Working parents have hit a pandemic breaking point
This is Working Together, a weekly series on equity in the workplace. Join us LIVE at 12ET today to speak with Daisy Dowling, the founder and CEO of Workparent, a specialty coaching and advisory firm focused on working parents. Have ideas about what we should discuss next week? Let me know in the comments using #WorkingTogether or email me at [email protected].
We’re about eight months into a global pandemic that shuttered childcare centers and schools across the country, and working parents continue to struggle. Many — like Vicky Abihirsa — are close to a breaking point.
“There have been so many days during the pandemic where I've literally turned off my computer, went into my room, closed the door and was either crying or taking deep breaths,” said Abihirsa, a marketing strategist working from home in Miami with a toddler and newborn baby. “I just feel always like I'm doing a bad job at being present for my kids and doing a bad job of being present for my team.”
Well-intentioned companies are trying to support working parents. Yet the solutions are not coming fast enough. While many companies introduced policies at the start of the pandemic to allow for flexibility, putting those changes into action has been challenging for managers, who had to figure out on the fly how to make things work.
“A lot of companies have put flexible policies in place, but employees feel like their immediate manager may not completely understand it or adopt it,” said Mekala Krishnan, a senior fellow at McKinsey Global Institute.
The pressure to both perform at work and take care of children has pushed many women to leave their jobs altogether. There are now 1.6 million fewer mothers in the workforce than there would be if the pandemic hadn’t occurred. And the share of unpartnered moms at work is dropping at an alarming clip.
To get a better sense of what these statistics look and feel like on the ground, I asked working parents across the country to give us a glimpse into their day-to-day lives. You can check out the full video above.
What’s Working
Nasdaq: Diversify, disclose or delist. The Nasdaq is proposing a new rule that would require the more than 3,000 companies listed on its exchange to have at least one female board member and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ. Only about a quarter of the companies currently listed on the exchange currently clear that bar. [LinkedIn News]
More than ever. It’s been a record year for women CEOs, with 41 female CEOs now at the helm of Fortune 500 firms. Most of the gains have been in the retail industry, but it’s unclear if the progress will continue post-pandemic. [WSJ]
Equity for women in tech. The nonprofit All Raise recently secured $11 million to continue its mission to get more women into leadership positions in venture capital and more funding into the hands of female founders. The task does not come without its challenges: There is evidence that the obstacles women experienced in tech prior to the pandemic have only grown worse. [NYTimes]
What’s Not
Leading in a pandemic. Despite the gains seen in the Fortune 500, only 3% of global CEO appointments have gone to women since March. What’s likely driving this trend? CEO appointments often go to leaders with prior CEO experience, and only 6% of CEOs across the world are female. [Bloomberg]
A reckoning in the tech industry. Coinbase said during the pandemic that it would take an apolitical stance toward issues like systemic racism. Now, Black employees are fighting back and alleging widespread discrmination at the company. Pinterest is also facing discrimination charges from two Black women who say they were paid less and promoted less frequently than their white peers.
SAS Administrator SpyderFlow, Service Desk Support, UAT, Help Desk
3 年Flexible working is a great move forward for working parents. With childcare and travel costs always on the rise pressure is put on working parents to earn more just to pay these expenses and still have a partial paycheck afterwards. Remote working from home is fantastic for organised working parents. This said some time still needs to be allocated to going onsite but most can be remote from at home giving less costs to working parents and more money in pocket :)
Laboratory Manager / Class I IEPA Wastewater Operator at Flagg Creek WRD
3 年I have 3 school age children, 6th grade, H.S. Junior and Special Ed in a Transition program, doing remote learning. They are flying solo because there is no flexible policy instituted at my place of employment. Also, working in a laboratory makes it kind of difficult to work from home. So I work 8+ hours a day (during school hours), 5 days a week,1 hour a day commute time and on call status, just like before the pandemic. So the only thing that changed for me during this chaos is now I also have to be an assistant educator and tutor when the lessons don't make sense. My youngest was always and A-B student. Now that he has to step up, on his own, his grades are slipping down to the C-D, maybe even E-F range. I get so many emails and phone calls from my kids schools regarding scheduling, absent or late notices, concerns about my child's grades or lack of assignments being turned in. Half the time I can't keep track of which school its from or what child its for. When concerned teachers call me about my child's failing grades or attendance records, I have no answers and no ways of helping. I'm not there to supervise so all I can do is have talk, after talk, after talk with my children which hasn't seemed to make a bit of difference. I have worked full time since before they were born and I have never been this frustrated, this often in the entire time of being a working parent. Ok. End of rant. Promise.
NMF Founder and CEO, University Teaching, Int'l Development, SDGs; Focusing: Climate Action, Gender Equality, Environment, Good Health, Quality Education, and Well-being for PWD & MH; ex UN (FAO and WFP), and ex CARE USA
3 年Caroline Fairchild, all the best from Naifa Maruf Foundation
Finance & Accounting Executive | FP&A | Budgeting & Forecasting | Operations, Metrics & KPIs | Decision Support
3 年I am thankful every day that my children are adults. Being a working mom is the hardest job because you have to be perfect at both otherwise you feel like a failure. I am grateful that I always had great leaders that mentored me and encouraged work/life balance.