Archive for June, 2008

The Motherhood Penalty

Judi Casey June 30th, 2008

Does being a mother negatively affect career advancement and opportunity? We interviewed Joan Williams about family responsibility discrimination. In the interview, Joan mentioned that a “recent and influential study showed that mothers are 79% less likely to be hired, 100% less likely to be promoted, and also are assumed to be less competent and committed than women without children. (Correll, S.J., Bernard, S., & Paik, I. (2007). Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty? American Journal of Sociology, 112, 1297-1338).“

Some employers have made women’s advancement and the retention of women a priority issue. Joan’s comment made me wonder if organizations should be focused on women’s advancement or mothers’ advancement and the retention of mothers or other caregivers. What do you think? Is “women” too broad, as it may be that it is a certain group of women who experience difficulty or more challenges than other women?

What’s New

Karen Corday June 27th, 2008

New from the Network:

June issue of the Network News: This month, we interviewed Maggie Jackson about her new book, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. In the Sloan Corner, Jessica Glenn of Workplace Flexibility 2010 writes about their new community policy forums.

New in Work and Family:

  • For a Good Retirement, Find Work. Good Luck.
    Steve Lohr of the New York Times writes about how working two or three years beyond the traditional retirement ages of 62 for women and 63 for men can have positive effects on Boomers’ retirement living standards as well as the American economy.

For more popular press articles on work and family, please see What’s New in Work and Family.

Young Lawyers Hope for a Better Balance

Featured Guest Blogger June 25th, 2008

Thank you to Phoebe Taubman, Project Attorney/ Incoming Equal Justice Works Fellow at A Better Balance: The Work & Family Legal Center, for today’s guest blog entry. Please note that the views of our guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.

In 1829, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story famously declared that “the law is a jealous mistress.” Nearly 180 years later lawyers are still struggling to find a healthy balance between work and family, and successful role models in the profession, particularly for young men, are especially rare. In fact, Justice Scalia recently disclosed that he never participated regularly in his nine children’s activities while they were growing up. He explained: “You know, my parents never did it for me. And I didn’t take it personally. ‘Oh Daddy, come to my softball game.’ No, I mean, it’s my softball game. He has his work. I got my softball game. Of course, she [Scalia’s wife, Maureen] was very loyal. She went to all the games.”

Despite this discouraging history, a new generation of lawyers has begun to voice their objections and argue for a better balance. We recently surveyed 351 students at the NYU School of Law and found that worries about balancing work and family weigh far more heavily on the minds of top law students than other career concerns including compensation and job prestige. Seventy-two percent of male and 76 percent of female students said they were very or extremely worried about being able to balance work and family. That’s more than twice the number of law students who were worried about earning top pay, doing high profile cases or working for a prestigious firm. Seven out of 10 survey respondents expect to make career sacrifices in order to have a satisfying personal life and 8 out of 10 indicated a willingness to trade money for time, that is, accept reduced earnings in return for flexibility and reduced hours.

Furthermore, the lawyers of tomorrow do not see work/life balance as exclusively a women’s issue. In our focus group discussions, one male law student told us, “I wouldn’t like sending my kids to child care all day, and I’d rather be around for them.” Another said, “With what firms pay nowadays . . . the paid leave isn’t as important as the respected leave . . . it’s not the money.” A third male focus group participant didn’t mince words: “It’s the hours, stupid.”

Our survey provides further evidence of a strong generational gap around balancing work and family—one that will impact the legal profession for years to come. In fact, over the past year, several law-student-run organizations (including Ms. JD and Building a Better Legal Profession) have sprouted up and dedicated themselves to changing the culture of the legal profession. The question now is how will law firms respond? Will they be able to deliver on the promise of family-friendly policies they have put on paper, but have not realized in practice?

Take the Work-Life Quiz: Know What You Need to Know to be Effective

Judi Casey June 23rd, 2008

Last month, Teresa Hopke (Director of Talent Management, RSM McGladrey) and I presented a session at the WorldatWork Conference, Take the Work-Life Quiz: Know What You Need to Know to be Effective.

The session focused on six true or false questions that get at the heart of some of the most CRITICAL AND CHALLENGING work-life issues. For each question, I presented research data and Teresa shared best practices from RSM McGladrey and other organizations. Recommendations and action steps were offered as well as input from attendees on successes and challenges. We concluded with a discussion about “the one step that you will take when you return to the office.” References for the research data as well as additional resources were provided at the end of the presentation, which is provided here:


The questions we discussed:

1. In order to increase productivity in this competitive global economy, employers of choice try to get the most out of employees by adopting the philosophy, “the harder and longer you can get them to work, the better.”

2. Work-Life is an attractive perk that makes employees happy, but is not one of the critical factors in an employee’s decisions to take or stay in a job.

3. Although everyone seems to want flexibility and flexible work arrangements, research data does not confirm that flexibility really benefits employees or their organizations.

4. There have always been differences about expectations and behaviors between workers of all ages at the workplace and the current situation is not that different.

5. The best way to support employees with their work-life issues is to secure a spot on one of the prestigious “Best Lists.”

6. In most organizations, working mothers take advantage of work-life programs, but working dads typically don’t utilize or value them.

How did you do on the Work-Life quiz? What do you think are the critical questions for work-life practitioners?

 

 

What’s New

Karen Corday June 20th, 2008

New from the Network:

New in Work and Family:

  • HellerEhrman Completes Opt-In Project: HellerEhrman has completed the Opt-In Project. Started in 2006, the project is “committed to identifying and raising awareness of the obstacles that still exist for women in the workforce, both the obvious and the subtle. The mission is to address and highlight viable solutions that can help overcome these impediments.” Listen to the final podcast and read the project report.

