Work:life Balance

Flexible work arrangements and policies that address caregiving roles result in paybacks for both employers and employees. Research shows that employees with a satisfying work/life balance are more productive, creative, innovative and motivated at work and are less likely to leave their positions. Flexibility also encourages gender diversity in the workplace by easing the way for women to stay on their chosen career tracks while providing caregiving to children and family members or pursuing other interests and responsibilities.

Paid Sick Days in New York City Would Lower Health Care Costs by Reducing Unnecessary Emergency Department Visits

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 11:47am

In New York City, 50 percent of working New Yorkers, or approximately 1,580,000 employees, lack access to paid sick days. This fact sheet reports findings from research by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) on how increased access to paid sick days would improve both access to health care and health outcomes in New York City. The research also quantifies the savings gained by providing access to paid sick days to all workers, thereby preventing some emergency department visits in New York City.

by Kevin Miller, Ph.D., Claudia Williams (February 2012)

URL:

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/paid-sick-days-in-new-york-city-would-lower-health-care-costs-by-reducing-unnecessary-emergency-department-visits

Member Organization:

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Workplace Discrimination for Caregivers: A Reality

Teaser:

Discrimination against caregivers is still a reality in the American workplace.

Editorial:

From The Wall Street Journal:

Discrimination against caregivers is still a reality in the American workplace, reports Melanie Trottman in a story in today’s Wall Street Journal.

At an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., employment and legal experts said that pregnant women and caregivers face everything from harassment and hostility on the job to terminations and decreased work hours. That’s despite a law passed 30 years ago – the Pregnancy Discrimination Act – and other measures like the Family and Medical Leave Act intended to protect workers balancing job and family obligations.

One example shared by an expert panelist at the hearing: A pregnant woman was told she couldn’t alter her uniform to fit her growing belly, but then was forced to take a leave when the uniform no longer fit. There were also tales of men who were punished for asking for time off to take care of sick or elderly relatives, because such labor was considered “women’s work.”

Sadly, stereotypes about who should provide care appear to be alive and well despite the fact that women have increasing responsibilities in the workplace and men are taking larger roles in the domestic sphere.

Low-skilled, low-wage workers are especially vulnerable since jobs like waiting tables, retail sales and other service positions often have unpredictable but inflexible schedules. That makes it harder to plan time off or deal with the kinds of small and large crises – a sudden ear infection, a fall that results in a broken hip – that crop up when you’re caring for a baby or an elderly parent.

[...]

Source:

The Wall Street Journal

URL:

http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2012/02/16/workplace-discrimination-for-caregivers-a-reality/

Date:

February 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Tipped Over the Edge - Gender Inequity in the Restaurant Industry

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 02/15/2012 - 11:32am

The report shows that women who work in the industry face systematic discrimination, poverty wages, a lack of sick days, and five times more harassment than the general female workforce. One major cause of poverty for these working women is that restaurant lobbyists have succeeded in keeping the federal minimum wage for servers and other tipped workers frozen at only $2.13 per hour for the past 20 years.

URL:

http://rocunited.org/blog/tipped-over-the-edge-gender-inequity-in-the-restaurant-industry/

'Panks' Happy to Remain Aunties Only, Sans Kids of Their Own

Teaser:

Millions of PANKs (professional aunt, no kids) are opting not to have kids, finding fulfillment in bonding with their nieces and nephews instead. Their numbers are growing: Nearly 20 percent of American women reach 40 to 44 childless, compared with 10 percent in the 1970s, said a 2008 Pew Research Center report.

Editorial:

From the Kansas City Star:

For Jennifer Emmert, it's the best of both worlds. Emmert loves kids and spends tons of time with her six nieces and nephews, from outdoor activities to sleepovers at her place. The 30-year-old is engaged to be married, but she's perfectly happy living up to the name of one of her favorite books: "Childless and Loving It."

"I'm completely content with adoring and smothering my nieces and nephews and keeping my life the way it is," said the Minneapolis resident. "I absolutely love and adore them, and I love and adore when they go home."

Emmert and millions of other PANKs (professional aunt, no kids) are opting not to have kids, finding fulfillment in bonding with their nieces and nephews instead. Their numbers are growing: Nearly 20 percent of American women reach 40 to 44 childless, compared with 10 percent in the 1970s, said a 2008 Pew Research Center report.

