PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The choice to either stay home with children or remain in the workforce is one that women have grappled with for years.
Young Chun-McGrady, 55, was in the workforce for seven years before she got married and had children. She and her husband decided it would be best for her to leave the workforce to stay home and raise them.
“I felt like, oh, I don’t think I can do this because my baby is going to be with a stranger and my baby’s going to start talking and walking without me,” she recalled.
That was 25 years ago. Now that her children are grown and she is a new empty nester, Chun-McGrady felt the urge to return to work.
“All of a sudden, it just struck me — oh my goodness, I am going to be alone. My husband’s working. I have two dogs. I don’t know what else to do,” she said. “I needed to really focus and think really hard.”
Related
Not long thereafter, she met Philadelphia RE/MAX real estate agent Maria Quattrone, who heads the PA Real Estate Scholarship Program, which is geared toward women and minorities. Participants are given all the tools they need to obtain a real estate license and hit the ground running upon completing the program.
“We looked at the real estate landscape and on a national level, most of the leadership positions are men,” Quattrone said. “If you don’t get in the industry at the local level, you’ll never go to the national level.”
The decision to return to work and enter the world of real estate worked out perfectly for Chun-McGrady, but it’s not always that seamless. The gender wage gap, meanwhile, remains an issue.
“In 2021, Pennsylvania women who worked full time year-round … earned about 81 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts,” said Rose Khattar, director of economic analysis for inclusive economy at the Center for American Progress (CAP).
For women of color, it’s even worse. Black and Latina women in Pennsylvania each earned only 66 and 55 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by white men from 2015 to 2019.
Related
Many women re-entered the workforce after the pandemic, Khattar said, but a prolonged absence from employment often results in lower pay, which could be interpreted as an unfair punishment for raising kids.
“These types of penalties for just having children and looking after your children really compound over time,” Khattar explained. “It’s not even just they’re earning less when they end up back into the workforce. Think about retirement — they end up retiring with a lot less economic security.”
Due to the gender wage gap, each woman in Pennsylvania will lose an average of $457,200 over the course of her lifetime, according to CAP.
Khattar said some measures can be taken to shrink the gender wage gap while also making it easier for mothers to manage the delicate work-life balancing act — like paying higher wages and expanding affordable child care and paid family leave.
For women who may be on the fence about returning to work after raising kids, Quatrrone put it this way: “Do it. Go for it. It’s your time, you deserve it!”
Related
