RRepublican Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance previous comment that Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic leaders are “a bunch of childless hotties, unhappy with their own lives” is the line that lives on. It doesn’t matter that Vance’s comments are false. Harris It is a mother: her two stepchildren recognize her as their mother, just like your biological mother.
Of course, having children should not be a prerequisite for holding public office – part of a political leader’s job is to be able to understand the challenges of people who are different from them. But actually, as a mother, I agree with Vance in wishing more mothers were in office. To make that happen, he and other lawmakers need to focus on the biggest barrier to mothers of young children running for office: child care.
It’s not surprising that Harris has no biological children. Being a mother is a huge impediment to winning political office, because in the US, mothers are responsible for the majority of child care, and child care is so expensive that they often can’t afford it in person during a political campaign. This is why many of the women who have held the highest positions in our country are childless – like Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor at the Supreme Court and cabinet secretaries, such as Condoleezza Rice It is Janet Napolitano. Only 6.8% of members of Congress and 5.3% of state legislators are mothers of children under 18, according to for the Vote Mama Foundation.
See more information: America’s mothers are empty. We need to do more to support them.
In 28 states, child care costs more than state college tuition, according to a 2023 NetCredit to study. And people who run for or hold political office often work exceptionally long hours, so their child care costs are likely higher than average. What’s more, politicians in 17 states cannot use campaign funds to pay for child care while running for office, according to for the Vote Mama Foundation. And politicians in 38 states and Washington, D.C. cannot use campaign funds to provide care while performing their official duties. This is a big problem because the vast majority of state legislatures do not pay their legislators enough to cover the cost of living in their states, according to to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Politicians should be allowed to use campaign funds to cover these costs because otherwise most mothers would not be able to afford child care while earning little or no money as a political candidate or state legislator.
Lawmakers like Vance also need to help make child care more affordable. One way to do this is to restore the billions in child care funding provided by the American Rescue Plan Act, which expired in September, resulting in immediate increases in child care costs. Not to mention it would also likely boost the economy. A new analysis of the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project shows that the participation of women with children under five in the labor force has declined since September, when this funding expired. Congress could also expand the child tax credit, which would put more money in parents’ pockets for child care. But on August 1, Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill that would do just that.
More broadly, we all need to rethink our stereotypes of working mothers. Many people assume that when women have children, we invest less in our careers. Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell voiced this assumption in 2008 when he was caught on a hot mic saying that Janet Napolitano was perfect for the role of Secretary of Homeland Security because “Janet doesn’t have a family. Perfect. She can literally dedicate 19, 20 hours a day to her work.
But Lauren Smith Brody, founder of The Fifth Trimester, a gender equality consultancy focused on caregivers at work, told me that her research suggests the opposite: When women have children, we are often motivated to work. more, both so that we can afford the expenses that come with having children and because we are worried about the world our children will live in and we want to try to fix it. (This was absolutely the case for me when I became a mother.)
Women seeking the extremely demanding work of political office also need more support from their partners. The most recently Bank search confirms that, among opposite-sex couples, women continue to do the vast majority of childcare and domestic work, even when we work full time. This needs to change. Employers can help make this possible by not expecting employees to work an excessive number of hours. Nobel Prize-winning research by labor economist Claudia Goldin show When this happens, it is often the woman who allows her career to take a backseat so that her husband can work too much, as someone has to be around to take care of the children.
So it looks like Vance got a few things wrong: Harris is certainly a mother, and people without children are no less qualified for office (for his flawed logic of believing that politicians cannot understand the experiences of people who are different from them, just white men, married and cisgender people should vote for Donald Trump and Vance). Still, he’s right to point out that there aren’t many mothers in important political positions. But instead of further isolating women with his comments, it would behoove Vance to start thinking about why.
Thankfully, as a member of Congress, he is in a position to help solve the challenges women face by restoring child care funding that could help mothers pursue political roles and other jobs. States must allow parents to use campaign funds to pay for child care while campaigning or working in government positions. Other parental figures, such as fathers, need to step up and provide equal care, which will only truly be possible when employers stop expecting overwork. And we all need to rethink the way we view mothers and their motivations.
Mothers of young children are often extremely ambitious – but our country has created a series of barriers for them to run for public office.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
