U.S. Survey Finds Day Care a Key Issue for Women

Mary Frausto says she can’t afford day care near her job for a federal agency in Downtown Los Angeles.

Even if she could, she says, the waiting list is long and it would be inconvenient to bring her children each day on the hourlong bus rides to and from work.

The federal government wants to make work and family easier to juggle for women like Frausto.

Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich came to Los Angeles City Hall Thursday to release results of a survey in which 250,000 working women around the country voiced their needs and frustrations.

“This survey should be a wake-up call to the private and public sector,” Reich said. “All across the country public and private sector employers have a very long way to go. They are not providing nearly the quantity and the quality of day care women need on the job.”

Karen Nussbaum, director of the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau, which conducted the study, said it revealed that working women say the stress of balancing work and personal lives is the most crucial issue facing them. Along with job training, discrimination, lack of health insurance and other benefits, the majority of the women cited child care as one of the most important issues.

About 56% of the women surveyed said they have serious problems finding quality child care. A third said it is their most serious problem connected with work. More than half said better access to information on where to find care is a high priority for improving their workplace.

“L.A. has the highest percentage of working women of any city in the country,” Mayor Richard Riordan said. Seventy percent of women work in either the public or private sector, he said, adding that action needs to be take based on the findings.

Reich said the Clinton Administration will use the findings to guide future policies. Among the issues being looked at are how to “upgrade enforcement of anti-discrimination laws,” how to “push for more equal pay” and how to “re-examine labor laws based on women’s needs.”

Nussbaum said she and Reich will soon begin work on a mandate from Clinton to submit by next March “serious initiatives” the federal government could undertake to address the issues raised in the survey.

But many women questioned after the announcement were skeptical about seeing real changes.

“I’m not hopeful,” said Myrna Morales, another federal worker. “It’s been said before.”

The women said they need changes now.

As a single mother of three young children, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Donna Roller said she cannot send her children to a day care center run by the city because it is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. She often works long hours, on weekends and holidays.

“I absolutely love my job,” she said. “But child care is an extremely important issue to women police officers, especially during emergencies. You work 15-16 hours (a day) for weeks on end. You hardly get home in time to get back to work. I can’t tell you enough how important this is.”

Times staff writer Donna K. H. Walters contributed to this story.