Posted by: John S Kiernan

Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and more than 70 percent of moms with children younger than 18 are working. Yet women earned only 83 percent of what men made in 2015 and have far less upward mobility, as evidenced by the fact that only 5.8 percent of S&P 500 companies’ chief executives are female.

Such obvious inequality has spawned a great deal of debate about gender roles in a shifting socioeconomic environment. Workplace inequality is important not only in the spirit of a merit-based economy but also for deeply ingrained social reasons. For instance, should women have to choose between career and family?

The real question, however, is what we’re doing about this fundamental problem. Progress appears to be taking shape at different rates across the nation. Not only do parental leave policies and other legal support systems vary by state, but the quality of infrastructure — from cost-effective day care to public schools — is also far from uniform as well.

So, in order to help ease the burden on an underappreciated segment of the population, WalletHub’s analysts compared state dynamics across 13 key metrics to identify the Best & Worst States for Working Moms. A complete breakdown of our findings, as well as expert commentary and a detailed methodology, can be found below.

1. Main Findings
2. Red States vs. Blue States
3. Ask the Experts: Improving the Plight of Working Moms
4. Methodology

Main Findings

Embed on your website<iframe src="//d2e70e9yced57e.cloudfront.net/wallethub/embed/3565/geochart-moms.html" width="556" height="347" frameBorder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <div style="width:556px;font-size:12px;color:#888;">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/2pSuDLS;  

Overall Rank	State	Total Score	‘Child Care’ Rank	‘Professional Opportunities’ Rank	‘Work-Life Balance’ Rank
48	Louisiana	36.97	48	47	24
49	South Carolina	36.88	43	48	39
50	Alabama	35.94	39	51	40
51	Nevada	34.63	49	23	45

Red States vs. Blue States Ask the Experts: Improving the Plight of Working Moms

It’s clear that something must be done in order to increase workplace gender equality and ease the burden on working parents, but there is significant debate about what that “something” should be. For some added insight into the issue, we turned to an eclectic group of experts — from university professors who research gender roles and economics to the authors of some of the most popular career and women’s blogs. Click on the experts’ profiles to read their bios and responses to the following key questions:

1. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life?
2. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? What are the easiest?
3. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers?
4. In evaluating the best states for working moms, what are the top five indicators?
5. How likely are Ivanka Trump’s policies related to child care and paid family leave to be enacted?

  < >

• Brenda J. Wrigley Chair & Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing Communication at Emerson College
• Rosalind Chait Barnett Senior Scientist in the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University
• Laura Mattoon D'Amore Assistant Professor of American Studies and Coordinator for Gender and Sexuality Studies at Roger Williams University
• Jamie J. Ladge Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Development at Northeastern University, D'Amore-McKim School of Business
• Bahira Trask Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Development & Family Studies at University of Delaware, College of Education & Human Development
• Elizabeth Gregory Professor of English and Director of Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies at University of Houston
• Adrianne Frech Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Akron
• Ann M. Mastergeorge Rockwell Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University, College of Human Sciences
• Katina Sawyer Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Graduate Programs in Human Resource Development at Villanova University
• Charles A. Smith Professor Emeritus in the College of Human Ecology at Kansas State University
• Roksana Badruddoja Associate Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of Gender and Women Studies at Manhattan College
• Diane F. Halpern Dean Emerita of Social Sciences at Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute and Professor of Psychology, Emerita at Claremont McKenna College
• Angela Jean Hattery Professor and Director of the Women & Gender Studies Program at George Mason University
• Jack C. Westman Professor Emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
• Lisa Ellen Wolf-Wendel Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the School of Education at The University of Kansas
• Taryn Morrissey Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University
• Heidi Hartmann President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research
• Debra Swanson and Llena Chavis Professor and Associate Professor, respectively, in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Hope College
• Heather E. Dillaway Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University
• Jeffrey P. Slattery Professor of Management in the College of Business at Northeastern State University
• Joan K. Peters Associate Professor of English at California State University Channel Islands

Brenda J. Wrigley Chair & Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing Communication at Emerson College Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? While it is more commonly accepted that women will work outside the home and will still be the ones to have primary responsibility for family and home responsibilities, I don't think it's become easier for women to balance career and family. Society still hasn't addressed the need for affordable and high-quality child care, so women are forced to flex time, work part time, or make other arrangements. Child care is neither affordable nor easy to arrange. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Companies must recognize that women and men need affordable and safe child care. They need to either have on-site child care or find a way to subsidize such services to keep quality employees from leaving. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? Consultants and those who work from home find it somewhat easier to balance work and family. Jobs that are hourly have less flexibility and staying home with sick children is more difficult for these parents. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? If we really believe that raising children is the most important job in our culture, then we need to find ways to support that through affordable, safe and readily available child care. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Popular wisdom is that time will take care of this problem. It hasn't. We need to recognize that women deserve equal pay. We need greater transparency in salaries. Women need to be trained to negotiate their salaries. Men almost always do this; women seldom do. Rosalind Chait Barnett Senior Scientist in the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? Both. On one hand, expectations have risen to such a level that it is hard for parents to meet them. In some circles, mothers are expected to nurse their babies for months, be available to them at all times, and give them every opportunity as they grow, including lessons of all types and extra tutoring. It is also harder because parents today get less help from extended families, and the cost of everything, including college education keeps escalating. On the other hand, electronic devices make it easier for parents and children to keep in touch with each other, to monitor their activities, and to connect with them. Also, changing cultural norms make it easier for fathers to ask for time off for child care and for mothers to expect such engagement from their husbands. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Many companies realize that flexibility is key to work-family balance. In crafting flexibility policies, however, the important point to remember is that not all flexibility schemes are equally helpful. Employees (male as well as female) need usable flexibility; flexibility that meets their needs and whose uptake does expose them to negative career consequences. For example, putting in place a five-day, 8-4 schedule option rather than just the standard 9-5 option, creates flexibility. But, it is not at all useful for employees who need to match their work hours to their children’s varying school demands. Such employees may need to start work at 8AM on some days, at 8:30 on other days, and 9 on still other days. Companies need to monitor their behavior so that they can detect whether employees who opt-in to the flexibility schemes are not penalized, either by lack of promotion, slower promotions, fewer raises, or other perks. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? The hardest careers are those in which there is no redundancy, where employees have no back-ups. The easiest careers are those which you have the greatest degree of autonomy. Often, but not always, increased autonomy comes with the advancement. The supervisor may be able to arrive a bit later, or leave a bit earlier, without creating problems. The same leeway is not typically available to lower-level employees. It is also easier when employees are cross-trained, so that people can “fill in” when any one person needs some flexibility. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers?

• Provide paid parental leave.
• Local governments can make pre-k available to all children.
• All parents (mothers as well as fathers) would benefit greatly from before- and after-school programs that have good offerings, safe transportation and supervision.
• Local governments can encourage schools to schedule parent-teacher conferences and other programs at times that enable both parents to attend.

What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Make sure that all programs and communications concerning child-related issues are addressed to mothers and fathers. Highlight male employees who are taking up paternity leaves. Mark Zuckerberg is a prime example. Check to see whether fathers as well as mothers are taking advantage of work-family programs and make adjustments if fathers are not taking up these opportunities. Laura Mattoon D'Amore Assistant Professor of American Studies and Coordinator for Gender and Sexuality Studies at Roger Williams University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? That depends very much on context. Women are taking on careers that have historically been closed to them, but most workplaces do not offer childcare benefits that provide adequate resources for mothers who want them. More men are taking on co-parenting roles than ever before, but even that does not solve the dilemma of what to do with children while parents are at work, unless parents have flexible schedules that allow them to piece together shared childcare. And childcare costs — which are still privatized — surpass the cost of rent and average college tuition in many states. So, the bottom line has not changed — it is still very difficult to balance a career and family. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life?

