The pressures felt by Vermont families today were unknown a generation ago. Today, there are more women in the workplace than ever before, more working couples, and more single parents. In addition, the population is living longer, and working adults often face the responsibilities of caring for children and aging parents at the same time.

Today, both women and men take responsibility for children and older relatives. Although women still take on a greater share of this work, men with employed wives show signs of taking more responsibility for family work.

• In Vermont, 68% of children under the age of six have working parents.
• Dual-earner families (less than 10 percent of the workforce in 1940) are now the predominant family type in the American workforce.
• Nearly one in five employed parents is single. More workers are raising children alone today than they did 20 years ago.

• Child care problems affect work attendance and workers’ well-being.
  According to a nationally representative study of workers in the United States - the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NCSW) - employed mothers with children under 13 miss an average of 6.43 days a year because of family-related issues. Employed fathers with children under 13 miss an average of 3.85 days.
  Employed parents who experience fewer breakdowns in their child care arrangements are more satisfied with their lives in general, are less stressed, and report better coping abilities.