Mounting Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers (NYT)
Really fascinating findings about the effect of working mothers on children from a Harvard study looking at 50,000 adults across 25 countries. The U.S. findings that particularly caught our eye: “Here, daughters of working mothers earned 23 percent more than daughters of stay-at-home mothers, after controlling for demographic factors, and sons spent seven and a half more hours a week on child care and 25 more minutes on housework.”
Interesting, but bottom line of findings is that you should choose what works best for your family when it comes to working. And the report isn’t saying you should spend all your time at work — even some has an impact. This piece is relevant to Maybrooks as we work to find solutions that work for working families. When there’s a way for one parent to stay in the workforce in a way that works best for them and their kids — and ultimately their families overall — in our mind, that’s when everyone wins. Even employers.
Tech Women Choose Possibility (Re/code)
We were proud to participate in this campaign encouraging women to #choosepossibility when it comes to starting businesses. “Startups seeking to attract women could choose today to create best practices in the areas of family planning and leave policies early and proactively.”
How Some Men Fake an 80-Hour Workweek, and Why It Matters (NYT)
It’s worth reading this article to consider if you should be more upfront about the flexibility you need or want, or if you should just do what you need and not say too much about it. In some ways, it seems like the folks in this article have a strategy that working that relates to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
The problem is this means there’s no policy about what’s accepted, which means not everyone can benefit, and if you do ask, the particularly maddening piece is that women suffer more: “The result of this is easy to see: Those specifically requesting a lighter workload, who were disproportionately women, suffered in their performance reviews; those who took a lighter workload more discreetly didn’t suffer. The maxim of “ask forgiveness, not permission” seemed to apply.”
Why This Agency Believes Investing in New Moms Is Good Business (AdAge)
Just wanted to highlight Huge, Inc., a digital agency that expanded its maternity leave and flexible work policy post baby as a means to retain women talent.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Paid Family Leave (HBO)
In honor of Mother’s Day, comedian John Oliver took on the lack of paid leave policy for new mothers in the United States (the only other country in the world besides Papa New Guinea that doesn’t provide paid leave for new moms). He says women shouldn’t have to stitch together days to cover their leave the same way people stitch together time off for a vacation. This is a 12 minute video… wait for the end and thank you, John Oliver!