Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/work-life_balance/)
I was a young mother with a successful career as a senior systems analyst when my husband was offered a fantastic opportunity that put that in jeopardy. That put me in what I now consider a false conflict with feminism.
While the media and research have recently focused on deconstructing female breadwinners, the reality is that their stories are more complex, says Liz O’Donnell in this excerpt from “Mogul, Mom, and Maid: The Balancing Art of the Modern Woman.”
The decisions of all mothers are often harshly judged, says Katrina Alcorn in this excerpt from “Maxed Out: American Moms on the Brink.” But the finger pointing needs to stop, and instead we have to push for economic policies and social institutions that support caregiving.
Gender equality isn’t an item for a working mom’s long to-do list. It is the responsibility of society, and we as a populace must organize to demand it. Until then, tired mothers and caregivers shouldn’t be pushed to work any harder.
Amid calls for Turkish women to have more children, a proposal to lengthen the paid maternity leave allowance raises fears that it may actually hinder women’s work force participation.
While being a working mom is messy and complicated, there are ways to ease the burden, says Michelle Cove in the book “I Love Mondays: And Other Confessions from Devoted Working Moms.” In this excerpt, she shares her own “bad mommy” tale.
Work-family imbalance stories focus on women, but men these days are juggling the roles of partner, earner and parent just as much. We need more recognition of this fact to get employers to take this issue more seriously.
Marissa Mayer is taking the helm of a major technology company while pregnant. That makes this the perfect opportunity to re-evaluate a broken system for parental leave that has allowed us to lag far behind other countries.
The media narratives about women, motherhood and work provide three chronic themes of distortion and outright falsehood. As silly as they can seem to people in the real world, they have serious social and political consequences.