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O: Open Flexible Work

Labor Day: A Time to Take Stock of Women’s Progress

Submitted by Liz Watson on Wed, 2012-09-05 04:00

This blog was cross-posted from Womenstake, the National Women’s Law Center’s blog.

By Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel, and Liz Watson, Senior Advisor, National Women’s Law Center

Labor Day provided a moment to take stock of how women are doing in today’s economy. For many, it’s not a pretty picture.

This might seem surprising given that during the recovery many of the occupations that have shown the most rapid growth are occupations where women hold the majority of jobs. Unfortunately, these occupations are also marked by low wages. In fact, low-wage jobs have grown almost three times faster than middle and high-wage jobs during the recovery.

The National Women’s Law Center’s Labor Day Index

Submitted by Liz Watson on Wed, 2012-09-05 04:00

This blog was cross-posted from Womenstake, the National Women’s Law Center’s blog.

In honor of Labor Day, here’s a snapshot of how working women are faring in today’s economy, by the numbers.

The New Girls’ Network: The Science of Office Politics

O: Open Flexible Work

Submitted by Joan C. Williams on Mon, 2012-08-27 04:00

Advice literature for women is a crowded field and a predictable one. Most advice falls into one of two camps.

Familiar Balancing Acts: Conversations with the Women We Know Best

Submitted by Emma Sokoloff-Rubin on Fri, 2012-08-24 04:00

I don’t know firsthand what it’s like to balance work and family — I graduated from college last year — but I bet there’s no hard-and-fast, works-every-time rule. There’s no one article that will tell us exactly how to fill the many roles we envision for ourselves. There are stories and insights that guide our decisions. We glean them from articles and lectures and observations, and, as with the insights and stories that shape many decisions we face, we hear them from people we already know and trust. The conversation sparked by Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article in the Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” struck a chord with many of us in our early twenties who hope to have a family and a career someday. My friends and I are still talking about the article. The public conversation it sparked may be quieting, but we’re not ready to let this topic go. By asking the people we know best how this balance has played out for them, we can widen the conversation and keep it going strong.

Yep, Having Kids Will Hurt Your Career

Submitted by CT Working Moms on Thu, 2012-08-16 04:00

A great piece that investigates Generation X’s feelings about “having it all.”

Written by Melanie Dunn

CT Working Moms Blogger

Every day, moms-to-be scour the blogosphere for confirmation that when they someday choose to become pregnant, have their babies, and go about the task of raising them while working in a professional career, they will go on to be fabulous parents and fabulous career women, and that although things may be a bit different, for the most part life will go on as usual. So if you are one of those women and you have just stumbled upon this post, I am telling you right now that, in all likelihood, your career will suffer to some extent, on some level, due to your choice to have children. Sorry.

Let’s Stop Doing the CHA CHA CHA

Submitted by Kristin Maschka on Wed, 2012-07-18 04:00

Why do women themselves say that women “Can’t Have it All?” We say it because, as one mother told me, the phrase resonates as being “Shockingly, earthshakingly true.” We use you “Can’t Have it All” because it reflects a reality, our frustration with the impossible goal of trying to be both June Cleaver and Modern Career Woman at the same time.

But we have to stop using that phrase, because the CHA-CHA-CHA mantra is an outdated code for telling a woman she can’t have what men have traditionally had—namely, a challenging, time-consuming, financially rewarding job and a well-cared-for family. Well-cared for, that is, by someone else: his wife.

Expecting a Baby, Not A Law-Off: ERA Report Shows Accommodating Pregnant Workers A Win-Win

Submitted by Noreen Farrell on Mon, 2012-05-21 04:00

By Noreen Farrell, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates

Two stories. Two radically different endings. Maria and Angie work for different employers in different states. Both were thrilled when they became pregnant. They were confident that they could continue to perform their jobs during their pregnancies. Like many pregnant women, Maria and Angie eventually sought minor accommodations for pregnancy-related restrictions. Maria was given a stool and worked late into pregnancy. Angie was refused occasional lifting assistance and was forced from work just a few months into her pregnancy.

The reason? The law. Maria lives in California, a state which requires employers to provide pregnant workers reasonable accommodations. Angie lives in Mississippi, a state which does not. Unfortunately, federal law does not require the reasonable accommodation of pregnant workers in all circumstances.

Expecting the Unexpected—When the Stork Says “You’re Fired”

Submitted by Elizabeth Gedmark on Thu, 2012-05-17 04:00

Hitting theaters this week: What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Hollywood’s humorous take on the trials and travails of pregnancy and parenting. According to the trailer, the big screen comedy features five couples whose “lives are turned upside down by the challenges of impending parenthood.”

Hitting your computer this week: A Better Balance’s sobering small-screen look at what you may NOT be expecting when you’re expecting—losing your job. Check out our new video and hear real stories from people whose lives were turned upside down by outdated laws and workplace policies that pushed them out of the jobs they needed to support their growing families.

TIME: Ask the RIGHT questions!

Submitted by Genevieve Colvin on Fri, 2012-05-11 04:00

TIME Magazine just became another self-appointed arbiter of “Mommy Judgment” by trying to inflame the Mommy Wars with their exploitative cover of a young mother standing like a mudflap girl and breastfeeding her 3, maybe 4 year old. The byline: “Are you Mom enough?”

The answer is, as soon as you have a baby, YOU ARE MOM ENOUGH!

TIME is sadly out of touch with what Moms really want. It’s time to ask, “Are we Mom-friendly enough?”

In my circle of “Mom” friends, we largely think that the “Mommy Wars” are over. Until, of course, some stupid news outlet uses the Mommy War to try and sell magazines. We trust that the choices that you made about parenting your children were made based on the information that you had at the time. “We do better, when we know better” is a phrase we often share with each other as we gather new information and work to improve our lives and the lives of our children.

Breakfast in Bed is Nice, but a Seat at the Table is Invaluable.

Submitted by Miriam Feffer on Fri, 2012-05-11 04:00

Meet Annie Spiegelman, a Bay Area mom who blogs as “The Dirt Diva” on matters of love, gardening, and cultivating a healthy planet. Just in time for Mother’s Day, Annie shares her interview with Rachel’s Network Co-Director Laurie Syms on the evidence that women in Congress, regardless of party, support the environment at rates that outpace their male counterparts.

A Rachel’s Network report entitled “When Women Lead: A Decade of Women’s Environmental Voting Records in Congress,” compares the environmental voting records of Congresswomen and Congressmen from the 107th through the 111th Congress. The conclusion: in both houses of Congress, whether red or blue, women are greener!

Here’s Annie’s personal account of a moving conversation:

How did a girl raised and hardened on the streets of New York City become a passionate environmentalist, geeky master gardener and full-fledged compost queen? I read Rachel Carson’s bestseller, Silent Spring.