Stamped on the cover of the folio several hundred participants in Thursday's Women's Economic Security Summit in St. Paul received were two big, red words: "UNFINISHED BUSINESS."
The stamp was adjacent to mention of the Women's Economic Security Act, a multipart push to improve the lot of working women that got about half as far as its advocates wanted in last year's legislative session. The coalition behind it is back this year, pushing for paid sick leave, paid leave for new parents and family caregivers, protection against workplace discrimination against caregivers, and more.
But to summit attendees whose feminist histories stretch back 30 or 40 years, "unfinished business" signified a lot more than last year's legislative leftovers.
It evoked the broader aim of the women's movement of the 1970s — the notion that not only would women be allowed to play more roles in work and society, but also that work and society would adapt to that new reality. New ways would be found for men and women to share in the responsibilities of adulthood — chief among them nurturing children and tending frail elderly relatives — as the two genders shared more fully in earning a living and upholding their communities.
That adaptation has been slow in coming — even in Minnesota, long a leader in the share of women employed outside the home. But lately, I think I see adaptation picking up speed.
I'd like to borrow that "unfinished business" ink stamp, so I could smack it on a big chunk of the 2016-17 state budget Gov. Mark Dayton proposed to the Legislature last week. Take his child care tax credit. It would send an estimated 130,000 families what would amount to rebates for out-of-pocket expenses for child care or the care of a disabled or elderly family member.
At $100 million over two years, Dayton's proposed credit is a big-ticket item in the state budget, yet a relatively modest item for families. The projected average per-family credit would be $481, while the average cost of infant care in Minnesota is the third-highest in the nation, at $13,579. But the credit represents a governor's recognition that a society and an economy that induce parents to work outside the home should bear a share of the cost of child care.
In the same spirit, Dayton's budget also includes richer child care subsidies and preschool scholarships for low-income parents. And it starts Minnesota down a path toward public-school preschool for all 4-year-olds. The latter is costly and will surely be controversial. But taken together, Dayton's proposals aim to make work "work" for today's child-rearing families.