• Paid parental leave.
• Lactation stations for nursing mothers.
• Affordable childcare for pre-school aged children, and after school/vacation programs for school aged children.
• Flexible schedule options, and leveraging of technology to allow parents to work remotely.
• Salaried, benefitted, part-time opportunities.
• Re-assessment of workplace outcomes, to place less emphasis on overtime and to re-imagine the structure of a workday and a workplace.
• Re-imagining of ideal workers, so that project and promotion preference is not automatically given to people without children or primary child-rearing responsibilities (which disproportionately affects women and single mothers).
• Re-imagining of workplace values which demonstrate respect for workers' lives outside the workplace.

What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? State and local governments must step in where the private sector will not, which is in the creation of safe and affordable options for childcare from birth through teen years, mandated paid parental leave, and laws and policies that ensure fair employment practices like equal pay and safe, private lactation spaces. Mandated minimum wages that are in line with the cost of childcare would also help working parents access safe places for their children while they work. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Workplaces must let go of the ideal worker myth, which is an unreasonable and unattainable expectation that work is the primary responsibility in the lives of workers. That assumption makes work-life balance impossible, since workers have to put up the appearance that their career is the most important thing in their lives. Workplaces also need to stop “gendering” career choices — for example, equality of hiring men in traditionally feminized jobs (such as teaching, day care, social work, nursing) is as important as equality of hiring women in traditionally masculinized jobs (such as physical labor, politics, and high-level corporate work). Resisting the ideal worker myth overall will soften some of the barriers to gender equality in the workplace. Jamie J. Ladge Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Development at Northeastern University, D'Amore-McKim School of Business Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? Compared with men, I would say yes and no. Yes, because generally childcare still falls largely in the hands of women and even when it doesn't, it is still perceived to. Gender stereotypes persist whether we believe it or not. I think in many ways it may be easier than in the past simply because there are more women balancing careers and family which has made it more socially acceptable for women to work. However, working mothers are still judged and research suggests working mothers are perceived as competent but lacking warmth. It's hard to break down these gendered beliefs about women and men. The other thing that has changed is that with the rise of dual career couples, childcare is negotiated at the couple level. So that eases some of the burden. Men face stigma too for being too involved. Also, there's still an expectation in many industries and firms to uphold ideal worker norms (long hours, devotion to work, etc.). It's hard for men and women to uphold those ideals. And many question whether it's worth it to try to do so. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Good work-life balance policies help but in many cases informal support, from managers and peers, are equally if not more important. This involves a recognition that working women should not be perceived any differently than others. Just as we don't presume people are guilty until proven, we shouldn't assume working mothers desire anything different in terms of their career. Also one size fit all policies rarely work as everyone had unique work- family needs. Consider the whole person and be more open to alternative approaches to careers. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? While there are many careers that demand long hours, it's really about the culture and work norms of the firm. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Fight for equal pay, paid leave and other workplace benefits that promote health and wellbeing of working parents. Also they can play a role by being an exemplar - where they too offer support both formal and informal for working parents. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Recognition that everyone, not only women, need flexibility and work-life balance. Breaking down gender norms, expectations and assumptions when it comes to working parents. It also takes cultural shifts in organizations, as mentioned above, where firms recognize the whole person. Don't assume long hours means someone is most productive. People can be even more productive working nontraditional hours because it better suits their lifestyle. Bahira Trask Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Development & Family Studies at University of Delaware, College of Education & Human Development Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? No easy answer to this; depends on what your ‘job’ is - if you are highly educated and in a high ranking job, you make more money and can outsource many or your domestic chores; also you often have more workplace flexibility (both time and place) - however, you are probably also working an insane amount of hours; we in the US work many more hours than do folks in other industrialized countries. All that said, which state you live in matters also - so in some states there is better affordable child care, paid leave, etc. For example, California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have been leaders in expanding FMLA through instituting state insurance programs. I would like to add that age matters as well. Studies show that millennial (both men and women) really care about work conditions - and they take this into consideration when choosing a place to work; the lower down on the socio-economic ladder you are, the more difficult it gets to juggle work and family. Also - some women without children still have elder care responsibilities - this is often something that gets ignored in the work - family debates. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? The single most important policy is work place flexibility - there is lots of research about this; being able to control your hours and where you work allows parents to juggle their responsibilities more easily. Despite all the benefits of workplace flexibility, less than one third of full-time employees say that they have access to these types of arrangements. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? Again depends on level - I would say that the higher up you are in an organization, the more say you will have over your hours; also which organization you work for matters: many companies these days are ranked by the types of provisions they provide for working parents. Please note that I say parents - studies show that the most stressed group these days in the US are young working fathers (even more than women). What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Expanding paid and unpaid family leave is another critical policy that allows individuals and families to better balance their domestic and work obligations. Paid family leave is critical in alleviating stress on working individuals and it boosts gender equality as it guarantees an income even when individuals (still most commonly women) are engaged in caretaking. Elizabeth Gregory Professor of English and Director of Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies at University of Houston Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? Varies by state. More big cities are offering public preschool - so that makes things easier for people in those areas. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Support public preschool initiatives in their areas - starting from birth. And support local initiatives toward providing free after-school care. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? With good childcare, any career can go with family. Without it, flexible careers work better. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Provide expanded public preschool from birth to Kindergarten and support public after-school care, so that mothers can work to 5 and get to pick up by 6pm. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Employers view women as unreliable workers because the nation has no infrastructure to support families, apart from the basic school day, which only covers kids 5 years old and up, and only during 9 months of the year, and not including the hours 2:30-5. Therefore, they underinvest in them. To rectify that and lead to gender equality in the workplace, municipal, state and federal governments need to step up and supply a reliable, good family support infrastructure. Adrianne Frech Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Akron Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? I think it’s becoming more unequal among women to balance a career and family. Women with a college degree are more likely to secure a “good job”: one with benefits, regular hours, and good pay. Women without a college degree are more likely to have jobs that pay an hourly wage, to have irregular schedules, and to experience unemployment or job loss. So for some women, it might be easier than it used to be. For other women, it’s much harder. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? The service sector is probably the most difficult. These jobs are lower-paying, less likely to offer sick leave, maternity leave, vacation, or other benefits, and may require either too few or too many hours to balance financial need and caregiving responsibilities. Professional jobs may be easiest. These jobs are more likely to be salaried, offer benefits, and offer adequate pay. What that says to me is that it’s hard to “choose” a career that creates an easier balance of work and family. If a person lacks the skills or education for professional employment, then there really isn’t a choice to find a work-family friendly field. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Free or low-cost high quality child care, paid maternity leave, and paid sick leave are all good starts. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? There’s very good evidence in the literature — including some of my own research with Sarah Damaske —  that women want to work throughout their lives, expect to work, and indeed, when they work, most women are engaged in full-time employment. There’s also a great study that says that mothers report more work intensity than fathers, and that mothers and fathers are actually quite similar in their “pro-work behaviors" (Julie Kmec, 2011). In other words, women are fully engaged in the paid workforce and have been since the baby-boomers were in their twenties. So it’s not a problem of exposure to women in the workplace, or women’s own work effort or intensity. We need to get to a place where childbearing and parenthood are treated like the common and typical things they are, rather than some kind of inconvenience to a company or an expression of women’s lack of engagement or commitment to their work. Ann M. Mastergeorge Rockwell Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University, College of Human Sciences Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? The answer to this question is "it depends". It depends if you are a woman in a career that offers financial means for caregiver support in the household, flexible work hours or time off (e.g., your child is sick, you have a parent-teacher conference or want to see your child in the school play), if you have means to high quality childcare, if you have a partner who shares (to the extent possible) equity in caregiving responsibilities or if you are a single working parent with limited financial resources, little social support, little or no partner support, and inflexible work hours and no sick time or flex time to do the things I described above. I would state that balancing a career and family is never easy — that concept doesn't exist. However, there are mechanisms that could and should be federally mandated that would begin to level the playing field for all kinds of women who are balancing all kinds of careers — whether the woman who is also a mother is a surgeon, an attorney, a teacher or an administrative assistant. