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Recent demographic and economic changes have combined to create unexpected new pressures for many American families. We are living longer than ever before: by 2035, the U.S. population over the age of eighty-five is expected to more than double to 11.5 million. As baby boomers turn sixty-five at the rate of 10,000 per day, millions of families are now taking on the challenge of caring for their aging loved ones, often with little support. Meanwhile, nearly half of American parents of young children now hold two or more jobs, forcing them to work long, often unpredictable hours and leaving them with few affordable and accessible childcare options. And even with the influx of women into the American workforce, by which men and women are sharing caregiving responsibilities more equally than they did a generation ago, families are increasingly turning to domestic workers and home care workers to care for their loved ones - yet this critical workforce is often underpaid.
Why, despite these shifts, is care work in the U.S. so consistently undervalued? What might be done to help working Americans better accommodate the demands of the home, and to ensure that the practical and emotional needs of our children and older adults are being met? What does it mean to live, work, and age with dignity in America today?
Join New America NYC for an evening with three leaders at the forefront of the national conversation to transform our culture and economy to realize the true value of care.
This event is part of Caring Across America, a series of Care Conversations that will take place nationwide coninciding with the release of Ai-jen Poo's The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. Copies will be available for purchase. |
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