RHWACA demands better child care facilities for students!

New research has shown that child care costs are increasingly out stripping women’s incomes, driving them out of the workforce. 

Information published by Aviva shows the cost of children on working mothers. This is not only driving women out of jobs and lessening family’s financial security but forcing mothers out of education. Single parents (90% of which are mothers) are well known to be among the worst hit by the current government cuts, when the current cost of childcare is also factored in it is neigh impossible for mothers to participate equally in higher education, particularly from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Table showing the cost of child care per month per age group:

Child age	Full-time care	Part-time care	School/nursery costs
All Children	£385	£193	£111
Up to 2 years	£729	£364	£79
2 to 11 years	£270	£136	£142
11 to 18 years	£156	£78	£116

Source: http://womensgrid.freecharity.org.uk/?p=8053

Central to second wave feminism was the demand for child care, the acknowledgement of all aspects of procreative freedom. This offered opportunities not only for the control of the number and timing of children but also the freedom for work and educational opportunities during motherhood. These battles have been lost to the rise in debates concerning ‘glass ceilings’. It is not just an issue for women in education but for women in the workforce and in parliament, increasing childcare increases mothers access to these areas of society. The argument should not purely be how many women do we have in parliament, but how many mothers, how many people with alternative life experiences?  The childcare support must be present in all areas of life to make this possible, we must fight to get back crèches in the workplace and the university campus.

Without the sufficient childcare facilities mothers as young and mature students, single and partnered, will be denied the essential right to education, as well as the opportunity of a higher wage that a degree will often provide to support their child/ children. Mother’s must have the child care support they deserve to be able to have the same educational opportunities, the same opportunities to be part of university life, sports and societies and this must be facilitated by the higher educational system itself.