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? This answer is both so simple and yet complex. Simply, provide flexible work schedules for parents, contribute to and/or provide high quality child care (since we know from the evidence that high quality care for children contributes to positive developmental outcomes), and provide paid leaves — both maternity and paternity — for at least four months. In essence, companies, industry, corporations need to value parenting and parents. What is complicated is that there are often conflicting beliefs and definitions about what it takes to 'balance' home and work life. But parents who feel valued (and not punished) for attending their children's circle time or school plays should feel this is valued in the workplace rather than tolerated in the work place. There are several companies such as Google and Facebook who are considered to have models that work well. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? This is not an easy question to answer — it is not often the career but rather the workplace that supports the career and family balance that makes it easier or more difficult. The issue is that all careers are difficult when you have children -- and some children are more difficult to parent than managing the career for the parent. So it is complicated, variable and, in essence, not black and white. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? As I stated above, all states should be mandated to provide paid maternity and paternity leaves, provide childcare subsidies and have workplace high quality child care available. In addition, parents should be able to have flexible schedules to attend their children's classroom events and activities without workplace penalties. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? This answer is simple: equal pay for equal work. Period. Katina Sawyer Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Graduate Programs in Human Resource Development at Villanova University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? I think that, as women are entering the workforce in greater numbers and making small strides toward equality in leadership positions, things are getting harder. The reason for this is because, while we have made progress in incorporating women into the workplace, we have made less progress in incorporating men into the household. So, while women are taking on more at work, they are not necessarily getting the support at home from their partners. There are many great technologies that help with work-life balance and more companies are offering good work-life benefits. However, few employees compared to the general employed population work for these companies and many of the new technologies are more for organizing purposes and less for cutting down on actual commitments. So, as long as the home division of labor stays the same, increasing workforce participation will always create unique challenges for working women. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? I think that companies can offer family-friendly benefits like on-site childcare, flexible work schedules, floating holidays, and pooled PTO and sick days. However, I also think that organizations need to address the issue of gender bias and stereotypes dead on - they need to create an understanding that women may be facing unique challenges at home that may cause them to have to shuffle their work around more creatively or to multi-task when necessary. When companies truly honor that, we, as citizens, have a responsibility to support good, strong family units (the parents of our future employees!), they begin to recognize that work and life are really mutually sustaining. So, they offer good benefits to employees, but they also build a respect for family into the culture of the organization, as well as an awareness of the fact that women are more likely to be responsible for building those strong families outside of work. So, there should be clear policies and practices that support this family-friendly mentality, which would be useful to anyone who is primarily responsible for maintaining the integrity of a family unit. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? The most difficult careers tend to be those with unpredictable hours and very heavy demands (particularly if hours vary by shift unpredictably - sometimes a night shift and sometimes a day shift - since this can tamper with sleep patterns as well). For those who are unable to accurately predict when they will be asked to complete work tasks or for those who have a steady and constant stream of tasks to complete, it is hard to find ways to fit "life" into the balance. The easiest jobs are those which have a low workload and predictable hours - the opposite of the most difficult careers. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? I think that it is important to pass laws which allow for paid time off when individuals start families, for both mothers and fathers. Paid maternity and paternity leave would provide a clear message that a state values family. The months after a baby first joins a family are a crucial time for the family to bond and to set up good, healthy habits. But, most parents are unable to take leave because they can't afford to go without pay. Paternity leave certainly helps fathers but it also helps mothers - having additional support at home while trying to navigate the new world of having a child is key to being successful at work-life balance early on. Federal laws would be even better in supporting these efforts. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? This is a huge question. I think that we need a greater understanding of what contributes to gender inequality at its root. We need to understand that gender norms and stereotyping drive perceptions of women's incompetence as well as backlash against women who display the same assertive behaviors as men, but are labeled differently for doing so. I also believe that we need to better understand how masculinity operates in the workplace - men have a gender too. If men don't fit the stereotypes of being competitive, aggressive, and less focused on emotions, they may also be judged harshly. Overall, we need to have an understanding that there is more variability within group (within women as a group and within men as a group) than across groups, so that we can be more open-minded to valuing people as individuals, instead of as "proper" exemplars of their gender. This can happen through training, but it also needs to be role-modeled from the top of the organization, all the way down to line managers. Employees can hear about gender equality - but if they don't feel it, they won't live it. So, organizations to need to make sure that they are aware of bias in selection, promotion, and development and try to root it out - for women and for men - in order to make the culture of equality "stick". Charles A. Smith Professor Emeritus in the College of Human Ecology at Kansas State University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? I think balancing career & family has always been difficult for women, especially single mothers. The word “career” has a lofty connotation. I doubt single-parent mothers working two jobs would consider their work a career. It is work for family survival and such work will never be easy. These mothers need the critical support with child care from other family members. Women whose work outside the home is elective may find it to be more socially acceptable. Fathers are more likely today to support, if not welcome, the employment of their partners. Dual income families are likely to have the money for child care, though the support of their social network (primarily involving the children’s grandparents) to provide child care when both parents work outside the home, is significant. In many cases, support is provided by agencies that provide after-school care. The support of their partners and acceptance of cultural norms for working mothers reduces their burden but does not make balancing a career and family easier. The pace of family life has increased for all families. Coordinating and balancing multiple roles of employment, relationships with a spouse, and responsibilities for children continue to be very stressful for women who work outside the home. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? If they accommodate the work purpose, opportunities to work at home would help, as long as clear guidelines for what is expected are provided. If the organization is large enough, child care might be made available. A redefinition of what consists of a work week might also be helpful (for example, working ten hours a day over four days). Depending on the career, these accommodations should not put the working mother at a disadvantage for promotions. The same opportunities could be available for all workers with special family life needs. The decision to provide any assistance should involve all employees and should never be construed as giving mothers unfair special treatment. So any help should be a part of the fundamental purpose of the organization as a whole. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Strengthen child care resources in all communities. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Workplace support should be issues, not gender, based. Single fathers can have similar problems. Older workers can have family problems that would benefit from accommodating work policies (for example a spouse in hospice). Workplace policies should be gender neutral and apply equally to all employees regardless of their private lives. This requires employers to target issues that have broad application. For example, if someone would benefit from a four-day workweek, they could submit a request and justification. There would have to be clear guidelines as to what comprises a “justification.” Roksana Badruddoja Associate Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of Gender and Women Studies at Manhattan College Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? In the past two decades, we have not passed any major federal policies to help any human being accommodate family and work responsibilities. Stephanie Coontz, Director of Research and Public Education of the Council on Contemporary Families, finds that Americans express higher level of work-family conflicts compared to Europeans. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Companies can do the following:

1. Provide livable wages and explore gender segregation of wage rates;
2. Provide affordable child care;
3. Allow employees to work flexible hours;
4. Provide robust maternity and paternity leave & unemployment insurance (FMLA in its current form is inadequate);
5. Work towards openly uncovering implicit bias/discrimination of women (studies show that applications with female names are rated as less qualified).

