Final answer:
Child care availability significantly impacts women's professional participation, acting almost like a tax for working women, especially those with lower incomes. It affects both single and two-parent households, influencing decisions about employment.
Step-by-step explanation:
The lack of available child care impacts women at all levels of professional achievement. This is a true statement. Child care acts as a financial burden that disproportionately affects women, especially those with lower incomes where it functions like a regressive tax on their earnings. Women often carry a greater share of responsibility for family care, which includes child care and domestic chores, reducing their ability to participate in the labor force or making employment economically unfeasible after accounting for child care costs.
This situation affects both single parents and two-parent households, altering the calculus of whether it makes financial sense for a second parent to work outside the home. Governments worldwide have recognized this impact and have implemented various programs, such as preschool and kindergarten programs and child care subsidies, to attempt to alleviate these burdens and encourage economic participation among women.