In case you missed our Six Work Life Predictions for 2010, here’s a repeat of #6:
6. Mr. Mom issues. Fathers will increasingly reassess their roles in the workplace and family. Women now make up 50% of the workforce, and more of them became the primary household breadwinners after recessionary layoffs hit men in disproportionate numbers.
Studies show millennial men and women are equally career-focused, meaning traditional gender roles will be less defined in younger households. And men are already winning primary custody in half of all disputed divorces. We’ll see greater awareness that work and childcare conflicts are a family issue, not just women’s concern.
Now jump over to yesterday’s The Juggle at the WSJ: Do Work Life Policies Discriminate Against Men?
But the problem isn’t so much that men are officially excluded from these policies, it’s a perception….a perception that these policies are for mothers only and that men (and all non-parents for that matter) belong at their desks, clocking regular hours.
That’s just not the reality of today’s modern family. Fathers are active parents. Fathers are often primary parent. Or, fathers may be the primary parent on Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other weekend. Get it? The family has changed.
And if your workplace culture perpetuates the assumption that women are the primary caregivers and therefore the only ones who really need flexibility, then you’re alienating and undermining the other half of your workforce.
It’s an issue dads need to step up and get vocal about. From “Work Life Balance is not a Woman’s Issue” in The American Prospect last fall:
We have to stop using “work/life balance” as coded language for “working-mom stress.” Despite ample evidence that men are served by investing more time and energy outside the workplace and coming out as fathers while in it, there are very few men who are taking on this issue in a substantive, political way.
So keep speaking up, fellas. But you have to do more than write angry blog comments on The Juggle. You have to be an advocate at work and you have to model the way.