What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? I find this question deeply troubling as it ignores the structural inequalities that are embedded in our culture. We simply do not have social policies and working conditions in place that fully support women's employment at large, in any field. We are not only grappling with the glass ceiling but we are also dealing with a crumbling bottom, as low-income women face a myriad of obstacles at home and work. Stephanie Coontz informs us that we are last among developing nations when it comes to supporting working families. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? There is a motherhood penalty. Stephanie Coontz from the Council on Contemporary Families points out that the progress women have made in the workplace has gone to childless women. And sociologist Joya Misra finds that motherhood is a more potent predictor of wage inequality compared to gender. We need robust maternity leave and child care policies. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? It would seem that gender-neutral work practices and policies are fair, however, gender-neutral models are informed by masculinity (there is no such thing as reverse sexism), hence, the issue is not gender equality. What we need is gender equity. The first step is to establish a livable wage. The second step is to offer affordable child care. The third step, companies need to have honest conversations to uncover their implicit bias/discrimination of women. Gender equity serves the interest of both women and men. On this issue, Stephanie Coontz argues that if we paid women the same wage as men for comparable work, then we would cut the poverty rate in our families by half. Diane F. Halpern Dean Emerita of Social Sciences at Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute and Professor of Psychology, Emerita at Claremont McKenna College Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? It is easier for some and harder for others. There are many variables, but most importantly are the types of jobs that women (and men) have. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? There are many things companies can do that will help their bottom line and their employees. I usually talk about working families — not just mothers — because the issues of child and elder care and other types of caregiving (e.g., ill siblings) pertain to men and women. Where possible — anyone with care responsibilities needs flexibility — it could mean changing starting and ending times to meet individual needs, or offering the option of working fewer hours, or working from home for part of the time. On and off ramps for employees who need to deal with a temporary situation such as caring for a newborn or a seriously ill family member will allow employees to stay connected to their jobs and re-enter their former position with little loss of time. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? The most difficult careers are those that have the least flexibility — for example, wait staff at a restaurant, clerical jobs, building trades, and jobs that require extensive travel. The easiest are the ones in which employees are responsible for completing their work, but do not have to “clock in” for certain hours. It is also difficult at the top of organizations where there is no end to the work, but these positions often come with salaries that permit hiring more help and more individual choice about how to structure the work day — such as leaving to be home for dinner and then working from home from 9 to 11 pm after the kids are put in bed. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Again, I would talk about working families or employees with significant care responsibilities. By thinking about the issue this way, it is no longer just a “woman’s issue.” We need paid leave for employees with significant care responsibilities, employment security, training while on leave if that is reasonable, and much more. Of course, on-site high quality child care is a terrific benefit — it will reduce stress and employee turnover. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? We need gender equality at home in order to have gender equality at work. If women do most of the housework and child and elder care, then they are already behind in a seemingly equitable work place. Large companies should study the question of equal pay for equal work — is this true at your company? Negotiation workshops would also level the playing field so that comparably qualified employees doing the same job are being paid the same. A company-wide culture that all employees are important and will be allowed to rise without regard to gender (or race or religion or age, etc.) is critical. It needs to begin at the top and permeate throughout the organization. Angela Jean Hattery Professor and Director of the Women & Gender Studies Program at George Mason University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? This is a really good question. In some ways, it is easier and in some ways it is much harder. For example, because more and more women in the labor force are mothers, child care is more widely accessible than it was just 30 years ago. Additionally, more and more companies and government agencies have on-site childcare and/or childcare that are open 24 hours a day to accommodate rotating schedules. That said, childcare remains extraordinarily expensive and many women and families simply cannot afford high quality childcare. The stress associated with relying on inferior and/or spotty childcare takes a tremendous toll on working mothers who have no other choice. Many families I interviewed “solved” this problem by working rotating shifts (one partner worked the first shift and the other the second or third shift) so that they didn’t need to rely on paid childcare. This was incredibly stressful for their marriages. Finally, technology: the beauty of being able to work anytime, anywhere, should ease the burden of balancing work and family, and for many women it does. But for others, working anytime, anywhere turns into working all the time, everywhere, which is stressful for the women themselves and for their families. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Provide support! Companies that can provide on-site childcare that is reasonably priced and affordable for all employees would go a long way toward assisting all parents in balancing work and family. Flexible work days/times as well as the opportunity to tele-commute at least some of the time would be beneficial for many employees. Providing or contracting for “emergency” child care, for example on school holidays like Martin Luther King Day, or “snow days” when schools are closed would ease the stresses of many working parents. Providing adequate paid leave for new parents, as many “Silicon Valley” companies have begun to do, would not only ease the transition for parents into their new role, but would dramatically increase the retention of employees, especially women. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? Service sector jobs, be they ringing the cash register at WalMart or working as a nurse in a local hospital or clinic are often the most difficult because they often, though not always, pay wages that are too low to afford child care, they require employees to work all kinds of different shifts, when it may be difficult to find childcare, and they seldom offer the kinds of benefits, such as onsite childcare or paid leave, that support working parents. Education is often touted as the easiest career for balancing work and family but it largely depends on which sector of the education field one works in. For example, because elementary school teachers may rarely need full time childcare since they often have the summer “off”, they may struggle to find childcare for the many days each year that they must work while students stay home, e.g., teacher work days. In contrast, college professors, my profession, can be somewhat easier because we can do a great deal of work from home, our classes meet much less often than elementary or high school students, and so on. I don’t think any are easy; that said, it may be less about the career and more about the company one works for. As previously noted, being an engineer or sales person at a tech company in Silicon Valley probably has the “easiest” time because they have access to paid leave, onsite child care and many other on-site amenities (gyms, grocery stores) that make the balancing act easier. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? I’ve been writing about this for more than 20 years! The federal government, like all the other governments in western, post-industrial societies should provide (paid for by taxes, either collected or re-allocated from other parts of the budget): paid parental leave—at least a year for the mother and several months for the father. Free or substantially subsidized child care/pre-school (which wouldn’t even be needed until the child is 18 months old because the parents would have been at home as facilitated by the generous paid leave policy). Finland dramatically reduced child poverty and abuse by providing each new baby with a “baby box” that includes as set of clothes for the first year, including a parka and boots, pamphlets on breastfeeding, and birth control devices (pills, condoms) so that the family could delay childbearing. The box even doubles as a bassinet. *Note the US is one of only 2 or 3 countries in the world that does not offer any paid parental leave! What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Family leave policies and support for working parents, which, let’s be honest, is a burden felt primarily by women/mothers, would go a long way in promoting gender equality in the workplace. So would an equal pay act with teeth, meaning the goal was equal pay not an act that makes it nearly impossible for women to sue for equal pay. Taking sexual harassment seriously and sanctioning perpetrators appropriately when they offend. Recognizing that gender inequality is actually expensive. Why? Retention — women are less likely to stay with a company for their entire careers if they feel devalued or find it hard to balance work and family, or if they are repeatedly sexually harassed. Lost resources — when women aren’t given opportunities to do the work they are fully capable of doing, the employer essentially loses some of the woman’s human capital by failing to support her in utilizing it. As Nicholas Kristof writes: Women are half the sky. When they are underutilized we all lose! Jack C. Westman Professor Emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? It is becoming more difficult for women to balance a career and family because of the lack of progress in increasing wages (the disappearance of the “family wage” has been devastating for many), longer working hours without overtime pay, the lack of paid family leave and the preference of employers for employees who do not have family responsibilities. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? In essence, recognize that mothers and fathers are valued employees with family responsibilities and base compensation on productivity rather than hours worked through greater flexibility in working hours and identifying work that can be done at home. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? As above, the most difficult are those that require physical presence on the job and the easiest are those that include work that can be done at home. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Mandate paid family leaves for both mothers and fathers. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Generically, single males and females are the most desirable employee. There are males and females who have qualities that make them more desirable employees. The challenge is to view all males and females in terms of their productivity not their gender. Lisa Ellen Wolf-Wendel Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the School of Education at The University of Kansas Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? In many ways, it is getting easier for women to manage careers and families because there are a lot more women in the work force which means that there are more role models, that many employers are responding with work/family friendly policies, that workplace and home-life norms are changing, that marital structures are changing, etc. As a whole generation of men and women have grown up with working moms – it changes the dynamics in the household about who should take care of the kids, clean the house, cook etc. Today, many couples have developed more equitable divisions of who does what in the household than in prior generations. That said, there is still a lot of evidence that working women still work “a second shift” and are expected to do more than their share of the domestic responsibilities – especially if they have younger children. Even when kids become school aged – there are a lot of responsibilities still placed on the women’s shoulders to arrange car pools and after-school schedules. Gendered norms, for both men and women, about work and family are entrenched into our psyches and we tend to play out these norms in how we navigate the various roles that we play. Not all families have equitable divisions of labor at home. Gender inequity is not only found in the home – it is also found in the workplace. Women still make less money than men for doing the same kind of work. Further, they are likely to pay a “motherhood penalty” and not advance in their careers at the same rate as men. In fact, there is evidence that fathers accrue some professional benefits for being “good fathers” while working mothers are punished for either not putting family first or for doing the opposite. The modern American workplace is not yet a fully gender equitable space – and there is much gender-based discrimination that continues to exist. In particular, not all employers or job classifications have recognized the different needs of men and women nor do they all recognize the importance of work/family balance. Things are better – but we still have a ways to go to create equitable work places that value career and family for both men and women. