Health of Children and Parents: Understanding and Addressing the Crisis Families Face in the Global Economy Dr. Jody Heymann M.D., Ph.D. March 2, 2006
Findings from: Forgotten Families Ending the Growing Crisis Confronting Children and Working Parents in the Global Economy (Oxford University Press, 2006) For further information on these studies contact: Jody Heymann, MD, PhD Founding Director McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy Project on Global Working Families at Harvard jody.heymann@mcgill.ca, (514) 398-3978
Demographic and Laborforce Transformations • Transformation in both men’s and women’s labor over the short and long term • Movement away from laboring where children can accompany, away from work where adults control hours to work where supervisors determine hours and families not present • Movement of first men then women into industrial and post-industrial laborforces
Transformation in women’s paid labor The percentage of the paid labor force that is made up of women increased between 1960 and 2000 from: • 26 to 38% in the Caribbean • 16 to 33% in Central America • 17 to 25% in the Middle East • 23 to 31% in North Africa • 31 to 46% in North America • 27 to 43% in Oceania • 32 to 41% in Western Europe • 21 to 35% in South America
Caring for Children Providing an Environment that Promotes Healthy Development
Global Commonalities: Families Talk About Work-Family Time Conflicts “I would like to work fewer hours. . . . and I would like to leave work earlier to be able to spend more time with her. Children aren’t raised well when one has to work all the time.”
“I can’t be with them all the time to share with them about life, to tell them the values of life and how to guide them. . . . We don’t really have enough time to be together….I do not have enough time to spend with them at home and to guide them.”
“I had to work ‘til nine. … I had to make food, and Joe had to go and warm the food up. He had to help Melvin … with his homework [and] sometimes Sandra. Then they had to do their chores and clean the house. He had to make sure Melvin was going to bed. And then I found he was yelling at them. Melvin would cry a lot. … There’s no supervision there, so of course he’d be like yelling like he’s the boss and telling them what to do, or being, he was technically sort of kind of raising my kids. He’s 11 years old, and he’s raising his brother and sister. I wasn’t there enough.”
Parents talk about having to leave their preschool children in inadequate care “We left the child at home with her grandmother. She was old, so she could not care for the child as a mother could. But there was nothing we could do when our family faced economic difficulties. After the child would go, I cried a lot. I was very worried.”
“I do have very serious problems with [the baby- sitter] because she leaves the child alone and she doesn’t even lock up the house. She just goes. I just have to keep moving on because I can’t afford any better help. I’ve always had problems with household helpers because of the amount of money that I can afford to give them.”
“One day I came back and I asked her to watch [Tricia] and I left her. But when I came back, [the baby-sitter] had gone back to sleep. The lady had my daughter on this mattress with no sheets.”
Families Talk About Work and their Children’s Education “Occasionally the principal would want to talk to me about something … How can I do that?... What am I going to do? Go all the way home and come all the way back [afterwards, to work] just to meet with [the principal]? You know I couldn’t do that [during the workday].”
“For example, for language class, I try hard to teach my child how to spell this and that, so that he knows more; I intend to do it but I can’t make it a reality. Teaching my child, I’m too tired. There’s the economic part of it, and then there’s the influence of my work. So I’m exhausted and I can’t make it a reality; I can’t teach my child in a complete way. I really want to, but I can’t.”
“The bad thing is that the job is really demanding… When she comes back from school, she has to clean and do that which I should have done before work… The problem is with the older one. When she comes to my work, I give her the keys and tell her, “Do a, b, and c when you get home.” I think this is affecting her school work. It’s just too much for a kid of her age to do. But I have no choice.”
Had to leave child 48 50 home alone or in the care of an unpaid child 45 Relied on paid child Percentage Of Families Who… for child care 40 35 27 30 25 19 20 15 9 10 4 3 5 0 Frequency Children Are Left Alone or in the “Care” of Other Children Source: Data from Project on Global Working Families in-depth interviews with working caregivers. Analysis is based on households with a 0-5 year old.
48 Had to leave child 50 home alone or in the care of an unpaid 45 child Relied on paid child Percentage Of Families Who… for child care 40 Seguro Social provides 35 childcare for workers in the private formal sector 27 30 25 Public policies provide formal childcare 19 20 15 9 10 4 3 5 0 Mexico Botswana Vietnam Frequency Children Are Left Alone or in the “Care” of Other Children Source: Data from Project on Global Working Families in-depth interviews with working caregivers. Analysis is based on households with a 0-5 year old.
Vietnam had more families overall with access to formal childcare, and the differences across income groups were smallest due to the availability of public services. 57% of lower- income families in Ho Chi Minh were able to send a child to formal childcare, as were 62% of higher-income families.
Caring for sick children
Global Commonalities “One morning, Andrew didn’t want to go [to school sick] and I made him go. Because I made him go, I had to come and get him – school wouldn’t let him walk home. If I’d kept him – [at home, by himself], I wouldn’t have had to leave work.”
“I am also often sick. I often worry. I worry about my son being sick, my family’s economic situation… I have to worry about my son’s childcare fee, the rent, my son’s health-care fees, and the like. I think a lot; therefore, sometimes, my memory is reduced. I often forget. Although I go to work, I am always thinking of my son.”
“The last time she was in the hospital, I knew she was ill and she had to go to urgent care. They gave her medication, and she still wasn’t getting any better. I took her to the baby-sitter. I told her, “She has to have her medication.” The problem is that the day-care provider doesn’t give her medication when she’s supposed to. So the last time when my daughter was ill, I knew that if I’d been on top of everything it wouldn’t have gotten that bad. She ended up having to be in the hospital for a whole week.”
“At half past seven, when I was going to work, my last born was sick. He was vomiting, had diarrhea and stomach complaints. I left him with my neighbor, but the neighbor didn’t care for my child. She just left him there vomiting. Immediately when I came home I thought my child looked worse. I took him to the hospital around half-past six, and he was tired and pale. I had wanted to leave the job, but then I thought, what would I give the child?”
“My daughter was sick back in the fall. She got real sick. It was a combination of asthma and just a real bad cold. I remember I had to get in to work and so I left her home. She needed me here, but I felt like I had to be at work.”
“We need money. My child is sick and I would be happy to stay home, but I need money. I cannot even take one day a week because I’m afraid I will be fired.”
Statistics • 61% of working parents in Baltimore had left a sick child home alone or in someone else’s care. • In Botswana, 32% of working parents had either left a sick child home alone or sent a child to school or day care sick. • In Mexico, 18% of working parents had either left a sick child home alone or had sent a child to school or day care sick. • In Vietnam, 27% of working parents had either left a sick child home alone or had sent a child to school or day care sick.
Policies in caring for sick children Solutions can be found in countries with less economic resources: • In Mexico paid sick leave benefits at 60% wage replacement rate of up to one year are guaranteed through a social security system, Seguro Social. • 16% of working parents report having to leave a sick child home alone. • In Vietnam federal law guarantees paid sick leave benefits at 75% wage replacement rate to workers for 30 days and for young children for 15 days (20 if under 3 years of age). • In Ho Chi Minh City, 7% of working parents report having to leave a sick child home alone. • In the United States there is no federal paid sick leave policy for workers or their children’s health. • In Baltimore, 58% of parents reported they could not stay home with a sick child.
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