Questioning the overwhelm

Why are we proud of being constantly busy? How can we feel less overwhelmed? What can we do to foster creativity? How can we promote gender equity at work and at home? Our own Brigid Schulte answered these questions and more on Quora last week. As Brigid pointed out, work and culture have changed over time: work, not leisure, is the new status symbol. We don’t know where work culture will go next, but one futuristic solution that’s good for the planet as well as our work-life balance is the four-day workweek. And what if work is doomed? Andy Stern, former president of the SEIU, argues that in our changing economy it may be time to look past work to alternative solutions like a universal basic income (an exciting proposal discussed in the Care Report’s policy recommendations).

 (Military) Care in America

The military’s child care system is often held up as an exemplar of how our child care system should work. But military child care is far from perfect. Though the military system suffers from low availability and old-fashioned gender expectations, it is, at least, affordable, which is more than can be said for the rest of the country’s child care non-system. Citing Care Report findings, NPR explores the heavy burden of child care costs and how parents hustle to make ends meet. A recent poll finds that child care costs are a financial problem for 31 percent of parents who pay for care. Another major barrier is availability: 42 percent of children under 5 live in child care deserts, areas of extremely low child care supply, a new report from the Center of American Progress finds. Even when children are old enough for school, school schedules make it difficult to balance work and family. Cost and availability are just two of the arguments in favor of on-site workplace child care: at Patagonia, on-site care contributes to the company’s 100% retention rate for new moms.  

Gender gaps

In case you still weren’t convinced that the gender pay gap is real, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute provides the “complete guide” to the pay gap — who it affects, how it’s measured, why it exists, and what to do it about it. One surprising (and infuriating) consequence of the gender pay gap is gender and racial discrepancies in personal injury settlements: because women and people of color are expected to earn less over their lifetimes, settlements based on future lost income are usually smaller for them. And worldwide, the gender gap starts young. According to Unicef, girls ages 5-14 spend spend 160 million more hours on household chores than boys do, often preventing them from going to school and shrinking their ambitions.

A national security blind spot

From our Global Gender Parity Initiative team: Anne-Marie Slaughter and Elizabeth Weingarten explore a surprising national security blind spot: gender. As GGPI’s latest research, Not Secondary, but Central, shows, U.S. policymakers pay lip service to gender diversity but often fail to consider the implication of gender when designing policy. Giving women a seat at the table helps — but it’s not enough.  

Work and the welfare state

Hillary Clinton’s latest anti-poverty proposal for working families — lowering the threshold for receiving the child tax credit — would benefit millions of families, but there’s a catch, writes New America Fellow Monica Potts: only families who earn formal wages are eligible. That’s a problem when parents can’t find work, a barrier that many more Americans are facing in the wake of welfare reform and a changing economy.

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About New America

New America is dedicated to the renewal of American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age. Our hallmarks are big ideas, pragmatic policy solutions, technological innovation, and creative engagement with broad audiences. Read the rest of our story, or see what we've been doing recently in our latest Annual Report.

About the Better Life Lab

New America’s Breadwinning & Caregiving Program is thrilled to unveil a new name, the Better Life Lab, and an updated agenda to transform policy and culture so that people and families have the opportunity to live their best lives at work and at home. As a “lab,” we are dedicated to disruptive experiments, collaborative work, and innovative thinking.

“Your Life, Better: News From the Better Life Lab” will be our way to keep you in the know, featuring the best of what we’re reading and writing about gender equity, the evolution of work, and social policies that support 21st-century families. We will be a clear signal amid the noise to share what’s fresh and crucial to an inclusive vision of work-life, gender, and income equity issues.

Meet the Better Life Lab Team

Better Life Lab

Real choices. Real parity. All people.