Mississippi Governor Stirs Simmering Debate on Working Women - East Idaho News
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Mississippi Governor Stirs Simmering Debate on Working Women

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Getty 060413 USMilitarySexualAssaultHearing?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1370375670601Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — It’s hard to believe in 2013 and the era of “Lean In” that one could argue that the country is approaching a sort of national mini-conversation on women in the workplace.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant broached the subject Tuesday when he was asked at a D.C. event why U.S. kids have become so “mediocre” in education.

“I’m going to get in trouble if I … You want me to tell the truth,” Republican Bryant said. “You know I think parents became … Both parents started working and the mom is in the workplace.

“It’s not a bad thing,” he said, looking at the audience as if he expected disagreement. “I’m going to get in trouble. I can see the emails tomorrow. But now both parents are working, they’re pursuing their careers. It’s a great American story now that women are in the workplace.”

A moderator at the event sponsored by the Washington Post asked Bryant, 58, whether it was then the mother’s place to teach children to read.

“No, no,” he said. “But I think there was that loving, nurturing opportunity that both parents had a little bit of time.

“My dad was a reader,” he said. “He was a mechanic so he didn’t go to college. So he was a reader, but he had a little more time with me. …In today’s society, parents are so challenged. Not just the mom, but the mom and the dad. They’re working overtime, they’re trying to balance both of them in the workplace.”

A PEW study of Census Bureau data last week showed the growing importance of working mothers in the U.S. household. Forty percent of homes with children younger than 18 in the United States rely entirely or mostly on a female breadwinner, because more women are pursuing careers and also because there are more households with a single woman and children. Here’s how PEW described them:

“These ‘breadwinner moms’ are made up of two very different groups: 5.1 million (37 percent) are married mothers who have a higher income than their husbands, and 8.6 million (63 percent) are single mothers.”

An accompanying PEW survey suggested 51 percent of Americans believe that children are better off if a mother is home and doesn’t hold a job while only 8 percent say the same about a father.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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