The conflict between work and family reflects a system that offers poor choices for both mothers and fathers, and better choices would emerge if society didn’t push individuals into traditional gender roles.
That was the message of a speech by Joan Williams, law professor at the Washington College of Law at American University. She said the current system is bad for men, worse for women and disastrous for children.
Williams spoke about “Work and Family Conflict and What to Do About It” at the Michigan League Sept. 26.
Jobs that pay well are structured around the “ideal worker”—someone who starts employment in early adulthood and works for 40 consecutive years, taking no time off for child bearing or rearing, Williams said.
Fathers typically make trade-offs on the family side by following the ideal worker norm. As a result, they feel increasingly anxious about their lack of involvement with family life and pressure to be providers, she said.
For mothers, the trade-off is on the work side. They often suffer marginalization at work as a result, she said. Williams found that, among mothers ages 25-44, two out of three are employed fewer than 40 hours a week year-round, and 95 percent work fewer than 50 hours per week year-round.
“What this means is that any job that requires a significant amount of mandatory overtime virtually wipes mothers out of the labor pool,” she said. These figures, she added, are why 95 percent of upper-level management is made up of men.
Children suffer as their parents balance work and home life, she said. If both parents work full time, families face the acute stress of “two adults and three jobs” as children spend less time with one or both parents, she said.
Williams pointed to some solutions to family/work conflict. One involves employers restructuring paid work in traditional schedules (flex-time, compressed work weeks and optional rather than mandatory overtime). The problem is these policies carry stiff career penalties, Williams said.
“The problem is not that women need special treatment,” she said. “The problem is gender discrimination, which pushes both sexes into their traditional gender roles.”
Fathers who want to take time off after the birth of their children may experience significant problems, sometimes rising to the level of a hostile environment based on gender, she said. These problems may push men back into the “breadwinner” role, she said.
More mothers and fathers are suing for work discrimination involving family care responsibilities and winning their cases. Williams, director of the Program on Gender, Work & Family, co-authored a report about “The New Glass Ceiling,” which cites a 1999 case, Knussman v. Maryland. A Maryland state trooper was denied a 30-day paid leave—which was offered to women—to care for his ill wife. He sued and the court subsequently awarded him more than $665,000 in damages because he was denied equal protection of the law, the report stated.
Williams’ visit was part of the Women Leading in Science ADVANCE Speaker Series and was co-sponsored by the Law School and Women’s Studies Program.
