84 Time October 21–28, 2019
France—only to later dismantle both ef-
forts. The 1940 Lanham Act established a
network of childcare centers after millions
of women joined the workforce during
World War II. The initiative was limited;
3,000 centers served 130,000 children,
far fewer than the estimated 1 million chil-
dren who needed care. But an analysis of
the program by Arizona State University
associate professor Chris Herbst found
that it produced “sizable increases in ma-
ternal employment” for several years after
the program was dismantled at the end
of the war. At the time, there were calls
for a permanent version. “Many thought
[these centers] were purely a war emer-
gency measure,” former First Lady Elea-
nor Roosevelt wrote in a 1945 newspaper
column. “A few of us had an inkling that
perhaps they were a need which was con-
stantly with us, but one that we had ne-
glected to face in the past.”
In 1971, Congress passed the Com-
prehensive Child Development Act with
bipartisan support. The law would have
developed a network of federally funded
day-care centers, offering free care to the
poorest families and subsidized care on a
sliding scale for others. But it was derailed
by President Richard Nixon’s veto, which
warned it would divide families, dimin-
ish parental involvement and “commit
the vast moral authority of the National
Government to the side of communal ap-
proaches to child rearing over against the
family-centered approach.”
Yet recent polls suggest that view no
longer reflects the bulk of the populace.
Most married couples with children both
work outside the home now, and more
than 75% of voters said they would sup-
port increased congressional funding
for childcare and early learning, accord-
ing to a CAP poll last year. Attitudes to-
ward working mothers have also shifted.
In 2018, according to the General Social
Survey, only 28% of respondents believed
that preschool children suffered if their
mothers worked outside the home, down
from about two-thirds in 1975.
And yet, the childcare landscape in
America continues to resemble a curio
store, full of options that are too expen-
sive, too low-quality or that simply don’t
work. Eventually one parent, usually the
mother, gives up her job, often unwillingly.
A 2005 Harvard Business Review analysis
found that 43% of highly qualified women
with children left the workforce. The ef-
fect of this resonates through decades. If a
26-year-old American woman who earns
$40,508—the current average age for be-
coming a first-time mother, and the me-
dian salary for her age—leaves the labor
force for five years for caregiving, she will
lose more than $650,000 in wages, wage
growth and retirement benefits over her
lifetime, according to a CAP tool that cal-
culates the “hidden cost” of childcare.
And that doesn’t take into account the
occupational toll: the lost years of expe-
rience and networking, the forgone pro-
motions, the difficulties of re-entry.
Of course, many women would prefer
to stay home with their children but can-
not afford to do so. (Men’s willingness to
work is not affected by children, studies
show.) In 2018, according to the Institute
for Family Studies, only 28% of married
mothers with children under 18 said that
working full time was ideal.
Nevertheless, very few households can
get by on a single paycheck. Before she
even got pregnant, Wakenda Tyler, an or-
thopedic surgical oncologist and the pri-
mary breadwinner in her New York City
family, knew that leaving her job would
not be an option. Her husband, David
Van Arsdale, is a sociology professor who
splits his time between New York City and
Syracuse, about four hours’ drive away.
They’re well paid, but Tyler needs to live
close to the hospital, and New York is ex-
pensive. Van Arsdale initially balked at
hiring a nanny, but neither parent could
do their job without one. Jasieth Beckford
now cares for the couple’s 10-month-old
son every day, making $22 an hour plus
overtime, totaling about $55,000 a year.
“It takes a village to raise a child, and we
don’t live in a village anymore,” Tyler told
her husband. “We have to hire the village.”The village, of course, also has kids,
who need their own village. Beckford
started nannying when her 26-year-old
son was 3, relying on her sister to raise him
while she worked. “If I’m a nanny,” she
says, “how am I going to afford a nanny?”
In Iowa, Shellby White works with
2-year-olds at the Tipton day-care cen-
ter, teaching them to recognize colors,
sounds and feelings, while her 8-year-old
son is at school. She quit her previous job
to care for her son when he was 2, because
his grandmother became too ill to watchSociety