Louisville Magazine

MAR 2013

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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to poverty. ���We now have pretty clear evidence that it���s motherhood that leads to the gap in wages,��� says Karen Christopher, an associate professor of women and gender studies at the University of Louisville. ���Single women make 90 percent of what men make. Women who have kids earn 70 percent ��� and it���s an increasing trend.��� One study showed that a mother���s salary drops 5 percent, on average, for every child she has. For women younger than 35, the pay gap between mothers and non-mothers is even larger than the pay gap between men and women ��� even when education level and occupation are factored in. It should surprise no one that these neighborhoods where Mom is in charge are also the city���s poorest. Single-parent families are four times more likely to be poor than married families. In Louisville, the median income of female-led households is 64 percent lower than the median income of married couples, according to a 2012 Metropolitan Housing Commission report. Poverty rates in Brock���s neighborhood are among the highest in the city, the housing commission reports. Brock manages. But her budget is tight. If something unexpected comes up that she cannot cover, ���I call my dad,��� she says. ���I call my daddy for everything.��� BROCK FAMILY I t���s about 6:15 a.m. and Kie���Vonna���s friend waits for her in the living room. Tey���ll walk to the bus stop together to meet the bus at 6:30. Te living room walls are covered with carefully arranged photographs of Brock and her two children. Kie���Vonna fashes a 500-watt smile in every photo. Michael���s pictures trace his life back to his birth. One blurry photo shows a tiny face and a trail of plastic tubing. In Brock���s 29th week of pregnancy, Michael was taken by Caesarean section and whisked immediately to Kosair Children���s Hospital for surgery to remove a bowel obstruction. Sometimes he���ll lift his shirt to show friends the scar that stretches halfway across his belly. ���Tis is what happened to me when I was a baby!��� he���ll announce. As Kie���Vonna and her friend head to the bus stop, Brock focuses on Michael, who is trying to negotiate his way out of having his hair washed. He needs to shower, she says. He has already, he tells her. He hasn���t. She needs to wash his hair, she tells him. He already washed his hair, he says. Natalie Brock, daughter Kie���Vonna, 11, and son Michael, 5. 3.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4 7

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