Comments on: Maternity Leave & Career

By: The Katana 12/14: What's Your One Word Definition of Happiness? | Financial Samurai

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:05:15 +0000

[...] * “Maternity Leave & Career” by Well-Heeled highlights one fascinating study which shows the real difference in pay is not between men and women, but between women who have children, and women who do not. Openly, I want my wife to make the big bucks so I can kick back and retire early! [...]

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:58:58 +0000

Well-heeled, fascinating article and revelations indeed! "Less generous maternity leaves" produce more female high-fliers, and the discrepancy is between mothers and child-free women. Makes sense, and should be a cause to let guys off the hook yeah?

I'll have to highlight this post in my Katana wrap as it relates to my post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Will be writing more about children, marriage, and other stuff, so stay tuned!

Best,

Sam

By: Punished for taking too long a maternity leave? Who do you blame? | Women and Work

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:54:05 +0000

[...] this incredibly vexing survey, which comes as no surprise to anyone, really: “The blogger Well-heeled brought my attention to this new study with the stunning question: “Could the U.S.’s lack of [...]

By: WellHeeled

WellHeeled — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:15:13 +0000

Oh, and if you see the excerpt I took from MaybeMBA's blog post – I definitely agree with her that "accommodating women…is about finding clever ways to overcome the inescapable physical burden of motherhood." This applies in both the academic setting and the professional setting. Doing so requires action on institutional level – whether it be the instutition of law (discrimination laws / maternity leave), the institution of the firm (access to breast-feeding room, etc.) and institution of the school. But ultimately the hope is to change people's way of thinking.

By: WellHeeled

WellHeeled — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:10:34 +0000

I definitely do not think that withholding maternity leave is the correct national policy or that it is even helpful towards all women, because so many women are, indeed, mothers.

This study was interesting to me because I've heard about all the strides that women have made in European countries, and it's surprising to me that perhaps a policy of nationally mandated maternity have other consequences as well. I am NOT presenting this research as justification that the U.S. shouldn't offer maternity leave (or paternity leave, for that matter). After all, this research study presents ONE facet of the debate, and I don't think anyone thinks it should be the be-all and end-all on this topic.

"If women aren't encouraged to stay in the workforce because they have no support to do so when they have kids, no one will reach any level of success." <– 100% agree. In cases such as these, many women will either choose not to have kids (many women in Japan, for example), and that's not ideal either.

I will check out The Mismeasure of the Woman – it sounds like a fascinating read. Thank you for your comment.

By: psychsarah

psychsarah — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:37:04 +0000

I think its a simplistic analysis to say that NOT giving people adequate time/compensation/job security to birth and care for their babies is HELPFUL to their careers. It may, on a population level, appear that way, but that seems a huge analytic leap based on the data presented. Correlation does not equal causation. I think it's dangerous to assume that this is a direct relationship-there are probably hundreds of mediators to this relationship. Just consider the converse-if women aren't encouraged to stay in the workforce because they have no support to do so when they have kids, no one will reach any level of success. I am just shaking my head at this twist on the research in both the article and this blog. Read The Mismeasure of Woman by Carol Tavris-it shows how research was skewed to demonstrate that daycare was bad for kids when there was political will for women to stay home, and then skewed to prove that it was good for kids when they wanted women to work while the men were off at war, and then once again, daycare was bad once the men wanted their jobs back.

By: RainyDaySaver

RainyDaySaver — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:06:05 +0000

I absolutely believe that men in the workplace with children actually benefit from fatherhood, because they're seen as their families' breadwinners — and thus, get more raises/promotions. But motherhood makes you a liability, because employers know you'll likely need a more flexible schedule. No offense to the fathers out there who do just as much, but the moms are usually the ones running the kids around to school, appointments and extracurriculars. It's almost a punishment for moms in the workplace.

By: WellHeeled

WellHeeled — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:42:42 +0000

"we have work and life practices that incorporate rather than accommodate the family" – That is a great phrase – I'd be very interested in learning more on what practices that incorporates rather than accommodates would look like. At the very least, "incorporates" sounds much more welcoming than simply "accomodates."

By: Investing Newbie

Investing Newbie — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:13:37 +0000

I am against the ideology that suggests that the private sector should be held accountable for balancing out SOCIOLOGICAL discrepancies. I really do feel that the onus falls on the government or any other public institution with a broad enough reach to tap into the masses to encourage a change in the pre-existing notions that are held by a society. The way that women are raised, the ideas that we infuse into our young girls about their priorities, and what ultimately defines a woman is not her career but rather her family. On the other hand, a man is raised to provide for his family in a purely financial sense. Women have to deal with that trade off in their career, physically first and then, intellectually (again, tapping into what is expected of her).

I propose encouraging ideologies that center around the family. This definitely stems from my cultural upbringing, but I believe that if we have work and life practices that incorporate rather than accommodate the family, the discrepancy between the haves and the have-nots so-to-speak, will be mitigated.

And that's just Chapter 1 of my novel…Ha!

By: Cynthia Samuels

Cynthia Samuels — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:07:33 +0000

One thing I've been urged to consider is that Europe has a terrible birth rate and has instituted more pro-natal policies to encourage child bearing. Don't know if that's accurate but it makes sense….

By: Jenn @ Paying Myself

Jenn @ Paying Myself — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:27:32 +0000

You might be interested in this study about lawyers – http://allegedlyllb.tumblr.com/post/30119666/babi...

It found that childless women billed more hours than anyone else, followed, interestingly enough, by men with children.