The Working Mom

After working for five years for the Peruvian government, I realized that it is quite difficult to be a “good mother” and a decision-making professional at the public sector. Organizational practices at the (Peruvian) government are very harmful for someone’s personal life: you have to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  If one day I have children, I don’t want to leave home at 8 am and return at least at 10 pm. When I discuss these issues with female friends that are also public servants we get to the sad conclusion that –if we have children- we must give up to our dream of transforming the public sector.

 

Our conclusion may be wrong; there are many options to consider before giving up to such a dream. I am also sure that feminists think this conclusion is a betrayal to their cause. I won’t discuss these issues here. I want to talk about all those women that not even have a choice to choose. They have to leave home early every day and return very late, and even sometimes they are back just for the weekend. For example, in Lima or Delhi they work as maids, in many cases without formal contracts and of course, without social security.

 

A working mom is one of the possible reasons for the gender gap in education in India. Evidence for rural suggests that being the oldest sibling have effects in educational outcomes for girls. A plausible explanation is that –while mom is not at home- they take care or their little siblings and of the household duties. I don’t why to oversimplify the analysis, it is important to take also into account social norms that affect the role of women in Indian society and the parent’s preferences.

I don't have a "policy recommendation" for this issue. I just want to invite you to think about this "invisible labor force" that in many developing countries have neither labor rights nor defenders.