Texas is One of the Worst States For Working Mothers, Study Says

Women have been an integral part of the American workforce for decades. Generally earning less than men, often overlooked for leadership positions and often going home to a full house with a laundry list of chores to complete, women are always clocked in. Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and 74% of those women have children under 18.

In addition to the regular occupational stressors, working moms must also navigate the increasing costs of children while facing an ongoing battle for equitable wages. The conditions for working moms vary across states, but Texas isn’t noted for being working-mom friendly. A recent study from WalletHub ranked it as one of the worst states for working moms.

“Working moms have to carefully balance career opportunities with factors that provide a good environment for their children when deciding where to live,” said Cassandra D. Chaney, a professor at Louisiana State University, in the study. “The best states provide equitable pay for women and the potential for career advancement, along with robust parental leave policies and high-quality child care, health care, and schools. This gives working moms both the financial ability and the peace of mind to not have to choose between a career and family.”

On the list of 50 states and the District of Columbia, Texas came in at 41st for working moms. The study assessed each state based on accessibility to child care, professional opportunities and work-life balance. Texas ranked in the bottom quarter across almost all categories, with the third-worst ratio for female to male executives and the second-worst average women’s work week.

“Working moms have to carefully balance career opportunities with factors that provide a good environment for their children when deciding where to live,” said Chip Lupo, an analyst for WalletHub. “The best states provide equitable pay for women and the potential for career advancement, along with robust parental leave policies and high-quality child care, health care, and schools.”

Generally and unsurprisingly, states in the South ranked poorly for working women. The trend is worrisome as more conservative states limit women’s access to reproductive healthcare, forcing many into motherhood. In Texas, with some of the most restrictive laws surrounding abortion and a growing birth rate, the state still fails to provide for working moms, consistently rejecting bills that would assist.

Rep. Julie Johnson, now a member of Congress, filed a bill, while serving as a representative for Dallas, for the 2023 Texas Legislative session that would have created an employer child care contribution program. The bill failed to reach the governor’s desk. Several similar bills hope to improve the existing day care gap in the state this session. One particular bill, filed by Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. of Houston, would create a task force dedicated to private child care. The task force would submit an overview of the costs of private child care, the quality of care, the waitlist for scholarships, and the overall accessibility of high-quality private child care to the Texas Legislature by November of 2026. The bill did not pass committee.

“Since mothers are one of the first and most influential socializers in the lives of children, policymakers must understand that their policies either make life easier for working mothers or make the lives of working mothers more difficult,” said Chaney. “In addition, policymakers must also understand that the structure of a family of today may not look the same weeks, months, or years later. A woman with a supportive partner today may be a single mother with few or no supports in a few months. Life can oftentimes be unpredictable, and policymakers must seriously evaluate and change any policy that puts additional pressure on working mothers.”