Reality Check: Women Want Work/Home Equality and Flexibility
Posted October 23rd, 2009 by Nanette FondasNo doubt The Shriver Report, “A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” meant to stir up debate and discussion.
Hoopla has surrounded the news that women have just about reached parity with men by comprising 50% of the paid workforce; and that women and men agree on much about their evolving roles as both breadwinners and caregivers.
Now here comes the reality check. Judith Warner says in the New York Times that “life for women has not come together.” Expectations raised in 1970s for equality at work and at home don’t match women’s lived reality today. That’s why women report in surveys (such as the recent Wharton happiness study) that they are less happy than decades ago. Further, Warner says that reduced happiness by women is an indicator of ways that society has failed women, particularly by failing to address the needs of working families.
One such need is more flexibility at work. Thirty percent of mothers with children under the age of three are in the workforce, points out the Time Magazine/Rockefeller Foundation study released in synch with Shriver’s report. Coincidentally, these reports come on the 20th anniversary of the famous Harvard Business Review article that led to the coining of the term “mommy track.” Controversial in 1989, today moms and dads both would like more flexible career tracks. Indeed, as Brad Harrington, Director of the Boston College Center for Work and Family, argues:
The highest impact actions that employers can take to help women thrive in business cost almost nothing. These include letting go of outdated mental models that suggest there is only one way to work, there is only one place to work, that a 40+ hour work week is the only model for contributing, and a standardized, rigid career path for all is a desirable norm. Rather, we should aim for highly flexible career models that can be customized to maximize the contributions of all employees, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
The other need is for more equality at home. Women still do a disproportionate share of the child-rearing and housekeeping, even though in many cases they have equal responsibility for supporting their families.
Even President Obama acknowledges that this additional burden is unfair:
If the Shriver report’s goal was to get us all talking, thinking, and blogging about the state of women in America today, it succeeded. Now let’s get to work on the real changes needed at work and at home.
4 Comments
As someone that worked for years for a company that embraced helping families achieve work/life balance, imagine my surprise when I left that company for another major CPG company only to find out they are the complete opposite. My experience makes it perfectly clear to me that we have MAJOR issues in the United Stated and women are still not recognized as equals and add a couple of children to the mix and WOW some companies discount those employees even more! I was penalized when my asthmatic daughter was VERY ill and I split the days with my husband caring for her and was slapped with “you have taken too much time off to care for your children”.. I was even told that if I took better care of them they would not get sick! We need to speak up and speak up NOW to stop our daughters from facing this legalized discrimination in the future!!!
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October 27, 2009 at 1:08 am by curcumaHello…
I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site. Thank you for this posting…
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October 25, 2009 at 1:04 am by MidLifeMaMaAlthough my struggle to spend more time with small children is on-going, I’m one of the lucky ones. I get PTO and used it this last weekend to volunteer for my daughter’s first field trip. My boss also has small children and she is very understanding. Also lucky for me, my kids haven’t been sick much this year (a first!).
There are still moments when I wonder why I have to keep at a 40-hour work week when some days are slow. Wouldn’t it make sense to the company to give me “free unpaid time” when my workload is low? It’s not a luxury I could afford to take often, but it would be a nice extra perk and would save the company money as well.
I need to work, but I love being engaged in my kids lives too. HR has to start moving towards more creative ways to support working moms.
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October 23, 2009 at 8:24 pm by MojoThank you for this article and insight. I was laid off from work in March of this year. I was employed by a small organization with an at-will termination process. I only took a few whole days off from work for the entire year of my tenure. I would use my leave in 1 hour or 2 hour or half day increments. I took a 2 hour lunch to spend with my 6 year old daughter on a class trip. I came back to the office and was told this was unacceptable. I did this as a way of not taking off a full day from work and was termed for trying to work and be an active parent in my childrens school life…which i deem important to the family and the community as a whole. There is a real need for more flexibility for working moms…..our rights are stifled by people who care nothing about fairness and family life as a whole.
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