Childhood experiences are important determinants for a person’s future prospects, and, in turn, affects the potential to narrow the income and racial gap that pervades American society. Persistently poor children are 13% less likely to graduate from high school and 43% less likely to enroll in university than those who are never poor.
With such trajectories, persistently poor children, which are disproportionately children of colour, have difficulty achieving socioeconomic mobility. Consequently, it continues to feed into the vicious cycle of wealth inequality.
While many Black and Hispanic mothers work for minimum wage with irregular hours in sectors like childcare, their own children are ending up with outcomes that maintain their disadvantaged position in the US’s socioeconomic hierarchy. Further, Black and Hispanic mothers tend to be the breadwinners of their households. This presents these mothers with a dilemma of struggling to find affordable childcare that fits their inconsistent work schedules or to leave the workforce altogether, which would mean losing their family’s income stream and would decrease their children’s potential to live in a financially stable household. At the same time, however, Black mothers have had the highest workforce participation amongst all women. Moreover, despite moving into more diverse fields, Black women still face negative perceptions regarding their working abilities, which has maintained their concentration in lower wage jobs, such as childcare, with few opportunities for advancement.
As long as women of colour’s work is viewed as disposable and they are expected to carry the burden of childcare, they will continue to be undervalued, burnt out, and be barred from socioeconomic mobility. At the same time, as long as public investment in childcare remains low, financial burdens on low-income families of colour will persist, translating to direct negative outcomes for their children. These issues must be addressed in concert, as another step in breaking down the heavily stratified socioeconomic system that has historically, and contemporarily, disadvantaged marginalized populations.
Edited by Riyana Karim-Hajiani
Laurie Chan is in her second year at McGill University majoring in Sociology. As a writer for Catalyst, she hopes to explore the topics of race, immigration, and criminal justice, particularly in the context of the Asian diaspora.