Some researchers wanted to know why the rate of growth in the share of women in the labor force has not been growing.
They wanted to know that despite women earning more college degrees than men over the last 20 or so years, the percentage of women with jobs is about the same.
So four women from prestigious universities decided to do some research that’s been written about at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
They say they found that the reason appears to be that many women, especially college grads, especially those who planned to have a career, even if they had children, discovered that they underestimated the costs of being a mother.
The researchers found evidence that motherhood has become more demanding.
As reported by the New York Times, the study found that Parents now spend more time and money on child care. They feel more pressure to breast feed, to do enriching activities with their children and to provide close supervision.
The findings in this work by these female researchers suggest that even for those who mothers who were highly educated who had wanted a career and kids, said that being a parent was harder than they expected.
Of course a lot of parents learn that raising kids is harder than they thought it would be. But a lot also learn that there is no more important job than raising their kids.
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