A couple of weeks ago US News and World Report ran this post on The Challenges (and Rewards) of Part-time Work by Sharon Reed Abboud, author of All Moms Work: Short-term Career Strategies for Long-Range Success. Abboud writes that:
Many part-timers are finding that they are actually advancing in their careers. Working as a part-time professional is becoming an increasingly acceptable work alternative. Companies nationwide are offering employees the option of working part-time.
Abboud doesn’t use any data or statistics to back up this claim; she interviews a relatively small number of professional women who back her up with anecdotal evidence of how they were promoted despite working part-time. I would say that her claims are aspirational — they represent a lovely vision of what we would like to be the case, but not the experience of the vast majority of working women.
Abboud doesn’t address the fact that, if companies are offering more part-time jobs right now, their motives are not work/life balance. People are being “down-timed” rather than down-sized — perhaps a good compromise for both parties — but let’s not act like companies are doing this to be more parent-friendly. They’re doing it because it makes business sense right now.
A few things worry me about this kind of fluffy reporting on women and work. First, articles like Abboud’s and the recent media around Womenomics, promote the idea that if women request high-level part-time solutions they will be granted. That’s not borne out by statistics and I don’t think it’s true. Telling large numbers of women that all they have to do is “ask” doesn’t reflect the need to prove your value as an employee relative to all the other employees who are willing to work full-time. While the ethos may be slowly changing, we need to be honest with ourselves about the reality of requesting part-time work today: it doesn’t lead to promotion for most women.
Second, articles like Abboud’s don’t reflect the economic costs of going part-time. Not only does the family income immediately decrease, but the woman’s long-term earning potential goes down significantly. As Leslie Bennett’s writes in The Feminine Mistake:
While part-time work enable women to manage their family responsibilities with greater ease, many are…unprepared for how dramatic the financial toll can be. “I want my daughters to know that people who work forty-four hours a week make, on average, more than twice the pay of someone working thirty-four hours a week,” wrote Warren Farrell…in an essay published in The New York Times.
That doesn’t mean that the economic trade-off isn’t worth the better quality of life — I think there are times when it is. But it’s important that we recognize working fewer hours as a trade-off, and don’t expect to see women who make this choice advance at the same rate as their counterparts who work full-time. Most women and families in this country could benefit from greater income, especially money controlled by women who are more likely to invest in their children.
Finally, articles like Abboud’s and even more overtly, the Womenomics publicity blitz, suggest that spending more time at home, with children, is something that all women should want. But do all mothers really want this? I can believe that most of us would like to spend a little more times with our kids, but I also think there are a lot of other things we want to do — professional development, hobbies, starting businesses. Ironically, women who work full-time may have more ability to pursue these outside interests because they 1) have the income to hire babysitters, 2) are likely to be more senior and have flexibility in their positions, and 3) have earned enough to pursue additional education.
I’m all for having a thoughtful conversation on how we can make part-time work or job-sharing arrangements a better options for those who are looking for them. But I think we need to have these conversations honestly, in ways that truly recongize the “challanges (and rewards).”
Related links:
- Cali Yost writes about the value of flexible down-sizing as a corporate policy and cost-cutting measure in Fast Company.
- Jocelyn Noveck at Jobboom writes that the number of part-time jobs available has remained static, despite women’s stated desire to have more part-time options.
- I ask whether flexible down-sizing might adversely affect women in the workplace; CV Harquail at Authentic Organizations responds.
- The oft-quoted Pew Research study finding that most women would prefer to work part-time.
Yes, yes, yes to this whole post.
