# This Mother’s Day, moms need a lot more than flowers

Just 59% of mothers say they are optimistic about their finances versus 74% of fathers, according to MassMutual’s Spring 2021 Consumer Spending & Saving Index.

Half of the fathers participating in the 2,000-person poll released Thursday said they increased their savings during the past three months, versus one-quarter of mothers. And 18% of fathers said they’ve enjoyed a promotion or salary bump in the past three months, compared to 10% of mothers.

The disparity underscores a prevalent point in the pandemic: It’s been especially hard for women, who’ve had to cope with outsized job loss while shouldering most of the child-care duties for kids learning remotely.

Across the world, women have missed out on at least $800 billion in wages, according to recent estimates from Oxfam.

On Friday, markets received a disappointing piece of news in an April jobs report that widely undershot expectations. Despite estimates of one million jobs added in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the economy created 266,000 jobs.

The April jobs report showed the unemployment rate for adult men was 6.1% and 5.6% for adult women. Overall, the economy is still without 8.2 million jobs that existed before the pandemic.

In a hint on the spread of work-life duties, a roughly even amount of mothers and fathers say they are taking on some or most of household and childcare duties. Achieving a work-life balance amid the pandemic was the top-identified challenge (19%) for parents, and many (52%) said they are spending more money on family-related costs because of the pandemic, the MassMututal survey also found.

The battle over household duties

Those particular findings, however, are not represented in other, broader surveys. A global poll by the Financial Times in February found that more women are shouldering household duties during the pandemic, and feeling pressure to take a step back in their careers.

Research by the Pew Research Center has repeatedly found that women shoulder the burden of household duties. “But these dynamics aren’t new,” it said. “Before the pandemic began in March 2020, women were already more likely than their spouses or partners to say they carried more of the load when it comes to both parenting and household responsibilities.”

“In addition, working moms were more likely than working dads to say they faced certain challenges at work because they were balancing work and family responsibilities.”

Weak spots vs. optimism

There are surely weak spots, but the MassMutual survey suggests there’s optimism and some encouraging signs, too. It applies to parents — 68% say they are optimistic about the future — and it also goes for big-picture trends on consumer saving and spending.

57% of people surveyed said they have saved at least $750 in the past three months, up from the 37% in February who said they saved at least that much. 45% of people said they needed to dip into their savings, versus 51% in February.

In the current poll, the most-reported savings goals included retirement, vacations, a new car and home purchases or renovations.

Poll participants are saving for the future, but also planning to spend now.

For those who are planning to spend more in the coming months, they are likely to do it by traveling, shopping and eating. Deep in the grips of pandemic last year, those things seemed like a distant memory.

42% of the people planning to spend more say they will do it at restaurants, as well as traveling; 47% say they’ll spend more on shopping.

That bullish attitude fits with other recent gauges on consumer outlooks. Consumer confidence jumped to a 14-month high in April. Consumer spending increased 4.2% in March, beating economists’ forecasts of a 4% rise.

“It’s heartening to see that overall optimism among Americans is increasing, but working parents still face an increasingly complex balancing act,” said Amanda Wallace, MassMutual’s head of insurance operations.

Working mothers were more likely to face job loss while being less likely to get a raise in the past three months, and the dynamic is cutting into women’s optimism and savings accounts, Wallace noted.

“Ahead of Mother’s Day,” Wallace added, “it’s important for businesses, communities and loved ones to acknowledge these challenges and provide as much support as possible to working moms in particular.”