Tilted Playing Fields
(Image from Reena Rai’s blog)
Wednesday was International Women’s Day. I don’t usually post about specially designated days.
Thursday morning’s Today morning program on BBC Radio 4, coming on the heels of that day, made me a bit peeved. So here we go…
For very young children, subject to some limitations, in England supposedly you can get 30 hours per week of child care for up to 38 weeks per year for a child 3 to 4 years old. The rules are somewhat different in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For example, Scotland extends the offer to cover more children.
Child care providers are reimbursed for this by the government at a rate lower than the cost of providing the care. As a result, spaces available are hard to come by and those who pay out of pocket for child care have to be charged more to keep the business afloat.
How much is the average cost to pay for it yourself? £15,000 per year per child. If you can’t find a government-funded spot available, child care costs twice as much in the UK as in most other top-tier countries.
In other words, for many people, the child care necessary to let them go to work costs more than their take-home pay, so they can’t afford to have a job.
Guess who this affects most? Yep, women.
Is there a shortage of people willing to work in child care? It depends on how you look at the question. When such jobs are advertised, many people apply. The expert being interviewed mentioned a company that got thousands of applications. The applicants tend to be women, often with appropriate skills. But the barriers to starting a job are such that few ever get as far as starting work (a 12 week wait for Ofsted qualification with a £400 fee, for example).
Also in the news? The family court system in the UK. The reading in Parliament of the names of over a hundred women killed by men in the UK in the past year, with some discussion of domestic homicide being treated as less weighty than murder outside the home. And on and on.
Why Was I Peeved?
There were three other topics: the war in Ukraine, food supply in the UK and the government’s desire to prevent asylum seekers from getting here across the Channel.
I noticed how much of the morning news was devoted to topics that affect women more than men. Did anyone mention that the morning show spent most of its time on topics that especially affect women? No, even though one of the hosts of the morning show was a woman.
Those news stories didn’t arise overnight. They could have been presented in a more revealing light on International Women’s Day. They are connected by a unifying thread, yet aired as though they are unrelated. Those stories were presented on another day when their disproportionate impact on women could go unremarked.
What struck me about the news Thursday morning was that at least in the UK, International Women’s Day seems to be much like applauding for front line health care workers in 2020. It’s a substitute for actually making anything better.
Please don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying we should get rid of International Women’s Day. Once a year we are reminded that in too many places and too many ways, women don’t get a level playing field.
But looking at a problem and acknowledging its existence are not enough.
Nothing will get better unless we do something about it. Flowery cards, social media posts celebrating women and lovely sentiments are nice, but that’s all they are.
Do you really want to honor the women in your life? Then do something toward making the playing field level. You may only do a tiny bit. That’s okay. Lots of tiny bits add up to big changes.
Nothing will improve unless we do something to make it better.
I love the quote at the top of your post. My son and his wife in Seattle pay an insane amount for child care for their two children, but their incomes are more than adequate to cover it. I didn't realize that kind of cost was common across the Pond as well. Yes, societies are good at applauding health care workers, "essential employees," etc. but fall short of doing anything meaningful to make their lives better. As a matter of fact, in the US, red states are demonizing teachers for, um, teaching. About history (slavery, civil rights) and science (sex ed, climate change). Oklahoma's officials are particularly vengeful, but of course, God is on their side. (Snark intended.) As for the BBC, it reminded me of the time Tucker Carlson was a frequent "balance" commentator opposite Cokie Roberts on NPR's Morning Edition. I was so incensed I wrote a letter questioning NPR's dedication to truth-telling. I think their corporate masters were guiding them further right during that time. I guess it didn't sit well with other NPR listeners, too, as that era was short-lived.