I agree that glossing positives over the negative aspects of the trade-off does a disservice to women in general; reality is often less rosy than our ideals. However, anecdotal evidence that there are women successfully navigating careers part-time is very encouraging, as such anecdotes were unheard of while I was in school. As a “part-time” attorney, I will confess to being mommy tracked – for now. And I’m ok with the fact that big picture wise, I am not making what I could be now, or in the future, but I value the time I’m gaining now more greatly than the larger salary. I must confess that as part-time, I make more than many women full-time, so my perspecitive is not representative of all career oriented women. Despite this though, it is much less than what I would be making. But I’m active in my job, accept challenging assignments, and do not feel that I’ve wasted my degree or capabilities. My husband’s business does not provide flexibility, and his 70 hour work weeks are what it takes to remain successful. I think it is important to recognize that women do not make their decisions alone, but often as a part of a team; in my case, my team consists of two adults and two small children. And while ideally, a career woman should be able to say “where do I need to be career wise and money wise today, tomorrow, and ten years from now,” often times, planning for the needs of the team today DOES take priority, and women are often more willing, or able, to make the sacrifices necessary to keep their team playing to win. I’m not disagreeing with you, just pointing out that even if this is a fluffy bit of journalism, there does seem to be a small sampling of hope in it, and let us give credit to the large work force of women out there who know darn good and well how their employers will react to requests for part-time. If they are fortunate to be working for a company or manager who would be open to part-time employment, fabulous, grasp the opportunity and pave the way for others. If not, well, hang in there, moms everywhere can empathize, and be thankful for the position you have – it puts bread on the table.
I was a part-time transactional corporate & securities lawyer at a large law firm (with a reputation for being a sweat shop) in the early 90s. I did this because I wanted a normal full-time job, not the typical law firm double-time job. My two kids were school-aged at the time, but my reasons for going part-time were less about spending time with them than about structuring a balanced, manageable life for myself. (After 6 years of a corporate job that managed to be challenging within normal 8-6 sort of hours, I was not inclined to go back to 14-hour days.)
My part-time schedule worked like a charm because I wasn’t rigid about the logistics, although I was rigid about the overall time limit. Recognizing that any sort of fixed schedule doesn’t work well with a transactional practice, I agreed to work 70% of the 2000 hours the firm considered full-time. When I was busy on deals, I worked nights & weekends like everyone else; when things calmed down, I took days or weeks off. When things didn’t calm down on their own, I sat out projects, which gave me a chance to recommend my partners and help their practices grow as well. Of course, this took A+ organizational skills and a strong commitment to my priorities relative to family and to work, but it was very successful – for me and for the law firm.
The most important success factor, I think, was maintaining a full range of visibility and involvement. I didn’t merely squeeze as many billable hours as I could into my 1400 hours/year. I also co-chaired the Recruiting Committee, served on the Opinion Committee and the Corporate Department Executive Committee, chaired the Securities Group, and founded the firm’s Women’s Forum, a network that grew to include 750 of Chicago’s business and professional women. I’m a big believer in the theory that value contributed, rather than time spent, is the key to a successful career, in the legal field or anywhere else.
You’re absolutely right about the need to have conversations about part-time work honestly and free from rigid, one-size-fits-all dogma. The point, after all, is flexibility. It’s not necessary for all women to approach or handle things the same way, and what works or doesn’t work for one need not dictate rules for all. There’s no requirement that we – or, for that matter, men – have identical definitions of success or take the same paths to get there.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you have written here.
I am sure my employer would allow me to reduce my hours to part time, but as you point out, that would also reduce my paycheck and make me no longer eligible for things like health care and retirement benefits. That’s the one thing that I cannot wrap my brain around…why so many women do not even consider the distant future when leaving or even downsizing their full-time jobs. I’m an editor for a financial magazine and I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve read that express how crucial it is to plan for retirement because unless you’re very wealthy, you likely will not have enough retirement dollars to live the lifestyle then that you’ve become accustomed to today. I am always amazed at how many mothers I know who have given up their careers to stay home and, now that the kids are older, they’re still not even thinking about going back to work. And they’re not considered wealthy by any stretch, so how will they have enough money to retire and live possibly into their 80s or 90s? It boggles my mind.
Aside from that, I endorse your point that not every mother wants to stay home with her children. Hell, if I went part time now, I’d consider it a true luxury because I could ship the kids off to school and have a few days each week to MYSELF to pursue other interests, none of which would entail spending much time with my children. I know, I’m not winning Mother of the Year anytime soon.
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