Michelle Conlin wrote in 2000 for BusinessWeek on how the turn of the millennial would not necessarily solve one of women’s age ol dilemmas – how to balance work, marriage and kids. It seems that men just get to carry on, assuming that the women will pick up the child care pieces. Whilst the attitudes of some men are changing, this is still probably the norm, and women bear get the raw end of the deal more often than not. Read her full article here.
She says: “Some 25 years after women started pouring into the labor force, you would think the work-and-family dilemma would have eased, or that the judgments women have about each other’s choices would have at least lost some of their sting. But in some ways, the tensions today are fiercer than ever, exacerbated by the New Economy’s demands on dual-earner couples for 60-hour workweeks on the one hand and the increased option for some to stay at home on the other…. It’s this can’t-win-no-matter-what dynamic that is distracting women from drilling down to the real problem: the way the workplace in Corporate America is designed. According to Joan Williams, co-director of American University’s Gender, Work & Family Project and author of the recently released book Unbending Gender, most jobs are centered around the notion of an ideal worker who labors at least 40 hours a week–and often 60–without ever taking a break or downshifting for child-rearing.”

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