“We have to stop letting businesses off the hook who talk about family values, but create policies where the employee, who puts caring for a sick child a higher priority than work, risks a promotion or their job”. So says, Ellen Bravo, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor (read full report here).
Bravo declared, “Now, repeat after me, ‘Housework is work to be done by people who live in the house. It is not mom’s work, with occasional assistance from others.'” She noted the major shift in American family structure. In the 1960s about 70 percent of families had a stay-at-home parent, almost always the woman – and dad was the sole wage earner. “Today, about 70 percent of families have both parents working and longer hours than other developed countries,” Bravo said. Men work an average of 48 hours a week and women 42, and that includes the 24 percent of women who work “part-time.”
Bravo urged companies to perform an internal audit to examine policies that may show a lack of flexibility when employees try to balance their work and family responsibilities. “This isn’t about doing a favor to women, but developing a better way of doing things and not losing talented women,” Bravo said.
Read more here.
Its not just a “glass ceiling”, its a “maternal wall” too
