In June 2020, the Women’s Bureau in the US Department of Labor celebrated 100 years of its work to advance the well-being of working women. From its inception, a central focus of the agency’s work has been childcare. Family childcare — provided in homes rather than institutional settings — is the preferred choice of many working women. Running a home-based childcare business has also long been an important avenue for women’s entrepreneurship, especially in low-income communities. Yet since 2005, the licensed family childcare sector has lost almost 100,000 providers, declining by 44 percent.
For this centennial anniversary of the Women's Bureau, Katharine Stevens hosts a special webinar on family childcare. What is uniquely valuable about home-based childcare? What is causing its decline? What is needed now to restore this crucial sector — especially in a post-COVID-19 world?
This audio first appeared at an American Enterprise Institute event held on June 12, 2020.
See Also
Op-Ed ~ June 16, 2020
Event ~ July 29, 2020
Report ~ June 21, 2017