Women are used to seeing fold-out diaper changing tables in restrooms. A baby care convenience, they are not required by any law.
Now though, California is deciding whether infants’ changing tables should be mandated. One proposal requires diapering stations in both men’s and women’s restrooms in larger public venues like movie theaters or restaurants. Giving businesses a bit more leeway, a second bill says they need only be installed in new and newly renovated restrooms. The goal of both legislative initiatives is baby care gender equity in men’s and women’s restrooms.
Pew Research looked at the increasing number of hours dads are spending with their kids:
The laws’ advocates have equality and convenience in mind while opponents perceive an additional business expense and government overstepping its bounds.
I wonder though if a changing table amenity should just be one other way that businesses compete?
Sources and Resources: For more facts about California’s proposed changing table laws, the LA Times had a good summary. I especially enjoyed, though, the Pew Report on how families’ division of labor is indeed changing.
Should Gender Equity Include Diaper Changing Tables?
Elaine Schwartz
Elaine Schwartz has spent her career sharing the interesting side of economics. At the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she has been honored through an Endowed Chair in Economics and the History Department chairmanship. At the same time, she developed curricula and wrote several books including Understanding Our Economy (originally published by Addison Wesley as Economics Our American Economy) and Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). Elaine has also written in the Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press) and was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom.” Beyond the classroom, she has presented Econ 101 ½ talks and led workshops for the Foundation for Teaching Economics, the National Council on Economic Education and for the Concord Coalition.
