It’s 2024. You know what that means? An election year!
All year politicians have been pandering to voters of all kinds. But they are entirely missing a large group of voters: Moms.
Politicians are catering to women but with an old playbook. They are catering to an old and way-too-strong feminism instead of realistic, everyday women.
When the pandemic hit, I was a newly married young lawyer. I was not pregnant and not yet attempting pregnancy, but I planned to work after I had kids. After all, I had worked really, really hard to get my law degree and had a dream of being a constitutional lawyer.
Fast-forward five years. I am a stay-at-home mom who does a few cases as I decide to do them. Most are pro bono. My husband is the sole wage earner in our home. I have two kids, and if you were to offer me a million dollars to go back into the workforce on the condition that my kids go to daycare, I would say no quicker than you can finish your sentence.
I am not the only woman like that, and that’s what politicians are missing.
A 2012 Forbes study showed that 69% of women feel pressure to work because their family cannot survive without their income. Being able to stop working and raise children is what 84% of working moms call a financial luxury. “Approximately half of working moms agree their overall happiness would increase if they didn’t work,” Forbes concludes. A 2015 Gallup Poll revealed that 56% of women would prefer to stay home over going to work. And finally, a 2023 study showed that 24% of moms have switched to become stay-at-home moms.
These polls are astonishing! Overwhelmingly, women want to go back home.
Feminists are angry over this. They blame the high cost of childcare and demand a fix as if the desire to be home is the problem. They think women must work, or that deep down all women will only be happy or know freedom if they do work.
Statistics and nature teach us otherwise. It is the most natural thing in the world for a woman to desire to stay home with her kids, and most women find their true happiness and freedom in being home raising their kids. The fix is not to get women back in the workplace. The fix is to give them the freedom to stay home!
I know I’m going to get misquoted, so I’ll emphasize here: I am advocating for a woman to be able to choose to work or be home. She can still work if she choses to work, and I am not saying women who work are bad.
But politicians are ignoring this feminine desire. That may be because they don’t want to be the ones to say it out loud lest they tick off the feminist – kind of like how it’s only appropriate to tell a woman joke if you’re a woman, or at least that’s my take on it! It could also be that politicians’ heads are buried in the sand.
Women want choice. They want the ability to stay home if they can. Some may still want to work. But many want to stay home but are forced to work because of the economy. Our economy is such that it requires at least a two-income household to make ends meet. To allow a woman to stay home, the family must undergo considerable financial constraint.
Instead of paying attention to these statistics, politicians are lobbying to lower childcare costs and get women back to work. Even Alabama politicians have been known to throw around the phrase, “Let’s get these women back to work!” as if that is the thing women are asking for.
I have no doubt a politician would get a massive wave of women flocking to vote if he just stood up and said, “I will work to fix the economy so that a woman may have the ability to choose! A woman should be able to stay home with her children if she so desires!”
Instead of focusing on subsidizing childcare, why not focus on decreasing inflation or cutting taxes for single-income families who have stay-at-home moms? The decrease of children going to daycare will cause the cost of daycare to go down for moms who decide to work. That’s a simple principle of economics.
Instead of tax dollars going to daycare centers and families who have two working parents, perhaps we should send the same amount to all families with kids with no strings attached. The family can use it for daycare, or even to pay a family friend to watch the children while mom works or volunteers. Or instead of spending it on a public school, the family can use it to homeschool.
We can create job environments that are better for moms. We can encourage jobs to create work-from-home positions or ones that have more flexibility. Working from home has become more prevalent since Covid and Americans are loving it. I can’t tell you the number of posts I see on Facebook mom groups doing work-from-home jobs so they can be with their children.
If you’re a politician and you want to win major points this election cycle, listen to the moms. Stop playing out of an old playbook and pay attention to today’s constituents. Women want to go home! Make it possible for them to do so if they choose. You will see vast improvements in the economy, education, crime, health, and so much more if you do.
Laura Clark is a wife, mother, and community activist. She currently serves as the interim president of Alabama Center for Law and Liberty, a conservative nonprofit law firm that fights for limited government, free markets, and strong families in the courts. Anything written by Laura for this publication does not constitute legal advice.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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