The Shriver Report: Employers Must Adapt To The Workforce

Leigh Polk Cole, Esq.

A fascinating report issued last month explores a new social and economic reality that is startling and yet intuitive: women now are 50% of the U.S. workforce.  "The Shriver Report: A Women's Nation Changes Everything" (October 2009) is based on a study by Maria Shriver, a journalist and currently California's First Lady, and the Center for American Progress.  The report is named after Maria Shriver and her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009), both formidable women and role models.   The Shriver Report includes chapters by a variety of authors representing a range of perspectives.  The primary message is that "women are half of all U.S. workers and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families.... Quite simply, women as half of all workers changes everything." (Shriver Report, page 17).  Most men and women in the United States are living with this reality as part of their daily life and recognize that women are primary or co-equal breadwinners in most households.  However the U.S. economy was built on a foundational model that no longer exists: a workforce dominated by single-career families with a caregiver (generally female) who does not work outside the home.  Read the full post....