Unit D - Blog 34

It has been pretty common in all the materials we have studied all semester long that work and life balance is a problem. Early on in the semester it was related to parents finding childcare while working. It then went onto women working in non-traditional roles, the differential treatments in law enforcement type positions, and now we are studying the work life balance issues of law workers and politicians. Joan Williams looks at the work life balance issues of every type of job, and all of them have the same theme: it is difficult for mothers to balance work and life. With that being said, I do want to note that it isn’t just mothers, but jobs with tedious workloads and hours, and fathers that has strong parenting values outside of our society’s norm. Women are now a strong part of the work force, but still are considered to be a liability because of pregnancy. In the New York Times article Deonarian was strong evidence that women become a liability when they are pregnant. Pregnancy isn’t anything new, but in the work force it is fairly new. Clinton passed new welfare reform in order to expand the workforce. It worked as far as expansion goes, but opened the eyes to a lot of issues with balance work and parenting. Some major issues that arise when considering work life balance have to do with children. The development of a child is compromised when both parents, or the only parent, are working full time. There is also this issue obtaining high paying more desirable jobs, which also is elevated when children come into the picture. Williams reflects on the structure of our society’s work habits. She points out that we still follow the structure of the “ideal worker” which is the 40 hour a week job, the men traditionally have worked, and states that because of this structure they have “immunity from family work.” Basically what she is saying is that the way our society is formed is for people to work much longer than probably necessary. She notes that in Europe they have more flexible schedules and fewer hours. English, and others constantly discuss flexible scheduling and other work structure alternatives, but many of them have negative consequences on their careers. If society continues to look down and not give these new alternatives a chance, then we will continue to have this structure that doesn’t allow a work life balance for parents, and only allows for one parent to work. In the New York Times article there are examples of employers not being very understanding, even though they try to come off as that in the beginning. Even in Gender on Trial, many firms will offer flexible scheduling, but when someone chooses to use it, they are looked down upon by their peers and superiors. The only individuals that seem to flourish in the current structure are either women without children, or men with or without children, and I guess for the limited instances, the women that have stay-at-home husbands. Men are starting to break away from this notion of the “ideal worker” and use maternity leaves and flexible scheduling to be part of their children’s lives. English notes that a lot of men noticed the lack of time with their fathers and don’t want that for their children. These men are also feeling the effects of using schedule alternatives to allow a work life balance. In the end, until we break out of tradition and accept alternative scheduling, or come up with something, then this will continue to be an ongoing issue for our society.