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? My research area focuses mostly on institutions of higher education – which are a particular work-site with particular norms. So, my answers are mainly focused on that industry (but may be generalizable). Parents need access to high quality and affordable day care, including for infants. Parents need policies that allow them family leave – for both fathers and mothers. Too many institutions rely on FMLA – which provides unpaid leave. This is insufficient, as it is not necessarily financially feasible for new parents to not work and not get paid. Some institutions allow parents to use sick leave in lieu of family leave – but this depletes sick leave pools and then, if anyone in the family gets sick, there is no leave to be had. Flexible working environments are particularly helpful for parents to help them balance work and family. If work can be done from home or in flexible hours – these things can be really helpful to working parents. For mothers of infants, lactation support is essential. This means providing a private space (preferably not a bathroom) for women to use a breast pump and store their milk. It also means providing adequate break time for women to use their breast pumps. Allowing parents to use flex time, to work part time for a period of time, etc. are all ways to support working parents. We also need to think about parenthood (and family) beyond just the needs that one has when ones child is born. Family is a lifelong proposition – and one’s family needs change over time. We often times focus on “accommodations” or policies only for those with infants. Family responsibilities shift a lot over time. Further, we need to not only think about work/family needs as being important to women. If we want equitable family lives outside of work, then employers need to recognize and value the importance of providing work/family policies for men as well as women. Many policies say they are “gender neutral” but men are given the message (either implicitly or explicitly) that these policies are not for them. This sends the message that family issues are women’ issues rather than being important to both men and women. If we think about work/family as not just being about women and babies – but being about helping both men and women respond affirmatively to personal needs throughout their careers – that might make for better work places (and more buy-in). For example, what kinds of supports exist to help people who are assisting elderly parents? A workplace that cares about life outside of work as a means to recruit and retain the best employees, will think about changing family needs over time. Sometimes this isn’t about just adding a policy – it involves educating supervisors and sometimes even changing cultural norms. Sometimes leaders think the policy addition is the end – but usually it is only the first step. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? Professional careers are going to have an easier time managing work and family than anyone who works hourly, is in a temporary position, or who has very rigid work hours. Professional careers in which the employee has both financial rewards as well as flexibility are going to have the easiest time managing work and family. Individuals who make a lot of money can afford to outsource some of the domestic responsibilities – hire a housekeeper, hire a nanny, etc. They might also have more demands on their time – but if you couple the money with workplace flexibility, then you might have an easier time managing work and family (note – I don’t like the term “balance” because I am not sure any person ever feels like they have a balance between work and family). Professional careers – doctors, lawyers, professors, etc. might have it “easiest.” But each of these careers also have difficulties. For example, the tenure clock for faculty members is finite and ticks simultaneously with the biological clock. The same is true for the timing of medical school and residencies – which require crazy hours at the same time as someone might be ready to have a child. Lawyers are going to have a similar concern. I suppose positions where someone in a couple has a flexible job – and/or works from home – might be the best combination. Part of the answer to this question is that it depends on the career goals of one’s partner (assuming one isn’t a single parent). If one member of the couple has flexibility – that might make it easier on the other member of the couple to pursue whatever career he/she desires. With two working parents in demanding fields, the onus of responsibility for parenting is likely to fall on the woman (given existing gender norms). What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Providing high quality public education and supporting K-12 as well as higher education is an important way to support not only working mothers, but also the entire population. Schools need adequate funding, support for teachers, etc. in order to assist families in achieving their potential. State and local governments are responsible for ensuring that education gets the support it needs. Beyond that, state and local governments can mandate higher minimum wages. They can require employers to provide adequate health insurance, benefits and family leaves. They can pass legislation to create workplaces that support lactation needs. They can provide tax breaks for day care costs and/or subsidize day care. Any policy that promotes and enforces gender equality in pay and promotions would be useful. This is not an exhaustive list. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? We need to change work place policies to recognize that employees are most productive when they are healthy and when their families are healthy and safe. Employers benefit from paying attention to work/life concerns for all of their employees – it helps with recruitment of the best and brightest, it helps with retention of the best and brightest, and it helps with job productivity. Caring about work/life balance is not necessarily altruistic for employers – it benefits the employer as well as the employee. Policies and practices that involve equal hiring opportunities, equal pay, equal opportunities for promotion on the basis of gender as well as other status characteristics is not only a legal requirement but also the right thing to do. We live in a society where many workers are part of dual career couples. It is no longer the norm to have a “stay at home wife” who takes care of the family needs so that the breadwinner can focus exclusively on work. Rather, both men and women now face needs and demands from the home sphere. Creating policies and cultures and climates that recognize this reality is essential to creating equitable workplaces. In addition, however, it is also important to recognize that women with children face unique demands on their time and energies, especially if they have young children. Work environments that support parenthood in general, and motherhood in particular, are going to be more gender equitable workplaces. Taryn Morrissey Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? Both parents – mothers and fathers – report having trouble balancing career and family. A 2015 Pew Research survey found that more than half of mothers (60%) and fathers (52%) reported that it was very or somewhat difficult to balance work and family responsibilities. Nearly half of mothers (47%) and one-third (33%) of fathers said that parenting interfered with their career advancement. Full-time working fathers today are more likely than full-time working mothers to report that they don’t spend enough time with their children (50% vs. 39%). Research finds that millennial generation parents often fall short of their egalitarian attitudes due to the pulls of long hours at work and a lack of work-family infrastructure for workers with children. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Public and employer policies like paid parental leave (both maternity and paternity) and increased access to affordable, high-quality child care and preschool through subsidies or on-site centers can help both parents balance work and family responsibilities. Access to family leave, particularly paid leave, increases employee retention and reduces the cost of employee turnover, which is costly to employers. Research finds the expansion of family leave laws, especially paid leave like that provided in California and New Jersey (and recently passed in New York) increases the likelihood that employees return and stay at their pre-leave employer (reducing attrition and increasing retention). Research also finds that employers’ offers of dependent care flexible spending accounts can help with workers’ child care expenses and increase their loyalty to their employer. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? State and local governments can do several things to support both working mothers and fathers. First, a handful of states including California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have publicly supported paid parental leave systems, which help new parents recover from childbirth, adjust to life as parents, and provide for the extremely valuable time needed to form strong parent-child bonds. Without it, many workers, particularly low-wage workers, lack any paid time off (or even unpaid job-protected time off), and return to work very quickly. New York recently passed a paid leave law, to be implemented in 2018, and Washington State has a paid leave law on the books but has yet to fund or implement it. Washington, DC, and other jurisdictions are also considering paid parental leave laws. Paid family leave, which allows for time off when children (or aging parents) are older but require care (such as when they’re sick), is also important to working parents. Supporting affordable, high-quality early care and education programs through investments in strong subsidy programs, tax credits, or public preschool can help when parents return to work. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Paid parental leave, available to and used by both mothers and fathers, can go a long way to promoting gender equality in the workplace. Research in other countries has also found that generous maternity-only leave policies (absent analogous policies for fathers) may inadvertently harm women’s income and progression in the workforce. Affordable, high-quality, reliable early care and education opportunities can also ease parents’ work-family stress. Heidi Hartmann President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? Easier in some ways because we have had the FMLA for more than 20 years, which protects the jobs of those who go out on leave for family reasons (for up to 12 weeks) — and for those who have the seniority and hours on the job required and work for large enough businesses (50 or more workers). Some states have better protections and require smaller firms to protect jobs, too. In 5 states, workers have access to maternity leave (for disability) at partial pay (that’s since 1978) and since the early 2000’s, 3 states provide paid parental leave to mothers and fathers at partial pay for up to 4-6 weeks (depending on the state). In other ways, harder because family incomes have not been growing much for most families and elder care is an increasing responsibility of working age adults as the share of older Americans in the population continues to grow. What we expect of parents is also increasing (more supervised enrichment activities for children, for example) so families are trying to do a lot more for both their children and their parents or grandparents, with not much more income to help them out, and not enough public policies and programs to support them either. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life?

