Researchers found that mothers are more likely to be full-time employees in states where child care is more affordable. In states with more expensive child care, more mothers worked part-time. They also found mothers spent more time caring for children in states where child care was more expensive and as child care costs rose over this decade. This suggests that families respond to rising care costs by using less of it, at the expense of mothers’ employment and careers.

Surveying 14,143 partnered people from 23 European countries, results showed in 22 of the 23 countries, more women than men reported their sleep was restless in the prior week. Women’s sleep was disrupted by children under five, and men reported more restless sleep if they were dissatisfied by their family’s finances. For both men and women, working a stressful job disrupted sleep. But, everyone slept better in more gender equal societies.