In Honor of Mother´s Day – Let´s Talk About Inclusion at Work

May 12, 2017 / 0 Comments

This blog was written by Miriam Heyman, PhD. Program Officer at the Ruderman Family Foundation.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, this piece calls attention to an aspect of disability inclusion that is somewhat peripheral to the topic of inclusion – the inclusion of mothers of children with disabilities. Of course there are also countless mothers who have disabilities themselves, and they deserve a shout out too! (If you are a mom with a disability, by the way, and would like to be featured in a future blog, please reach out and let us know.) But for now, this blog is on the topic of mothers who have children with disabilities. More specifically, on how mothers, in particular, are often excluded from the workplace.

According to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, children under the age of 18 comprise about 23% of thepopulation in this country, totaling about 73.6 million. Approximately 20% of these children have disabilities and / or special health care needs, which brings us to about 15 million children under age 18. According to a report from the Lucile Packard Foundation, in 25% of these families, parents cut back or quit employment as a result of the children’s disabilities and/or special health care needs.

Of course, some moms choose to leave work in order to spend more time with their children. Inclusion is all about choice; an inclusive mindset is the conviction that people with disabilities and their family members hav e access to all of the same opportunities as everyone else. Therefore, when leaving the workplace is in fact a choice, it should celebrated. However, for many moms of children with disabilities, the departure from employment is not a choice and not ideal. Parents who report that they leave work because of their child’s disability are referring to an incompatibility between their work schedules and their parental responsibilities (providing care for their children, shuttling them to multiple health and service provider appointments, etc.).

Mother holding child

I want to re-iterate one key fact: as many as 3,750,000 parents of children with disabilities leave or cut back on work because their jobs are incompatible with these responsibilities (based on the 25% figure above).

Yes, this impacts dads, too. But first of all, this blog is for Mother’s Day. And secondly, mothers spend more time caregiving and less time at work than fathers do. There are lots of explanations for this, but one of them is that the gender wage gap persists. According to the American Association of University Women, working women are paid 80% of what working men earn, so the loss of a mother’s income is more sustainable for a family. These are issues for another time, however, and now I turn back to the most important point – how can we make the workplace more inclusive?

First of all, we must continue to find innovative solutions to enable mothers to fulfill all of their responsibilities more efficiently. Progress has been made in this area, most notably with the proliferation of the “medical home”, which according to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative is a model of care that is “patient-centered, comprehensive, team-based, coordinated, accessible, and focused on quality and safety”. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a center dedicated to ensuring that all children with special healthcare needs have access to a medical home, where healthcare teams are coordinated and communication is prioritized, so that parents are not middle-men in mazes of specialists. Sometimes, multiple specialists reside under one roof, so that one patient can see many professionals within a single appointment. What does all of this mean? Less time spent by moms driving kids to appointments, waiting in waiting rooms, calling to request referrals, and making sure that each provider has all of the up-to-date information. Families can use time saved as they wish, and for many moms, that will mean additional time at work. Data shows that parents that have access to services including care coordination are less likely to reduce work hours. Meanwhile, quality of care is enhanced and not compromised.

A second key solution lies in the hands of employers. Flexible hours and the ability to work from home enable mothers to stay in the

workforce, if they wish to do so. Also, generous family leave policies allow mothers to take time off to care for their children in the event of a health crisis, and then return to their jobs, which are protected in their absence. These policies are not acts of charity on behalf of the employer, but rather an investment in their employees, and ultimately in the success of their organizations.

The labor market cannot afford to miss the contributions of the 20% of Americans that have disabilities. Similarly, 20% of children have disabilities, and companies can’t afford to lose these children’s mothers. Turnover is bad for business, and policies infused with flexibility and generosity will reduce turnover. Businesses must strive to include all moms, regardless of whether they, their children, or anybody else has a disability.