Skip to main content

Paid Family Leave

Free Yourself from 24/7 - Harvard Business Review Shows the Way

November 8, 2009
I was amazed to learn how much research there is -- at business schools -- saying 24/7 work culture is counter-productive and not the necessity it is often seen to be. Even in the most demanding jobs, re-thinking time use gives us BOTH better results for clients and more dinners at home. A newly published Harvard Business Review piece (on a 4-year study at Boston Consulting Group) offers very inspiring ideas we can all apply where we work.
Sharon Meers's picture

Paycheck Jobs, Paycheck Feminism

October 30, 2009
I’ve been on a one-woman campaign to resurrect the phrase, paycheck job , used by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique forty years ago. Friedan was referring, of course, to jobs outside the home for which people receive money. She recognized that the unpaid job of caring for children and home was...
Nanette Fondas's picture

Follow Valerie Jarrett's Lead this Halloween

October 30, 2009
Why is it so hard to tell our bosses we have to leave for family reasons? What if all the dads where we worked did it more often? Leaders like Valerie Jarrett show that being committed to your kids and your job are not mutually exclusive -- and employers win when they recognize that. Maria Shriver's report A Women's Nation offers fresh ideas for opening up more common-sense conversation - like adopting UK "right to request" rules that allow parents to get some control over their hours and still produce great results for their employers.
Sharon Meers's picture

What Should Companies Do to Retain New Moms?

October 30, 2009
I was at the Working Mother Work Life Congress this week, which showcases the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers and also provides workshops and discussions for people who work in the field unfortunately called “work life.” Companies were asking: What should we do to retain new moms, and to...
Morra Aarons-Mele's picture

Win for Valuing Families Agenda!

October 28, 2009
President Obama today signed the Defense Reauthorization Act with a provision for expanded family leave for military families. This is an important victory for all families in the U.S. because it acknowledges the value of caregivers in the health of our nation. The new provision, introduced in the...
Ellen Bravo's picture

Sex, Love and Labor Statistics

September 28, 2009
On NPR this week, I was asked if there’s any good in the new statistics showing that women now outnumber men in the work force. Maybe. If it lets us embrace women as breadwinners, I said, that would be healthy. Even healthier: If men do their part at home and free women to keep the kinds of jobs...
Sharon Meers's picture

Societal Barriers to Breastfeeding

September 11, 2009
When people think of breastfeeding difficulties, the things that probably come to mind are supply issues, bad latch, cracked nipples, constant feedings, and the like. Certainly, there are women who are afflicted by those difficulties and who cannot overcome them. But I believe the societal barriers to breastfeeding (propagated by the kyriarchy) have a much more significant impact on breastfeeding rates than the medical or technical issues.

She would have given up on breastfeeding

August 6, 2009
I was amazed when a friend of mine told me that it took about a month for her and her first baby to figure out how to breastfeed. (Doesn't breastfeeding just...happen?) But she explained to me that it is actually a skill that moms and babies have to figure out. My friend was dedicated to...

Obstetricians Study...Themselves

July 30, 2009
Two recent studies both expose and excuse OBs who perform cesareans for their own safety, fiscal welfare, and personal anxieties, rather than in response to the genuine health status of mother and baby.

Thinking about non-traditional maternity leaves

July 10, 2009
A recent Good Morning America story reflected something I’m hearing more of from friends: now doesn’t feel like a safe time to take a full maternity leave. As Ellen Galinsky notes in the piece “The issue for women these days is that they are increasingly important financial supporters of the family...
Morra Aarons-Mele's picture

Pages