A Regina woman is happy to be back working full-time after nine years of running a part-time home preschool so she could be around when her daughter returned home from school.
For Amanda Benesh, the market for private preschool has changed as more women are working full-time.
Benesh believes government funding and lower daycare fees have allowed more parents to send their kids to registered daycare and go to work at the same time.
These factors along with a decrease in the number of children that enrolled at her preschool propelled Benesh to go back to full-time work, rather than maintain the preschool.
“It became obvious that I needed a career change and I also needed to financially support my family,” she said.
“Now women don’t have to choose between whether to stay with their children or work, now they can do both,” Benesh explained. “They can have the fulfilment many women find in the workplace as well as still being wonderful mothers.”
She said going back to full-time work has been very fulfilling.
“I have been back to full-time work since Dec. 21, and it’s been an adjustment to my home life,” Benesh said. “There is a fulfillment I am getting now that, not that I did not have that before, but it’s something different and I am excited to be participating in society, especially in this non-profit.”
Cindy Hanson, a professor in sociology and social studies at the University of Regina, believes expensive child care has been a major factor hindering women from working.
But now, things are finally changing.
“About half a million women lost their jobs during the COVID-19, so it makes sense as conditions change that some of those women go back to work,” Hanson said.
“If you think about children going back to school, it allows women to go back into the workforce. With the federal government’s new child policy, parents are going to be paying 50 per cent less.’
According to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, employment in Canada gained momentum in December of 2022, growing by 104,000, with young women’s employment rising by 33,000.