Working mums in Cambridge Stats

[LocalEditorCambridge]

I've been sent the following email from a journalist at Cambridge News - they are writing an article about these statistics about SAHM / working mothers (have they never been on AIBU )

Anyway - Local Editors don't speak for Mumsnetters so I thought I start a thread & see if you've got any opinions ...

I'm currently working on a story about a recent study which found that 43 per cent of mothers in the UK are now the breadwinners for their household, contributing 50 per cent or more to the household income.

However at a local level only 29 percent of Cambridge mothers are the breadwinners and they contribute only 34 per cent to the household income on average.

What do you think about these statistics?

Why do Cambridge mother's contribute so little to the household income compared to other cities despite earning more than most (Cambridge mothers placed 7th out of 21 cities in average incomes)?

What does this mean for local mothers?

According to the study Cambridge mothers play a large part in making decisions about choosing energy suppliers, bank accounts, morgage providers, how and when bills are paid, mobile contracts and buying a car.

What do you think about this?

Cambridge has a lot of high tech and science jobs and women are under-represented in those industries, which might explain the stats a bit.

I'm not the breadwinner in our household, purely because I work PT, I am on about the same salary as DH, but prorated for being PT. I don't know what proportion of Cambridge mothers/fathers work full time.

I think it would be easier to comment if we knew more about the spread over the rest of the country. London often skews things and Cambridge may be more typical of non-London areas.

I think it is fairly insulting to say that "Cambridge mothers contribute so little to household income". 34% is hardly insignificant and there will be a massive spread from SAHM contributing no income to those providing 100%. Contribution is hardly just about income either, many parents sacrifice some income potential to spend more time with their children.

The last paragraph about decision making makes me wonder who sponsored the research. Why does it matter which adult makes these decisions?

I don't live in Cambs, but close by (just over county border).

Sahm and those of us who work pt make an enormous economic contribution to the household by caring for dc. If you tot up the cost of nursery/cm/nanny Childcare for under 5s, dms who do it or some of it themselves save their household thousands every year.

Also an enormous contribution in non-monetary terms is made to the household by all sah parents.

I completely agree Strawberries. I'm a relatively high earner, but 2 DC in childcare would wipe out my "contribution to household income", and childcare costs come from taxed income. I work because I enjoy it (and would be an awful SAHM) but many of my friends don't work either because it isn't economically viable or it isn't what they want for their families.

Those statistics are meaningless without proper context.

I also think those statistics are less relevant than these statistics:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/guest_posts/2163950-Guest-post-The-gender-pay-gap-is-still-widening-we-must-act

But hey, let's not pass up a chance to bash women, again, in the media. Thanks, Cambridge News. Unless your headline is going to be "Meaningless stats dressed up as mysogynistic tosh"?

How do those statistics take into consideration the transient community in Cambridge?

I know of many families who have temporarily relocated as the DH has been posted in Cambridge for a year or sometimes more. In many cases the wives were working in their home town/country and either had to leave their jobs or seek part time work here, until they return.

The statistics also do not take into consideration mothers who have to become SAHM because the cost of childcare is so prohibitive. Indeed, the statistics fail to reflect the fact that a SAHM has the same "value" in terms of contribution to the household, despite not earning a paid salary, without which their DH could not pursue a career.

The comments regarding 'decision making' are ridiculous and I question how the study was conducted. There are different influencing factors and generally it is a combination of those factors and parental input (regardless of family situation), which dictate those decisions.

I don't know what they mean by breadwinner -is that the person that earns the highest - are they talking about all families - eg not just those with 2 parents at home - it is possible that there a lower than average lone parent number, also as well as the very high cost of childcare there are quite a few people where one of the couple commutes to london which makes it difficult for the other -normally the mother to work full time

Also academic mothers in Cambridge might have very high flying jobs in their own fields that just don't earn that much. In many of those families the DH will earn more.

Our stats nearer even than those stats suggest, however like Strawberries, I know quite a few families with academic mothers, and fathers earning more, travelling more, but the parents are pretty equal

Apologies - bit late back to this thread. I asked the journalist where these stats & research had come from and it was done by an Insurance company - Ensign. I think that's where the decision making question comes from as they are trying to get women to think about life insurance - possibly

I agree - without context these stats are quite meaningless. I also wondered if the large numbers of families moving to Cambridge to start families or when their children are very small would also impact on these figures. It's what I did and I know lots of families who have done the same. Women with smaller DCs will be new to the area, at home with babies & might not be thinking about returning to work for the next few years.