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Working women aren’t happy

Hillary Wicai Aug 7, 2006
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Working women aren’t happy

Hillary Wicai Aug 7, 2006
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TEXT OF STORY

MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: America’s working women are pretty unhappy. That’s the bottom line from an AFL-CIO survey that questioned 22,000 women. Hillary Wicai has more from the Marketplace Work and Family Desk.


HILLARY WICAI: Families are between a rock and a hard place. Just ask working women.

Karen Nussbaum has been with the survey since it started about a decade ago.

KAREN NUSSBAUM:“What we’re seeing now is much more intensity around fundamental economic issues.”

More than 95 percent of women across age, race, and socio-economic lines say they are worried about their family’s healthcare and the rising cost of living.

A third of women work nights and weekends; 20 percent work two or more jobs.

NUSSBAUM:“Certainly, when 9 or 10 people tell you they’re worried or concerned about the future, I think we have a lot to worry about as well.”

One woman surveyed summed it up. She wrote “If we work, we can’t afford the high cost of daycare. If we stay home with the kids, we can’t afford the high cost of health care.”

In Washington, I’m Hillary Wicai for Marketplace.

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