From the phone operators and home-makers of the 1950s to the powerful CEOs and executives of today\u2019s biggest corporations, it\u2019s taken decades of political, social and psychological progress to reach a state where, today, gender equality is probably at its highest level ever.<\/p>\n
Females today are recognised as both competent business people and competent family custodians \u2013 but it\u2019s not easy to be seen as being successful at both together.<\/p>\n
Regus<\/a> looks at a few of the challenges faced by working mothers, and the ways in which employers and governments can improve the situation.<\/p>\n The double-edged stigma<\/strong><\/p>\n Unfortunately, no matter what women decide when it comes to balancing their families and their careers, they\u2019re sometimes stuck between a rock and hard place.<\/p>\n Mothers who dedicate their time to raising families at home are seen as conforming to a backwards, anti-feminist stereotype, and mothers who continue their careers while their children are young are often seen as selfish career-climbers.<\/p>\n Of course, the reality is quite different. There are millions of single-parent families led by mothers who continue to work out of sheer necessity, and plenty of fully capable fathers who make a decision to stop working in order to take care of the kids. But is a working mother really putting her children at a disadvantage?<\/p>\n Working parents raise working children<\/strong><\/p>\n A recent study from Harvard University found that, despite public attitudes, the children of working mothers actually appear to thrive. One in three daughters of working mothers were in managerial positions, compared to just one in four daughters of mothers who didn\u2019t work \u2013 and on average, the daughters of working mothers were paid around 4% more than their peers.<\/p>\n Their sons, too, were found to be positively influenced by a mother who continued to work. Sons raised by an employed mother \u201care more involved at home as adults\u201d, and were found to spend more time caring for family members when compared to men whose mothers stayed at home.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some ways the results are a comfort to women who do go out to work,\u201d says Rebecca Allen, a senior academic at UCL\u2019s Institute of Education, who\u2019s also a working mother of two, \u201cand a signal to women who don\u2019t that they have to think hard about how the role they have within the household is going to impact their children\u2019s perceptions of what it means to be a woman and to be a mother\u201d.<\/p>\n Discrimination can cut both ways<\/strong><\/p>\n While any company\u2019s efforts to make their workplace more family-friendly are certainly commendable, there are concerns that the right balance might be hard to achieve.<\/p>\n Research from the Duke University of Law, North Carolina, suggests that the same policies intended to help working parents spend time with their children could be putting workers without kids at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n If one employee needs to watch their child\u2019s baseball match, and another employee needs to take their dog to the vet, is it really fair to consistently give priority to workers who have started families?<\/p>\n The employer\u2019s double standard<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite a huge number of organisations making significant improvements to the flexible working options they offer, plenty of employees are still wary about taking advantage of them.<\/p>\n The \u2018motherhood penalty\u2019 \u2013 where mothers are seen as less competent and less committed to their work \u2013 is a well-established phenomenon, with employed mothers in the US suffering a wage penalty of roughly 5% for each child they have.<\/p>\n Confusingly, there\u2019s a completely contradictory prejudice associated with working fathers. This \u2018fatherhood bonus\u2019 can make men who have children more likely to get hired than their childless male peers and according to research from the University of Massachusetts, men\u2019s wages increased by an average of more than 6% when they had children.<\/p>\n \u201cEmployers read fathers as more stable and committed to their work; they have a family to provide for, so they\u2019re less likely to be flaky,\u201d said Michelle Budig, a professor of sociology at Massachusetts. \u201cThat is the opposite of how parenthood by women is interpreted by employers. The conventional story is they work less and they\u2019re more distractible when on the job.\u201d<\/p>\n So what can be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n In a world that places an increasingly high priority on both gender equality and a work-life balance, it\u2019s essential to give employees options. Governments might offer affordable and accessible childcare options for parents who continue to work, and schools might try to limit the amount of mid-week parental activities they require.<\/p>\n Perhaps most importantly, employers need to recognise that every worker \u2013 regardless of their gender or whether they have kids \u2013 is entitled to a reasonable work-life balance, and that their employees shouldn\u2019t face discrimination or penalties for taking advantage of the flexible arrangements that are becoming modern standard policies.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen are still \u2018doing it all, not having it all\u2019 and we must shift cultural attitudes to achieve full gender equality,\u201d said Belinda Phipps, chair of the Fawcett Society for women\u2019s equality.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is clear is that making the workplace more family-friendly, improving the availability and quality of part-time and flexible working, and investing in childcare are vital to helping individuals achieve a full work-life balance.\u201d<\/p>\n Adoptive parents want 4 months paid leave<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Time to extend shared parental leave in SA?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Vodacom\u2019s new policy for pregnant workers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on business<\/h3>\n