Financing child care: analysis and recommendations.

Y oung children need the daily nurturance and guidance of an adult in order to thrive. Mothers have traditionally provided these basics, but other arrangements have become necessary as women have flooded into the paid labor force. In 1975, some 39% of women with children under the age of six were in the labor force; by 1994, more than 60% were employed.1 Child care is a necessity for most of these families. More than half of all infants under one year of age, and more than 12 million children under the age of five years regularly spend at least some time in the care of someone other than their parents. (See the article by Hofferth in this journal issue.)