Women Working Leaves Kids’ Health Suffering

In case you didn’t notice, American society today is not the American society it was in the 1960s.  And from a standpoint of health, depending on who you ask, the changes haven’t all been good.

Where there’s no dispute about it being good is the drop off the country’s seen in smoking rates.  Far fewer people smoke today than they did in 1960.  Ask anyone who grew up in that era—or watch an episode of Mad Men—and you’ll see what I mean.  Today, less than 20 percent of the population smokes, a stark contrast to 1960 when 42 percent of the country smoked.

There’s another place where society has changed that hasn’t necessarily been altogether good and that’s the increased role of women in the workplace.

In the 1960s, the era in which lots of women started entering the workforce, women made up approximately 35 percent of the workforce.  Forty years later, it’s an even split:  Half are women, the other half men.  And by the end of the year, estimates indicate that women will outnumber men in the number of people working.

Now, depending on who you ask, this is both a good and bad thing.  It’s a great thing for the societal health and status of women, as it makes it manifestly clear that women are every bit as capable as men are in the workplace (just in case that wasn’t clear already).

Ask someone else, though, and they’ll tell you that women’s ever-increasing role in the workplace has adversely affected people’s physical health, specifically children.

According to an analysis of 12,500 children between the ages of nine months and five years, children whose moms work part or full-time are more likely to eat junk food, more likely to watch excessive amounts of television, more likely to drink sugary sodas, and less likely to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.  Even though lots of women are fully capable of juggling their work life with their home life, the researchers still found that full-time, stay-at-home moms were more likely to have children that were living a healthy lifestyle (i.e. eating fruits and vegetables at meal time, playing outdoors).

Now, the researchers were quick to point out that their results should not leave working moms feeling guilty or that their somehow negligent in their roles as mothers.  They view their findings as a “call to action,” of sorts, for lawmakers to begin implementing more after-school programs that can pick up the needed slack when it comes to educating children about nutrition and providing them with avenues for exercise.

The study is published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Just as the researchers have no agenda, I too have no agenda.  I’m not implying anything, just reporting the facts as I see them, do with them what you will.

So, given this information, parents should give extra consideration into whether or not they both need to be working.  If the answer to that is yes, then find out whether or not your local community has any after-school programs.  Doing so will allow your kids to get or remain healthy while you and your working spouse keep the family bank account healthy.

Sources
msnbc.msn.com
citytowninfo.com
themedguru.com
awomansnation.com