One of the arguments I hear often that does not support equal pay regardless of gender is that women are more likely to stay home with sick children, take maternity leave, work fewer hours, and not be as present because of their care taking duties. First of all, putting that blanket scenario on all women is discrimination. Second of all, men should be stepping up to be caretakers, too. Third, this is described as a choice, though if you're coming from many Christian backgrounds or traditional United Statian* families, it may not seem like such a choice. In fact, in the scientific study of the life course, being a caretaker (whether for children, aging parents, and other unexpected circumstances) has several stages. I would argue that being a caretaker is a choice just as everything in life is a choice. Another choice to make is whether or not to wear the same underwear for a week straight. There are consequences, but hey, it's a choice, right?
Anyway, that's not what I am here to write about (Anyone else hearing Alice's Restaurant in their head? "And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but that's not what I came to tell you about. Came to talk about the draft." If you don't get the reference, go Youtube Alice's Restaurant right now by clicking here.).
I came to write about making the workplace more family friendly. Here are four suggestions of ways our workforce could become more family friendly:
It is my belief that if we create a more family-friendly work environment, it would be easier to get back to those good old family centered values we're always hearing about while also creating equality and opportunity in the workforce. Can you think of more ways to make the workplace more family friendly?
*Did you know in Central and South American they call people from the USA "United Statians" because they consider themselves to be Americans as well? I think that's awesome.
Anyway, that's not what I am here to write about (Anyone else hearing Alice's Restaurant in their head? "And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but that's not what I came to tell you about. Came to talk about the draft." If you don't get the reference, go Youtube Alice's Restaurant right now by clicking here.).
I came to write about making the workplace more family friendly. Here are four suggestions of ways our workforce could become more family friendly:
- Paid Maternity AND Paternity Leave: This is so important so that Dad can bond with the newborn, but also logistically at home, particularly if there is more than one child in the house. Caring for a newborn and other children after a Cesarean Section is even harder. It is really necessary to have help, and shouldn't that help be from Dad? It also allows fewer unfamiliar germs into the house. I know one thing I obsessed over when Baby was first born was Hubby washing, washing, and scrubbing his hands when he came home from work. This paid leave should also be guilt free. No pressure from higher ups about this being inconvenient.
- Childcare Provided: Not all employees would use it because of Stay At Home Parents (SAHP), a preference of a different childcare system, or the other parent using the childcare at their work facility. This would allow both parents to work (I know this is not an LDS principle, but many families really need both parents in the workforce), while keeping the children nearby. If the company is too small to arrange an actual child center of their own, they could provide other options with another facility. It could be worked out. I really believe this would solve so many of our poverty issues. An added bonus is job creation.
- A Nursing Mother's Room: it doesn't have to be over the top luxurious, but something private and quiet where a mother can pump every four hours. This will cut down on leave taken to care for a sick baby because breastfed babies are sick way less often than their formula fed counterparts. Breastfeeding also significantly reduces the risk of breast cancer, so that means fewer medical bills and less time away from work.
- Adjustable Hours: A work day could be from 7:00 AM until 9:00 PM, and workers could do whatever eight hour shift worked best for them and their family. That could even include taking a six hour break somewhere in the middle if she or he preferred it. That means less time taken away from work by appointments that can only be done during the day. It means many more parents would be able to help out with schools.
It is my belief that if we create a more family-friendly work environment, it would be easier to get back to those good old family centered values we're always hearing about while also creating equality and opportunity in the workforce. Can you think of more ways to make the workplace more family friendly?
*Did you know in Central and South American they call people from the USA "United Statians" because they consider themselves to be Americans as well? I think that's awesome.
5 comments:
(chuckle) Ah girl you are in the wrong country. Nay, the wrong continent. You want Sweden, or Denmark. Norway would do also. Even Iceland. Germany goes about half way. Well more that that, say 80% of Sweden. But all of the EU has some measures in that family.
On a practical point. I've never figured out why no one has made a useful breast pump. That is actually built to scale with what the dickens it's dealing with. At the moment those things have the look and size of something one might fit over a divers mouth and nose. And why on earth cannot someone make them quite. These days nothing needs to be noisy in that mechanical way. Even the camera shutter noise is there by choice.
I have to completely disagree with one line: that blanket scenario you hear is absolutely not discrimination. It is an observation, and a statistically supportable generalization. Discrimination would be suggesting that that is the only proper way of things, or that women should be paid less because of it.
And yet it is an entirely natural way of doing things. Breastfeeding (the benefits of which you reference later) is outside of a man's capability, and that alone makes women superior at providing physical care for children that age.
Providing emotional/mental care: yes, men do need to step up. Thus, I agree with suggestion 1, as it encourages men to be fathers.
Child care availability at every work location is beyond infeasible, not to mention reeking of forcing the many to pay for the few. There are hundreds of people at my work and a handful at most who have small children. Cost/benefit puts a clear "no" on this one. But, support for parents using existing child care would make a lot of sense once the -aternity leave period ends.
A mother's room implies that the baby would be at the workplace (see my objection to suggestion 2), or that someone is coming to visit every few hours, which could only be possible in a situation where (1) only the mother works, or (2) suggestion 4 has been implemented.
The concept of adjustable hours sounds great until you remember that people need to work with each other. Where I work, each group of production line workers depend on support from 8ish members of a program team, spanning each of the engineering disciplines and other functional groups (program management, etc). If a machine breaks at 8am and the manufacturing engineer doesn't feel like showing up until 1pm for his 8 hours, no work gets done during those 5 hours. This would be completely unacceptable. Likewise, most major decisions require either input or signatures of most members of the program team. Adjustable hours would make it impossible to coordinate with your team.
My objections are based on my work in a manufacturing environment. YMMV.
As a second example: could you imagine a school run on this principle? Students would be forced to stay there the entire 7am-9pm period to ensure they get all their classes in, rather than returning home to their family once classes end.
No, I do not believe the workplace cannot be family-friendly except by allowing employees to remove themselves from it when needed (re: -aternity leave).
I should clarify that the discrimination part is when one pays a woman less money at her hire because one assumes she will be the primary caretaker. Not all women have that life style.
Childcare provided is a stretch, I'll admit, but still something that with a little organization I don't see as unfeasible. Some support is better than none at all. I am a college educated person and a job in my field starting salary would barely cover child care. There's something wrong with that. I'm open to other solutions.
A mother's room does not imply the baby would be at the workplace, it just means a woman would have a private place to pump breast milk. She would then freeze it and it stores for up to six months. When we would get sitters, I would leave them with a bag or two of frozen milk. The milk pumped could be replenished later- like food storage.
As far as adjustable hours, I don't mean constant changing hours, I mean having people working staggered shifts. It would be pretty easy to get someone to cover you.
I know that all of these are not picture perfect, but it seems to me a good direction to be headed in.
Hi! I just found your post and wanted to comment, even though you posted months ago. I'm so glad someone else sees the necessity of these family-friendly work policies. My site, www.familyfriendlywork.org, is all about this topic. And I have a FB group, too, so if you want to discuss, come join us!
Kaylie,
Thanks for the comment! I like your site. Do you mind if I add it to the Blogs and Books section of this blog?
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