• Offering more paid leave, not only for own illness but for taking children and other family members to doctors’ appointments and/or caring for them when ill.
• Extend job protected leave beyond 12 weeks.
• Ending the culture of overwork, which seems to exist in a number of professionally oriented firms:  law, finance, high-tech, for example.

What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? There are differences. There’s some research that shows that doctors are more readily able to reduce hours than lawyers, for example, and economist Claudia Goldin at Harvard has found that pharmacists earn about the same per hour whether they work part time or full time (and whether they are male of female); she suggests because their shared information systems are good and any pharmacist can address the patients’ needs fully based on the computerized records. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? A lot of policy is made at the state and local level. State policies can provide more generous job protection than the federal FMLA, and besides the 3 states that already have paid parental leave for caregiving, many more are exploring starting programs to do the same. State and local governments can provide more (or less) subsidized child care and elder care (such as subsidized transportation or home care services), often through taxes. Subsidized housing, another way to ease the cost burdens on working parents, is typical provided at the local level. There is a lot that cities, towns, counties, and states can do. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? It’s a long list. Obviously, equal pay — gender pay discrimination is still found in even the same job, let alone slightly different jobs that have no reason to be paid differently other than sex discrimination. But women and men just out of school are often assigned to different entry level jobs at large firms, jobs which put them on different paths through the internal labor markets of those firms in future years — and men’s paths are generally higher paying than women’s paths. So, making sure that women and men have equal access to all the jobs in a firm and equal encouragement and on-the-job training to succeed at the better paying ones are very important. We’ve just done a new report on this. It seems that employers often overlook women in their own firms who could move up in jobs that men have done and where there are no shortage of workers and think they have to recruit men from outside the firm. Plus, all the firms that don’t have much family-friendly policy need to get on the bandwagon and make sure they make family care policies equally available to men as well as women. Great subsidized child care on site would also no doubt be appreciated by parents, even it’s “only” emergency child care, when regular arrangements have fallen through — most parents would find that a tremendous help. Debra Swanson and Llena Chavis Professor and Associate Professor, respectively, in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Hope College Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? Debra Swanson: My research on mothers with young children seems to suggest that it is harder. Families are moving for jobs so they no longer have the support of extended family. Career women are expected to do more at work (put in long hours, travel) which eats away at family time. And spouses have both the same work expectations and don’t feel the same pressure to do childcare or housework. Women continue to work what Arlie Hochschild called the “second shift” – another shift of housework and childcare after coming home from work outside the home and they are stressed. They feel stressed and guilty by the pressure to do it all, and conflicted about the pull between work and home. Llena Chavis: I agree, harder. Although the proportion of women to men in the workforce has grown, women's duties at home have not substantially decreased. This increase of demands within the family system is correlated with a decrease in the quality of female mental health. In the United States, despite improvements in wages and job equality, women are not doing better in regard to mental health. According to the most recent statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health, women are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders than are men, and 70% more likely to be diagnosed with depression. One reason for this disparity is that women face significantly more stress than their male partners in the attempt to balance childcare and parenting with work outside the home. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Debra Swanson: Companies could reduce the expected hours at work. If all people – men and women – worked a standardized work week of 32­35 hours, there would be more time available to coach the softball team, go on field trips, volunteer at church or community events and fewer hours for children in daycare. But it has to be considered a standard work week for both men and women. Germany and France have already standardized a 35 hour work week with 24 days of paid personal days. This change was made to reduce unemployment and enhance the quality of life. Companies could offer paid maternity and paternity leave. The United States is the only country in the OECD not to have a national paid maternity leave; and one of nine countries that does not have paid paternity leave. Paid leave for childcare needs to be expected behavior for men and women. Otherwise we end up with a bifurcated system of women taking maternity leave and being seen as less committed to their jobs than their male colleagues. Candidate Hillary Clinton is calling for paid maternity leave as a way to keep women in the workforce. And research shows that dads who begin interacting with their infants from day one feel more competent as parents, feel less family stress and have better adjusted children. Finally, companies could offer more quality onsite childcare at work. The convenience is the most obvious advantage, but onsite care also leads to happier workers and a higher retention of workers. It would allow parents to quickly respond to a sick child, women can choose to breastfeed longer and parents can spend time during the workday with their families; most importantly, onsite daycare recognizes the worker as a person with a valued identity outside of work. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? Debra Swanson: Careers that don’t have any space or temporal flexibility are the most difficult. While most workers report wanting more autonomy in their careers, women, in my research, report the lack of flexibility as being the most stressful. When a boss schedules a meeting at 4:00 in the afternoon, just when she needs to leave to do childcare pickup, she feels the stress of having to choose between work and family. Jobs with flexibility and creativity have employees with less work/family stress. Maybe, surprisingly, this is more important than more pay! For example, US News and World Report says that gardener, massage therapist and fitness directors, jobs that value creativity with low stress and high flexibility, report better work family balance. Llena Chavis: Some studies indicate that female dominated professions (education, nursing, social work, etc.) present the best or most flexible options for women. In addition, due to these jobs being predominantly female (often even in administration), there is not as much gender inequality specifically in regard to pay differentials between genders. Conversely, male dominated professions such as engineering, business, accounting etc. tend to be less tolerant of the mother’s effort to achieve a work-life balance. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? Llena Chavis: Intervention with mothers is easily understood by most from a micro level: A need for social support, flexibility and supportive jobs that offer equal pay to women are critical. However, a mother also needs a macro system to support these realities. One piece of this puzzle is the importance of mandated equal pay from a local government but another and equally, if not greater piece of this puzzle is state funded affordable health care and mental health coverage for the working mother. My research asserts a critical need for mental health care for mothers (Chavis, 2016), however not all health care policies have comprehensive care. An automatic social support around mental health care would be crucial in supporting a working mother. Even women who report high SES report high levels of anxiety in parenting; thus equal pay and affordable child care are just one small part of this picture. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Debra Swanson: I agree with Llena that equal pay for equal work is key. American women continue to get paid about 79 cents for every dollar that a man makes. This statistic is even worse for women of color. The Equal Pay Act needs to be strengthened. The following factors contribute to the wage gap: discriminatory barriers to equal pay including lower pay for women in the same job, the segregation of women into lower­-paying jobs and exclusion of women from higher­paying, nontraditional jobs, bias against women with caregiving responsibilities, and lack of workplace policies to allow workers to care for families without paying a stiff economic penalty. Another factor that plays into the wage gap is the role of women as caregivers. A study by Shelley Correll, Stephan Benard, and In Paik found that, when comparing equally qualified women candidates, women who were mothers were recommended for significantly lower starting salaries, perceived as less competent, and less likely to be recommended for hire than non­mothers. The effects for fathers in the study were just the opposite — fathers were actually recommended for significantly higher pay and were perceived as more committed to their jobs than non-­fathers. Here is a list of solutions from the National Women’s Law Center (2015):

