Who, me?

The New York Times reports that the percentage of women in the workforce has plateaued. At the peak in 2000, some 77 percent of women in the prime ages of 25 to 54 were in the work force, but the procentage has dropped in the last six years. This is relatively interesting, but what I find particularly interesting is this tidbit:

Professor Bianchi, who studies time-use surveys done by the Census Bureau and others, has concluded that contrary to popular belief, the broad movement of women into the paid labor force did not come at the expense of their children. Not only did fathers spend more time with children, but working mothers, she found, spent an average of 12 hours a week on child care in 2003, an hour more than stay-at-home mothers did in 1975.

Instead, mothers with children at home gained the time for outside work by taking it from other parts of their day. They also worked more over all. Professor Bianchi found that employed mothers, on average, worked at home and on the job a total of 15 hours more a week and slept 3.6 fewer hours than those who were not employed.

"Perhaps time has been compressed as far as it will go," she suggested. "Kids take time, and work takes time. The conflicts didn't go away."


I'm also in the middle of a trend, it turns out. Women's participation in the labor force is being restrained by a side effect of delayed motherhood: a jump in 30-something mothers with toddlers.

That just feels like my life in a nutshell. Yup, we're all tired. But it's really nice to see that some researchers have found that working mothers don't walk to work over their children. Yay.

In other news, I need a nap.

I'm a slacker. I don't have a single MP3 on my (work) computer. But I found a spiffy new site that's keeping me entertained, pandora.com. It's a music streaming site, that matches music to your initial entry. So for example, I'm now listening to a channel that was created by entering Thelonious Monk (feeling like swing-y jazz, Or, to quote these guys: block piano cords, solo piano performance, angular melodies, major tonality and quirky ideas. They even tell you why the songs are similar.). The "feel" of the songs slowly evolves from the first song title/artist you enter. It's really cool. And I have never heard of half the artists.

I'm taking bets that someone on my friends list knows one of the folks who started it, since it's in Oakland, and based on the "music genome project."

Anyway, I recommend it if you have good network and feel like exploring music a bit.

Samuel Alito is by all accounts a nice man. But he is firmly opposed to abortion rights for women, and does appear to believe that the man is the head of the household. He was the only one in Planned Parenthood v. Casey who wanted to uphold the husband-notification portion of that law.

I'm pretty clear my Senators will be opposing this nomination. I've also signed the emergency petition to stop Alito. I suggest you do the same, especially if you live outside California & believe in choice.

Someone recommended recently, in order to reduce the threat of identity theft, sending a letter with the following data to each of the three main credit companies:

Fraud Victim Alert: Fraudulent applications may be submitted in my name or my identity. Action may be required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act before opening or modifying an account. Please contact consumer @ xxx-xxx-xxxx or xxx-xxx-xxxx prior to taking such action. If you cannot contact consumer, do not extend the credit under any circumstance.

Especially useful if you've experienced credit problems, or are worried about someone opening an account in your name. I'm going to send the letter this week.

To an interesting discussion of marriage, and what makes it work: http://www.livejournal.com/users/zoethe/369135.html