December 8, 2004
Black mothers
As mentioned any discussion of children being home alone has to acknowledge that black mothers were in the labor force since ... well, since they got their first opportunity to earn money for themselves rather than be sold as chattels. The graph below shows black mothers' labor force participation in the last 120 years. The figures are for black mothers living with their husbands, so as not to muddy the comparison with any black/white differentials in marriage dissolution.
(Click on image for larger version)