• Strengthen our equal pay laws so that women have the tools they need to fight back against pay discrimination.
• Build ladders to higher wage jobs for women by removing barriers to entry into male dominated fields.
• Lift up the wages of women in low wage jobs by raising the minimum wage and the tipped minimum wage.
• Increase the availability of high­-quality, affordable child care.
• Help prevent and remedy caregiver and pregnancy discrimination against women workers.
• Provide fair schedules, paid family leave, and paid sick days so that workers with caregiving responsibilities are not unfairly disadvantaged.

Heather E. Dillaway Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? It is definitely more acceptable these days for women to have a career and also have family aspirations at the same time. U.S. culture has changed enough so that it is not abnormal to see women trying to succeed at paid work and also be good moms. We often hear about "supermoms" and women who "have it all" and assume that all barriers for working women have disappeared, however, the reality of balancing work and family is often extremely difficult. In some ways we have a "stalled revolution" in that women have been given access to career success but have not been acknowledged as workers who also may have full-time family responsibilities at the same time. Men's roles have also not changed as much as women's and, as much as fathers are helping at home, fathers are often not given support from bosses and coworkers in their efforts to take care of kids too. Without substantial support for fathers in the workplace, women's responsibilities for childcare are reinforced. In general, mothers and fathers still have difficulties balancing family and work schedules, affording the cost of childcare, and keeping balance between work and family. Especially when we think about a range of workers (and not just white collar, professional workers), many working women (especially hourly, non-salaried workers) have considerable trouble piecing together family and work responsibilities. Some families come up with creative solutions (e.g., split-shift parenting where each parent works a different shift, or serial babysitters and nannies who can pick up the caregiving slack), but all of these solutions take a toll on both family and work life. The other important thing to remember is that, for most women and men, working for pay is a necessity and they can't just decide one day to quit their jobs in order to prioritize families. They can't just forgo their family responsibilities, either. Many mothers and fathers are trapped in an endless attempt to juggle two very greedy sets of activities, since both paid work and parenthood will take as much time as we allow for them. While it might not be harder to balance a career and family as an individual these days, most families are dual career families or single parent families; therefore juggling work and family become part of the very fabric of life in most families. Gone are the days of single earner families who could bring home enough money to support a family. That means that balancing work and family is an issue that the majority of families face these days, and that balance is not easy to achieve. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Probably one of the cultural changes that would make the most difference within workplaces is realizing that most workers have commitments outside of work. Workers are not just workers: they have plenty of responsibilities that need to be balanced alongside paid work. These responsibilities may be small children or adult children, elderly relatives, debt loads, chronic physical or mental illnesses, grief, or, simply, other life pursuits that take time. Recognizing that paid work is probably not and often can't be individuals’ only responsibility is the first step towards creating a supportive and well-balanced workplace. This is especially true for working women, sometimes, as they are often the ones with primary responsibility for childcare as well as care for ailing relatives. Aside from culture change, some of the most progressive companies offer job sharing and/or flextime policies, to allow for workers to shift schedules to take care of family matters. Companies that allow for ample parental leave also maintain healthier relationships with their workers and ensure greater productivity when workers return to work after having a child. Companies might also consider creating community sick day pools, so that workers who need additional sick days can benefits from days that other workers may not need. Companies can also value shared parenting and provide a supportive environment for men to also take parental leave after a baby is born or take sick days when their child is ill; this will allow both women and men to balance work-family responsibilities more equitably. Larger companies that provide childcare or other family services on their premises also benefit from having more focused, relaxed workers. In general, working parents who receive the clear message that a company is willing to work with them to insure work-family balance will likely be able to balance work and family responsibilities better than parents who do not receive that message. What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? Careers that require extensive travel or late/long hours are often very hard for parents with young children. Careers that naturally have a lot of job-to-family spillover (e.g., sales work, academic work, legal work, work in some medical professions, restaurant work, self-employment, etc.) are also extremely hard for families, because balance is impossible to achieve. When parents cannot protect their family time and paid work creeps in, both paid work and family time become more difficult. Hourly work is also very inflexible and can be very difficult for workers with heavy family responsibilities. We often focus so much on professional workers that we forget how hard it is for hourly workers to balance work and family. Hourly workers are often extremely constrained in the choices they make to pay attention to work or family on any given day. Most companies have hourly workers and therefore it is important to think about how hourly workers balance work and family too. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? There are lots of things that governments can do and here are a few:

• Support the development and stability of affordable childcare options – it is extremely important (for both salaried and hourly workers).
• Support involved fathers as much as mothers in the community, so that fathers can participate more fully in caregiving without penalty.
• Support businesses that offer family-friendly work environments. This could be monetary support as well as other community recognition. In general, help businesses remember that workers have families and reward those businesses that remember.
• Model family-friendly policy and culture in governmental positions.

