Today’s New York Times piece by David Leonhardt sums it up, quoting Columbia University professor Jane Waldfogel:
American feminists made a conscious choice to emphasize equal rights and equal opportunities, but not to talk about policies that would address family responsibilities…[consequently] women do almost as well as men today… as long as they don’t have children.
Since 80% of women will have children at some point (not to mention the many who are caregivers for parents, spouses or siblings), this really means that most women are still marginalized from corporate advancement. While men are able to pursue their dream careers regardless of family situation, studies have shown conclusively that women — if they reveal that they have children — are less likely to be hired, promoted and compensated fairly than their childless counterparts.
And that’s just about the women who lose because employers perceive them to be less competent. It doesn’t take into account women who lose out on advancement opportunities because there isn’t high-quality affordable childcare availailable, or because they don’t have paid leave, or because pumping milk on site is frowned on, or because they need the flexibility to take their child to the doctor on a given day.
Morra Aarons-Mele (Women and Work) and I are facilitating a “Room of Your Own” discussion on how social media can impact work and family policy at BlogHer on Saturday at 1:30pm. I hope some of you will join us. Earlier this week Morra wrote a terrific piece laying out all you need to know to join the movement; I’m following up today with a few “from the trenches” thoughts about organizing around “worklife” issues from a corporate perspective.
1. Even the best public policy won’t create meaningful change in the workplace unless business is on board. And to get business one board we need to message the many studies that have been done showing that productivity and efficiency increases when employers adopt family-friendly practices. There has to be focus on the bottom line, not what we believe is “the right thing to do.” Nanette Fondas recently wrote about this in Psychology Today, but dozens of others have made the case for years now. Let’s aggregate the research and disseminate is widely to corporate titans (and their HR staff).
2. It’s not about women. Everyone benefits from improved family policy. Men need to be on board with the greater work life mission and message — we can’t do this without them. We have to stop thinking, writing, and conceptualizing about work life as a “women’s issue.” Cali Yost has written compellingly on this at Work+Life Fit.
3. Getting more women to be CEOs is only half the battle. It’s absolutely critical that we get more women in power positions, but it’s equally critical that women have access to middle management jobs that offer autonomy, meaning and growth. Why are so many women unhappy at work? Family obligations may play a role, but I believe job dissatisfaction is a function of stifling jobs with limited challenge, meaning and advancement.
4. Flexibility has to go both ways. That means that if employees demand flexible workplaces, they need to be ready to be on call outside of normal business hours. You would be surpised at how many people think of flexibility as “working less.” In fact, flexibility may mean working the same or a greater number of hours — but on a tweaked schedule. Employees have to be on board with availability before 9am and after 5pm for flexibility to work in most contexts. And if there’s a crisis at work, the employee has to be ready to address it fully whenever and wherever, or trust breaks down.
5. Effective public policy in this area can’t focus primarily on flex-time or telecommuting. For those of us in the corporate world, flex-time may or may not work. It’s not a solution for all jobs in all contexts. Instead, we need to hone in on family policies that will make a meaningful difference for all employees right away. I would flag paid leave, sick days and affordable childcare as primary issues. And let’s not forget that improved transportation and technology infratstructure is key to making life better for working families, even though they are not “family” issues per se.
For more on my perspective around family and worklife legislation, see “Legislating Worklife” and “Advocating Wisely.”
And for more great blogging on worklife policy, check out:
WorkLifeNation
PunditMom
Leanne Chase
Chrysula Winegar
Cali Yost
And don’t forget to come visit us at BlogHer ’10 this week!
Kudos for pointing out the sticking points in the work life policy debate. I think the greatest fear toward change is concern about how any flip in policy might impact company spread sheets. I agree with your point that educating employers on the benefits of better work life strategy is a crucial road to take, albeit bumpy, as employers need to “want to listen.” Pointing out retention, productivity, and engagement benefits have bottom-line impact. It’s in the numbers. Problem is, big business often has a lens through which human values are viewed as a sideline issue, rather than a front line priority. We need nothing less than a cultural shift in perception.
Oh, I love the point you make about flexibility going both ways. When people find out I work from home, they automatically think I work less. Realistically, I worked less when I had an office. I’m good with more on-call time because I can also homeschool my kids and generally have a more relaxed life.
Could not agree more, especially with the fallacy that flexibility means less. Sometimes it does. But so often it simply means the capacity to choose and control. That of course also goes to the false culture of urgency that you’ve written about in the past.
Mothers started this rolling stone, and fathers are starting to pick up the pace, but all women and men are equally able to benefit in substantial ways for eldercare, further education, second gigs, and life experiences.
I think it is really important that this move from being an issue for moms- or even for parents- to being an issue for all workers. I took advantage of some of the flexible scheduling options I had at my previous job more BEFORE I had kids.
Now that I have kids, what I really want is a way to keep up at work when they (or I) get sick. Luckily, technology has really helped in this regard. I can securely access my work computer from home. But not all companies have this in place. We only have it at my company because I am in charge of IT and I made it happen. Now, if I could just teach my colleagues about how to effectively hold a meeting when one person is offsite…..
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