WAMC: 51% Show # 1059 (2009-10-29)

51 % The Women's Perspective

51% Show # 1059

(2009-10-29)

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ALBANY, NY (WAMC) - The Center for American Progress recently released The Shriver Report to great fanfare. It's a groundbreaking study looking at a nation in the midst of a social transformation. For the first time in our history, one half of all American workers are women. Equally new, mothers are now the primary breadwinners or share that responsibility equally in the majority of American families. This comprehensive study examines a social transformation unfolding right now. For the first time in our nation's history, one-half of all U.S. workers are women, and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, also for the first time. It's a huge shift from just a generation ago, and the report concludes that government and business has not changed to reflect the reality of life in the United States. Maria Shriver introduced the report in a phone news conference.

2:57 Shriver

Shriver says this isn't something that only impacts women...and men know it.

:43 Shriver

Judith Rodin is president of the Rockefeller Foundation and as the former president of a university, had the opportunity to try to create a community that accommodated the new model of American life.

1:53 Rodin

Despite the fact that women's numbers now equal men's in the workforce, they are still not equal. The study looks at the numbers.

1:47 Rodin

What about the international picture?

2:02 Rodin

That's Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, discussing The Shriver Report: A Women's Nation Changes Everything.

We're talking about The Shriver Report: A Women's Nation Changes Everything. It was released earlier this month by the Center for American Progress and it's an exhaustive study about what most of us already knew - the stay at home mom is vastly outnumbered by the working mom and the population of working women in general has now caught up to men.
Heather Bouche is a senior economist with the Center for American Progress.

2:03 Bouche

So if government and business don't yet reflect the new American workplace, where do families go for help? According to The Shriver Report, a great deal of the assistance comes from faith based institutions. Bouche continues.

:37 Bouche

What's interesting, too, is how men are adapting to this new world. Maria Shriver is back with final thoughts on that.

2:39 Shriver

If you want to find out more about The Shriver Report, go to american progress.org.

And finally, you may have noticed Kimberly Kay hasn't had much to say on this program in the past few months. There was a reason. And today she's going to share her story.

4:32 Kay

Kimberly Kay is a radio personality and an award winning blogger. She lives, as you may have guessed, in tick country.

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