The Best Cities for Working Mothers

There is probably a reason that Forbes specifically catered this to be Best Cities for Working Moms, and that is because it is far more common for women to be stay at home moms (In a 2005 study, the U.S. Census Bureau reported an estimated 5.6 million stay-at-home moms http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/hard-choice-for-moms-work-stay-home) than there are men who are stay at home dads (approximately 159,000 as of 2007 Census estimates http://www.rebeldad.com/stats.htm). Therefore, women making the choice (whether out of necessity or otherwise, whether single, married or divorced) to enter or re-enter the workforce will have some unique concerns (and of course some shared concerns that align with those of all parents) Further, and perhaps more importantly, the cornerstone of the study is the median income and unemployment figures for working mothers. The cities with the most opportunity for women might easily be misrepresented if one city had a larger variance in income by gender. That said, there are obviously other measurements here that would appeal to working men and women, and stay at home dads and moms alike and it would be interesting to see how the combined data would look, as well as the data for men separately. But lets not make it out to be a malicious and sexist study simply because the emphasis was on women’s earnings and what is good for women, and some of those things that appeal to working women (surprise) also appeal to working men.