What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? We have come a long way in reducing gender inequalities, but here are a few of the many things that still need to be worked on:

• Women still do not earn the same amount as men do in similar jobs. Individual workplaces can be change agents in this regard, ensuring equal pay for their employees in similar jobs.
• Because of the stigma men face still for participating in childcare, women often still bear the brunt of family responsibilities. Workplaces could work harder to create an environment within which men could feel comfortable engaging actively in fatherhood.
• Mothers of young children are often seen as moms first in the workplace, and workers second. In fact, research shows that sometimes, mothers of young children are placed on a "mommy track" and passed up for promotions or raises (or even praise for good work), because they are perceived as prioritizing family responsibilities. This may not be how women in this life stage see themselves, and workplaces could do well to understand working mothers (and their needs and desires) better.
• Individual workplaces can still work on general office culture so that it is acknowledged that workers are parents and parents are workers. Workers have other responsibilities, regardless of who they are. These other responsibilities do not make them worth less as workers; rather, those other responsibilities just need to be acknowledged and balanced alongside paid work.

Jeffrey P. Slattery Professor of Management in the College of Business at Northeastern State University Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? In some respects, it is becoming easier to balance a career and family but in some respects, harder to balance a career and family. When talking about the issues of working moms, most of the comments relate to a family with a working mom and working dad. Working moms that are in a single parent situation often have very different challenges. In regards to the perception that it is becoming easier to balance career and family, in general there is more acceptance by society as the working moms being the norm, not the exception. Companies and professions are now more open to hiring women into traditionally male-dominated companies and/or professions. Many of these professions have work that is typically project in nature. This means the final product is the completion of the project and thus the work can be done during other periods of time other than your typical 8-5 work day. It is becoming more acceptable to either stop or delay one’s career to raise one’s child(ren) and/or to use alternative work arrangements during one’s career (working out one’s home). Working moms have the opportunity to, in some situations, start their own companies, work for temporary agencies, and/or make special arrangements with employers to work shorter hours “at the place of employment”. In some situations, small business owners may be able to bring children into the workplace. Changes in technology have also made balancing one’s career with family easier. Working “from home” has allowed parents to often spend more time with their child(ren). Not having to commute to work may significantly increase the time one has to interact with one’s family. Meetings can now be conducted while working from home. Business travel may not always be necessary because of the new technology that can be used to conduct meetings from remote locations. Conversely, because of various aspects of our current work environment, it may be becoming more difficult to balance career and family. There are a variety of jobs where the job is becoming more specialized (requiring a specific skill set) that require rigid schedules. Although the concept of working moms may be becoming more of the norm, there are still companies that hold onto the traditional view of one parent, normally the male, being the “bread winner”. Balancing work and career is often easier and more enjoyable if both working parents realize that one or both parents may not be able to achieve one’s “dream” job or career and still be able to balance that with one’s family needs. Setting realistic career goals that genuinely consider family needs is key to a healthy balance of career and family. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? There are many opportunities that companies can provide in order to help parents balance family and work life. One opportunity is for companies to provide alternative work arrangements, such as working from home. Technology now allows workers to be “connected” to work while not physically at the work site. Companies can also provide flexible work schedules such as leaving at 2:00 p.m. so a parent can pick up one’s children from school, day care, etc. and then allowing a parent to finish work started at the work site at home. Companies can also provide day care options for parents at the work site or give discounts for nearby day care sites. Another possible work arrangement may be to encourage employees to use evenings and weekends to work on projects (and not have to be in the office for the traditional 8 to 5 work arrangement). Companies can support having opportunities for working parents being “tag team parents” as option. Parents may be able to have jobs that allow one parent to be working while the other is taking care of the family. Then, when the one parent is finished with his/her work, the other parent goes to his/her job and the other parent takes over caring for the needs of the family. br> What careers are most difficult to balance work and family? Easiest? One of the most difficult types of job to balance work with family is a managerial job. When one becomes a manager, that person must become more accessible to one’s direct reports and attendance at meetings becomes more necessary. Managers, because of technology, are now required to be more accessible, often 24/7. Any type of job that has work to be performed with a set/rigid schedule makes it difficult to balance work with family. The easiest types of job that can allow a parent to more easily balance work with family would be teachers, nurses, coaches in an education type of situation. These types of jobs normally allow the parent to have the same schedule as his/her children; so when the parent is “off”, the children are “off”. In the medical profession, the growing use of physician’s assistants is allowing one to be involved in the medical field but have more flexible schedules that allow them to be more involved with the family. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Employers need to be conscious of the activities working moms need to do and be more accommodating, when possible, of working moms’ family related schedules. There may never be full/complete equality because every working parent has a different situation (single moms, single dads, divorced families with one working parent) but when employers become aware of the employees’ family situations and are willing to accommodate the special situations as much as possible without compromising the work environment for other workers, companies are closer to achieving gender equality. Joan K. Peters Associate Professor of English at California State University Channel Islands Is it becoming easier or harder for women to balance a career & family? Much harder than, say, 30 years ago, because we now are all expected to work many more hours per week. What can companies do to help working parents balance home and work life? Companies know; they just rarely do it: for a start, provide paid parental leave, flexible work schedules, respect civilized work hours, and for larger companies, provide child-care or subsidies. What can state and local governments do to support working mothers? We have to begin talking about "working parents" if we're to have gender equality and as a society agree that parenting is the responsibility of both men and women. The greatest help would be to provide subsidized high quality child-care. What needs to be done to promote gender equality in the workplace? Encourage (from the top) the hiring and promotion of "underrepresented minorities" and women. Be mindful that you need "more than one" person from these underrepresented categories at all levels in order to move beyond tokenism. Do not count on the individual's sense of fairness -- people often have no idea they are judging others with prejudice. Ask any woman or minority, they will tell you it happens all the time, with the most well-meaning people.  

Methodology

In order to determine the best and worst states for working moms, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions: 1) Child Care, 2) Professional Opportunities and 3) Work-Life Balance.

We evaluated those dimensions using 13 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for working moms.

We then calculated the total score for each state and the District based on its weighted average across all metrics and used the resulting scores to construct our final ranking.

Child Care – Total Points: 40

• Day-Care Quality: Double Weight (~13.33 Points)
• Child-Care Costs: Full Weight (~6.67 Points)Note: This metric was adjusted for the median women’s salary.
• Pediatricians per Capita: Full Weight (~6.67 Points)
• School-System Quality: Double Weight (~13.33 Points)Note: This metric is based on WalletHub’s States with the Best & Worst School Systems ranking.

Professional Opportunities – Total Points: 30

• Gender Pay Gap: Double Weight (~8.57 Points)Note: This metric measures women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s.
• Ratio of Female Executives to Male Executives: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)
• Median Women’s Salary: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living.
• Share of Families in Poverty: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)Note: “Families” include single mothers with children aged 0 to 17
• Female Unemployment Rate: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)
• Gender-Representation Gap in Different Economic Sectors: Full Weight (~4.29 Points)Note: This metric measures the absolute difference between the share of female employees and male employees.

Work-Life Balance – Total Points: 30

• Parental-Leave Policy Score: Double Weight (~15.00 Points)Note: This metric is based on the report card from Expecting Better: A State-by-State Analysis of Laws That Help Expecting and New Parents.
• Average Length of a Woman’s Work Week (in Hours): Full Weight (~7.50 Points)
• Women’s Average Commute Time (in Minutes): Full Weight (~7.50 Points)

 

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Child Care Aware® of America, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Council for Community and Economic Research, National Partnership for Women & Families and WalletHub research.

from Wallet HubWallet Hub


via Finance Xpress