Dads and Workforce Re-Entry (and New Stats!)

Posted on 19. May, 2010 by rebel in Uncategorized

The Wall Street Journal yesterday tackled the thorny issue of dads re-entering the workforce. This is by no means a new topic (the WSJ did essentially the same piece as early as 2003), but I’m always interested in the anecdotes.

According to this week’s piece, by work-family guru Sue Shellenbarger, it really is tough out there for dads, who face some pretty severe stigmas when they drop out of the workforce to take care of the kids. How severe? Shellenbarger suggests in the story’s lede that finding on on-ramp when you’re a stay-at-home dad is more difficult than if you’re a mom in the same situation:

Much has been written about the challenges awaiting at-home mothers who decide to return to work. Few of them, though, have a tougher time of it than the stay-at-home dad.

I have no doubt that re-entry is hard for at-home dads, but Shellenbarger doesn’t give us much context. Given that the current recession is hitting guys especially hard, I have to wonder if the number of job-seeking dads has driven away part of the stigma. In the go-go ’90s, a man out of the workforce (especially the upper-class guys profiled) was automatically suspect. Today, it’s much more common. Does that work in favor of the AHD? I would think so, but I don’t have any proof of that.

Regardless, the piece is well worth the read, as is the accompanying Juggle blog post, which gives some tips for guys looking for re-entry.

ALSO: The real scoop was actually buried. Shellenbarger writes:

A record 7.4% of fathers in married-couple families with children under 18 were home in 2009 while their wives worked, based on unpublished Bureau of Labor Statistics data set for release next week. That is up two percentage points from 2008 and the highest on record, says Sandra Hofferth, a University of Maryland family-science professor and researcher on family time use.

I’ll track down those numbers next week when they are released. This is likely to be a number that is far more reflective of the actual at-home dad numbers than the “official” SAHD stat estimate.