Member Articles

Pregnancy alone is difficult in many places of business.  According to National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a federal commission found: “In 2005, 4,449 pregnancy discrimination charges were filed with the commission or state and local employment agencies around the country. Half were related to unlawful dismissals either during a pregnancy or immediately after returning from maternity leave... Between 1992 and 2005, the number of pregnancy discrimination charges in the United States went up by 31 percent even while the national birth rate decreased.”

Women experience interruptions in their careers in order to care for children (and many for aging parents as well). These interruptions discussed by Steven Rose and Heidi Hartmann for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research are costly: “Across the 15 years of the study, the average prime age working woman earned only $273,592 while the average working man earned $722,693 (in 1999 dollars).”

As significant as those differences are, the biggest gap is between women with children and those without. Female workers today have to make lifestyle choices about how far up the ladder they want to climb and who and what will hold them back. Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist, in an article for the Harvard Business Review explains the timing factor that works against women. “There’s a certain age, long established by large organizations, at which professionals must decide to make their play for the big promotion -- the one that will put them in line for the C-suite -- and while it’s a good time for men, it’s not a good time for women... Women tend to pride themselves on their multitasking capabilities -- and rightly so -- but as their children grow past grade-school years the demands on women’s brains reach their maximum levels. This may seem counterintuitive, given that younger children are less independent. It’s not the quantity of care required that taxes the brain, however, so much as the unpredictable need for care... People coping with heightened levels of unpredictability rarely go looking for even more ways to mix it up. To expect the typical woman to make her play for a newly demanding role at this particular life stage is unrealistic. Yet this expectation is implicit in most organizations. Top management starts looking seriously at a cohort as it enters its forties. But the high-potential women may be opting out—temporarily, they hope—because the timing is wrong to introduce yet another source of high-stress unpredictability into their lives.” Makes good sense especially when combined with all women have to do.

Previously I asked, if men helped more, would women have more babies? Today I’m asking: What can be done to make having a family and raising the children easier on women? The workday has been stretched. With cell phones and email and portable devices to receive work or answer questions anytime day or night, employees are on-call 24/7. When a woman works, it’s likely that playing a game of Candyland or going for a walk with her children may have to wait until the weekend.