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  • Paid Parental Leave Act Passes House, But Faces Veto Threat: Simone Baribeau of the Washington Post reports that the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act has passed the House by a large margin, despite a threat of veto from President George W. Bush. Under the Act, federal and congressional employees would receive four weeks of paid parental leave after birth, adoption, or taking in a foster child.

For more popular press articles on work and family, please see What’s New in Work and Family.

School’s Out…for Summer!

Featured Guest Blogger June 18th, 2008

As the end of the academic year comes to an end, a plethora of emotions swirls through the air. Working on a college campus, I love the atmosphere of excitement and change with students moving out, graduation approaching, and parents coming to help pack up. Truly an exciting time. In high school, I can recollect feeling overjoyed…and petrified…that the world was before me in a completely new light. Now that I am an adult I can appreciate the fact that, as I “graduated” from my elementary and middle school grades, my parents must have had gobs of pride…as well as stress.

What to do with kids in SUMMER? Family care? Camp? If camp, for how long each day? Overnight? What is the financial cost? For kids this is a time of freedom, fresh air, and lack of responsibility (but for that summer reading list!) For parents, sometimes summer can mean juggling new schedules, additional child care costs, and the fear of having bored and/or unsupervised children at home.

Leslie Morgan Steiner recently generated much discussion on her Washington Post blog with her list of Top 10 tips for a balanced summer. Do any of our readers have any thoughts on the matter? Unless you are a teacher (and maybe even if you are), we imagine that summer can bring up a lot of logistical and emotional issues for you and your family.

For information regarding care for children during out-of-school-time, read our encyclopedia entry on Afterschool Care and Work-Life Issues.

What’s New

Karen Corday June 13th, 2008

New from the Network:

New in Work and Family:

Caregiving Database Can Save You Hours and Stress

Julie Schwartz Weber June 11th, 2008

For most people, managing work and family responsibilities is tough. For the over 22 million working adults who are also providing or supporting caregiving for an elderly or disabled loved one, the road is even tougher. Not only do working caregivers sacrifice leisure time but they also suffer stress-related illnesses, as they attempt to manage work and family caregiving responsibilities. Navigating the ins and outs of a particular state’s caregiving resources and a particular loved one’s medical/life issues is often a full time job in itself, forcing some to quit work entirely to care for a loved one. That is why the Family Caregiver Alliance’s newest resource, Family Care Navigator, is so important and helpful. Luckily, it is also free to use.

The Navigator is a comprehensive, unique online guide intended to help families in all 50 states locate government, nonprofit, and private caregiver support programs. The Navigator not only lists programs for family caregivers, but it also lists resources for older and disabled adults living at home or in a residential facility. The site further provides information on government health and disability programs, legal resources, living arrangements, disease-specific organizations, and more.

I was also happy to note that it is simple to use: Click on the map on the state you are interested in and the relevant state resources will appear on the page under defined categories.

While this resource cannot give you time off from work to attend to your caregiving responsibilities, it may well save you time and stress when information gathering and developing a plan of action for your disabled or elderly dependent.

Working Boomers and their Aging Parents

Judi Casey June 9th, 2008

The Sloan Center on Aging and Work/Workplace Flexibility reports [PDF] that “according to projections based on the U.S. Census (2006), an average of 4.6 adults will turn 65 each minute in 2007. In 2025, an average of 8.0 adults will turn 65 each minute.”

It is likely that this growing aging population will require care and attention from employed family members. In fact, a 2006 MetLife study [PDF] found that “nearly 60% of those caring for an adult over the age of 50 are working; the majority of those work full-time.” Caring for an older family member and working can be quite stressful both at work and at home. In fact, the MetLife study also found that “52% of the women and 34% of the men have experienced workday interruptions as a result of caregiving. “

Anecdotal information reveals that employed caregivers often feel that they are unable to meet their work responsibilities, and provide high quality of care to their loved one – a dilemma that can result in shortchanging one of their commitments.

I recently learned of a resource that might be helpful. Created by the MIT Workplace Center, Caring for Your Parents is a web-based handbook that can be used by caregivers and the agencies that support them throughout the US. It includes most of the content from the previously published Massachusetts handbook, but also has some new material and listings for national resource organizations.

Please let us know about other resources that can help employed caregivers to manage both their work and family responsibilities.

What’s New

Karen Corday June 6th, 2008

New from the Network:

- Sloan Network affiliates now have access to two more journals through our Literature Database:
The Journal of Marriage and Family (2000-present)
Personnel Psychology (1997-present)
If you would like the password to access full-text content, please e-mail wfnet@bc.edu

- Lauren McNall of the College at Brockport, State University of New York is looking for “unpublished articles related to positive spillover,work-family facilitation, work-family enhancement, and work-family enrichment.” Please contact her at lmcnall@brockport.edu. If you’d like to submit your own information requests or call for papers, please let us know.

New in Work and Family:

- Interview: Achieving Work-Life Harmony is High-Priority of Singaporean Women
Zheng Xiaoyi of ChinaView.com interviews Singapore politician Yu-Foo Yee Shoon about Singaporean women’s attempts to balance work and family.

- Maternity Leave: The Mother of All Problems
Ben Schneiders of Australia’s The Age discusses the country’s recent proposal of universal paid maternity leave, currently the subject of a Productivity Commission inquiry.

For more popular press articles, please see What’s New in Work and Family.

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