'U' study shows
federal cuts will
hit state hard
By JOHN ADAM
President Reagan's cuts in the
federal budget will hit states with
declining economies-such as
Michigan-twice as hard as they will
rapidly developing states, a new
University study concludes.
The study says that because federal
assistance to slow-growth states and
cities will dwindle significantly while
most of the new, big-money defense
contracts will go to industries in fast-
growing states, Michigan probably will
not fare well in the coming years.
REAGAN'S budget exhibits a "clear
and severe regional bias" because the
states with ailing economies tend to be
concentrated in the Northeast and
Midwest, while the states with thriving
economies seem to be clustered in the
Southwest and Pacific regions, the
study states.
"There is no evidence at all that the
Reagan Administration intentionally
wanted to discriminate on any region,"
said Thomas Anton, director of the
study's research group. "But the im-
plications of the cuts definitely have
regional impacts."
Although preferential treatment is
usually granted to industries from slow-
growth regions in competition for
defense contracts, the report, issued by
the University's Institute for Social
Research's Center for Political Studies,
says most federal defense dollars in
new contracts will nevertheless by fun-
neled into the already healthy
economies of Pacific and South Atlantic
states.
THE INCREASES in defense expen-
ditures in the low-growth states will be
more than offset by large reductions in
federal subsidies for commerce and
housing credits, education and training,
and income-security activities, the
study states.
The financially strapped states and
cities of the Northeast and Midwest will
suffer the most from these cuts in non-
defense subsidies because these areas,
with fewer thriving industries and a
weaker tax base, are more dependent
on federal loans and grants.
The states of the so-called sunbelt, on
the other hand, now enjoying the influx
of new industries, need less federal
assistance and will not feel the cuts as
much.
In short, "the Reagan budget
proposals will have their most substan-
tial impacts on those states which are
least able to cope with them," the
research group reported. "It is a
program of focused inequity."
THESE INEQUITIES are likely to
widen the economic gap between the
growing and declining states, the study
says. The slow-growth states are
already levying higher taxes than the
Daily Photo by PAUL ENGSTROM
PROF. THOMAS ANTON, director of a University study on the impact of
President Reagan's budget, warns that the cut in federal aid will hit states
like Michigan particularly hard.
faster growing states, and, compoun-
ding the problem, have less taxable
capacity than the thriving states where
the taxable industrial base is expan-
ding.
It will have "very, very serious
negative consequences" for the state
governments in the declining or slow
growth regions, Anton said. "When you
take away government subsidies, you
increase their (the declining states)
deficit more."
If the state economies are suffering
already, the federal government should
not exacerbate the problem, he said.
AMONG THE 10 states with the
slowest economies are Michigan,
Illinois, Massachussetts, and New
York. Some of the fastest growing are
Alaska, Washington, Texas, and
Wyoming.
Michigan will lose more than $2
billion in federal funds as the result of
the change from President Carter's
projected budget to Reagan's new plan.
Though regional effects should not be
the priority in federal policy-making
decisions, they should be taken into ac-
count, Anton said. He said he believes
the present problem is the result of
more indirect, rather than intentional,
decisions.
SOME WOMEN MANAGE BOTH:
Raising a family vs. a career
By ANNETTE STARON
Women who refuse to make the traditional choice
between career and family are often forced by
society to work twice as hard, combining the roles of
housewife, mother, and career woman, some Univer-
sity counselors and researchers say.
American society expects women to take care of
raising the family, they say, so those women who also
want careers outside the home must often take on
both sets of responsibilities.
"A LOT OF WOMEN ARE doing two full-time
jobs," said Nicki Roth Atwood, a senior counselor at
University Counseling Service.
In doing two jobs, "you really have to be a super-
woman - efficient and organized," said Betty Kauf-
man, program associate with the University Institute
of Labor and Industrial Relations. To her, it is
"exhilirating" to do two jobs.
But choosing to work inside the home is as much a,
full-time job as working outside the home, said Ellen
Offen, director of Project Community, an experimen-
tal learning program coordinated by the University.
Being a housewife and mother is a "High-status
career," Offen said, adding that she holds women
who have chosen that 24-hour-a-day job in high
respect.
OFFEN SAID SHE DISLIKES the so-called
"superwoman" image, because "superwomen" don't
really exist.
In fact, the pressure to fulfill these many roles puts
many women under considerable stress, according to
Martha Price, a counselor at the Center for the Con-
tinuing Education of Women. "Women have tied
themselves into knots trying to fill all the roles,"
Price said.
To help women work out the stress they might sen-
se in their lives, Price suggested that women "figure
out what roles they are playing." But figuring out
where the outside stresses are coming from, women
can better figure out "where their energies are going
to" and "what their lives are like."
WHEN TRYING TO CHOOSE between a job inside
or outside the home, Offen said "the issue is choice
and feeling good about that choice."
There are advantages to being both a working
woman and a housewife, according to Kaufman. If
things are tough at work, she said, it is usually balan-
ced out by home life. It also gives women "adult
stimulation" which may be lacking when women are
confined to the home.
"Our culture is not quite ready
for competent, reliable women."
-Nicki Roth Atwood,
University counselor
In combining the two careers, some people belive
that working mothers deny their children adequate
attention. Atwood said that some women feel guilty
about leaving their children at home with a babysit-
ter or at a day care centeer. "Work takes time away
from being with the children and the quality of that
time," she said, but working mothers have to come to
grips with this problems.
Kaufman agreed and said that children "lose lots of
chocolate chip cookies (when mothers work outside
the home), but gain a person who is living a full life."
She added, "Happy people make the best parents."
HYMAN KORNBLUH, AN associate professor in
the School of Education and co-divisional director of
the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, said
he belives that child-care is not the sole responsibility
of the mother:
"The nurturing function isn't an instinct - it is not
divided by gender lines." He and his wife, Joyce, a
lecturer at the Residential College and director of
special programs at ILIR, have raised three
children. "We shared all responsibilities before the
feminist movement started," he added.
The roles are changing, according to Assistant
Prof. Cynthia Marcelo, senior co-chairwoman of the
Commission for Women. As recently as five years
ago, many people believed that women who failed at
jobs did so simply as a result of their gender - not
because they were individuals who couldn't handle
the job. Many men also belived that women weren't
dedicated to their careers. Now, most men under 30
years of age think that it is good that women have
jobs and careers, Marcelo said.
MARCELO ACKNOWLDEDGED, however, that in
some low- and middle-income families, women do not
enjoy the luxury of choosing between a career at
home or elsewhere - they simply must work to help
support the family. The economy is such that "two
good salaries are needed to raise a family in the
United States," Marcelo said.
Atwood, of University Counseling Services, said
women are discouraged from pursuing a career out-
side the home because society pressures them to
sacrifice their own futures for those of their children
and husbands. "Women are taught to be caretakers,"
she said. "We think the roles are changing but they
aren't breaking down as fast as people think they are.
Our culture is not quite ready for competent, reliable
women."