Early Research: Child Care Economics and African and Black Entrepreneurship

This page contains a list of some of Mary Rowe’s early research, which addressed 1) the economics of child care and 2) African entrepreneurship and Black entrepreneurship.

I. Economics of Child Care

This section includes a number of works (1971 to 1979) that contributed to establishing the field of the economics of child care, and also contributed to theory and practice about gender equity and androgyny. One basic premise is that the rewards to caretaking in human societies are fundamental to understanding structural sexism as it affects people of all gender identities. (On the one hand, child care and other caretaking is “priceless.” On the other hand, child care and other caretaking is “worth” either no wages or low wages, by comparison with other work deemed essential to humankind.)

• “Especially for Working Mothers,” Parents Magazine, 1977-1979. Rowe, Mary. (Note: This was a monthly column on research and policy relevant to working parents.)
• A Day-Care Guide for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents. Ruopp, Richard, Brigid O'Farrell, David Warner, Mary Rowe, and Ruth Freedman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1973.
• "Economics of Child Care: Costs, Needs, and Issues.” Rowe, Mary Potter, and Ralph D. Husby. In Child Care—Who Cares? Foreign and Domestic Infant and Early Childhood Development Policies, edited by Pamela Roby, 98-123. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1973.
• "Questions We Might Ask about Day Care." Rowe, Mary. Industry and Day Care Conference II, Urban Research Corporation, 5464 South Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, 1973, 3-11.
• "When the Employer Faces Day Care Decisions: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Other Decision Making Tools." Rowe, Mary P. Sloan Management Review Vol. 14, No. 3, (Spring 1973): 1.
• "How Much is Good Child Care Worth?" Rowe, Mary P. Inequality in Education 13 (December, 1972): 13-16, published by the Center for Law and Education, Harvard University. Also republished in Perspectives on Child Care, The National Association for Education of Young Children, Washington, D.C., 1973.
• Child Care in Massachusetts: The Public Responsibility. Richard R. Rowe et al. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Advisory Council on Education, 1972. Chapter 8 (by Mary Rowe) reprinted as “The Costs of Child Care: Money and Other Resources” by the Day Care and Child Development Council of America, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1972.
• “The State of the Art in Evaluation of Early Childhood Programs.” Rowe, Mary, for the National Academy of Public Administration and the General Accounting Office of the United States, May 1972. Included in conference proceedings.
• “Sliding Fee Schedules and Child Care under H.R.I.” Rowe, Mary, with David Warner and James Botkin. Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates, July 1972.
• “Economics of Child Care at Harvard-Radcliffe.” Rowe, Mary. Reports submitted to Child Care Council of Harvard-Radcliffe University, 1971 and 1972.
• "Economics of Child Care." Rowe, Mary P. Written and oral testimony to the US Senate Finance Committee, September 23, 1971, published in the Child Care Hearings of that Committee, 1971, US Government Printing Office, pp. 235-313.
• A Study in Child Care, 1970-71, Volume 1.  Rowe, Mary, et al. Cambridge, MA: OEO - Abt Associates, 1971. “West 80th Street Day Care Center” and “The Family Day Care Career Program,” both by Mary Rowe, were case studies in the above study. Mary Rowe was also the principal author of Volume  IIA of this series and co-author of Volume IIB. She was the coauthor of  “Issues of Cost and Quality” in Volume III of the series.

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