Not all of those 2.2 million women are working 40-hour weeks while their children head to day care each morning. Many moms return to work with the option of having flexible schedules, telecommuting from home and running home-based businesses. With a tight labor market, more and more businesses are making it attractive for new mothers to return to work. From changes to the federal tax code in 1976 which permitted working parents to take a tax credit for child care expenses to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, there has been an increased recognition of the importance of making it easier for women to combine child rearing and employment activities. More and more businesses are also accommodating nursing mothers with private lactation rooms, frequent pumping breaks and, in some cases, compensation for pump rentals and lactation consultant services.
Some employers also allow new moms to bring their babies to work, nursing on demand when needed.
The Census Bureau s report found that college-educated mothers were more likely to return to the workforce than mothers with a high school education or less. Sixty-eight percent of women with one or more years of college who had a child in the last year were working, compared to 59 percent for high school graduates and 38 percent for women who were not high school graduates. The report also found that marital status helped determine the labor force status of new mothers. Fifty percent of women who are separated, divorced or widowed are working full time, compared to 39 percent of women who are married and 24 percent of women who have never been married. Women who are unmarried and who lack a spouse s income may be in relatively poorer economic circumstances than married women, and more dependent in their own employment to support their family.