Presented on April 18, 1986 Dana E. Friedman, Ed.D, Senior Research Associate, The Conference Board "Historically, many Americans believed that children should be cared for full-time by their parents. Whether or not you agree with this ""ideal"", the fact is that reliance on others for child care has long been a necessity for most families, with thousands of working parents spending much of their time making child care arrangements. The demographic data is revealing. Over 50% of all children in two parent families have mothers in the labor force and 80% of working women will become pregnant sometime during their careers. Child care is all of our business. Our speaker this Friday is one of the most active and well-informed national consultants on corporate options for child care. Dana Friedman has worked in child care for over twelve years, starting as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. In 1982 she conducted a national study of corporate views on family issues for the Carnegie Corporation. The study resulted in the formation of the Work and Family Information Center at The Conference Board, a business information service which helps senior business executives and other leaders reach sound decisions on critical issues of management practice, public policy, and economics. Freidman is a sought-after, dynamic speaker who has worked with numerous corporations and government agencies. City Club involvement in child care issues has been ongoing since the 1983 Report on Child Care Needs of Working Parents in the Portland Metropolitan Area. Two follow-up surveys by the Child Care Taskforce of the Club's Human Services Standing Committee indicate that few companies in the metro area have implemented benefits to assist employees with regular child care, though many of these benefits have little direct cost to employers. Friedman will discuss the rationale for corporate support of child care and the range of options available to businesses. She will also emphasize, as the Club's report did, that the responsibility for child care must be fairly shared because it affects all segments of our society. "

• published: 12 May 2015
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