Working women are often misrepresented in pop culture. It’s either they’re a career woman or a stay-at-home mom – very rarely is there a depiction of women that are both. This representation is solely inaccurate because 74 percent of women working in the U.S. have children under the age of 18, according to a study by WalletHub.
Being a working parent comes with its own set of challenges. Many women fear that a temporary absence, such as maternity leave, could erase all the hard work that they had put into the company, potentially putting them at risk of being replaced once they return. According to a study by Harvard Business Review, the longer women are away from their positions, the more they may be overlooked for promotions and have lower upward mobility in moving into management roles and receive pay raises.
Meanwhile, some working parents leave their careers as the cost of childcare exceeds their take-home pay. Nearly 43 percent of women in the U.S. have a career break listed on their resume compared to men, citing full-time parenting as the reason for their absence, according to a LinkedIn study. On average, a career gap due to full-time parenting lasts about three years.
According to the same LinkedIn study, 48 percent of women who went on parental leave feel forced to choose between their career and their child, with 59 percent of respondents saying that they worried that they were not spending enough time with their family because of work obligations.
It’s no wonder why the media rarely portrays successful working moms. But being a parent and having a career shouldn’t be this stressful. According to WalletHub, individual states have made strides in improving their childcare systems so that women didn’t feel obligated to leave the workforce.
According to WalletHub, the best states for working moms are:
1.) Massachusetts
2.) Connecticut
3.) Rhode Island
4.) Washington D.C.
5.) Maine
6.) Minnesota
7.) Vermont
8.) Wisconsin
9.) New Jersey
10.) New York
According to WalletHub, Massachusetts was named the best state for working moms due to its high numbers of childcare workers per capita. In addition, women in the state work an average of 35.5 hours per week and many companies still allow employees to work from home.
Connecticut ranks second on the list as unemployment rates for women are at 2.7 percent. The state also has a small gender pay gap, with women earning 88 percent of what men make, compared to the average of 83 percent. Similar to Massachusetts, Connecticut has high-quality childcare centers that are nationally accredited.
Rounding off the top three, Rhode Island has some of the lowest gender-representation gaps in the country when it comes to trade careers. The state has one of the highest ratios of female to male executives and senior-level managers. In addition, Rhode Island also has some of the shortest work weeks, as the average woman also works 35.5 hours per week.
Some companies have also begun to ease the transition of moms coming back to the workplace after leave by offering phased returns so that they feel more ready to return full time. Other companies have also implemented a buddy program where they partner new parents with an employee who also has children. In these programs, employees can see first-hand how others balance work and family, without having to compromise one or the other.
Mackenna Moralez is the associate editor of the facilities market and the host of the Facilities in Focus podcast.