Choosing not to have children doesn't mean a woman has no use for children. As aunts they can forge loving relationships with nieces and nephews - whether in the role of friend, mentor or sounding board - and strengthen ties with their siblings.

The activities that aunts share with their young relatives vary widely and evolve as the kids grow up.

[...]

Source:

Kansas City Star

URL:

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/14/3428137/panks-happy-to-remain-aunties.html

Date:

February 14, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Understanding Female Talent in Emerging BRIC Markets

Teaser:

Sylvia Ann Hewlett explains how, in places like China and India, younger professionals are gunning for work-life balance over a full-on career.

Editorial:

From Harvard Business Review:

As the first university graduates to emerge from Communism to a newly developing China in the 1980s and 90s, those women didn't hesitate to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to their careers. But according to data from the Center for Talent Innovation (formerly the Center for Work-Life Policy), today's younger generation is different. "The mindset has really changed," notes an HR manager for a major multinational corporation. "Women now talk about facials and traveling and all the things that the older generation didn't think about until they were more established."

The next generation of global leaders will differ in fundamental ways from the people now heading up countries and corporations. Our research into female talent in emerging markets concludes that many will be women: Just as in the United States, where women college graduates now outnumber men, women are flooding into universities and graduate schools in Brazil, Russia, India, and China(the BRIC markets), accounting for 60% of students enrolled in tertiary education in Brazil, 57% in Russia, and 47% in China.

[...]

Source:

Harvard Business Review

URL:

http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hewlett/2012/01/dissecting_female_diversity_in_br.html

Date:

February 10, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

ACTION BRIEF: WOMEN AND MONEY

Submitted by vivhdem on Wed, 02/08/2012 - 12:58pm

Attachment:

Action Brief -Women and Money_WEB.pdf

The Wage Gap Between Moms, Other Working Women

Teaser:

Moms earn up to 14 percent less than women who don't have children, says a University of New Mexico study. Host Michel Martin discusses the gap with UNM economist Kate Krause; Dina Bakst of A Better Balance, a workplace rights organization; and Dawn Porter, founder of Trilogy Films and a mother of two.

Editorial:

From NPR:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but maybe you just need a few moms in your corner. Every week, we check in with a diverse group of parents for their common sense and savvy advice.

This week, we want to talk about the wage gap. Now, you've probably heard about the persistent wage gap between men and women. The most recent census data shows that, on average, women make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes and that gap has closed in recent decades, but it still persists.

But now, researchers have also found a wage gap between moms and other working women. Women who have children now earn 7 to 14 percent less than women who do not have children. That's according to economist Kate Krause of the University of New Mexico, and she identifies a number of possible explanations for this phenomenon and we want to hear her perspective on why this is.

But we also want to figure out if there is something that women who are mothers or want to be mothers can do about this if they want to. So to have that conversation, I'm joined now by Kate Krause. She's a professor of economics at the University of New Mexico, as we said. She's co-author of the research we just mentioned. She's also the mother of two daughters.

Dina Bakst is co-founder and co-president of A Better Balance. That's an organization that advocates for working families. She's the mom of three daughters.

Also with us, Dawn Porter. She's a former television executive and she's founder of Trilogy Films and she has two sons.

[...]

Source:

NPR

URL:

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/07/146522483/the-wage-gap-between-moms-other-working-women

Date:

February 8, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women: Let’s Talk About Retirement The 12 th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 11:40am

Women of all ages share dreams of retirement that include traveling, spending time with family and friends, and pursuing hobbies, but only 8 percent strongly agree that they are building a large enough retirement nest egg, according to research released by the non-profit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies® (“The Center”). As part of its 12th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey, the Center surveyed over 1,800 American women workers to understand where their outlook stands today and what approaches could help them make their retirement futures brighter.

URL:

http://www.transamericacenter.org/resources/TCRS12thAnnualSurveyWomenReport.pdf

Rutgers Study Finds Paid Family Leave Leads to Positive Economic Outcomes

Teaser:

With a growing need for family-friendly workplace policies, a new study commissioned by the National Partnership for Women & Families, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, concludes that providing paid family leave to workers leads to positive economic outcomes for working families, businesses and the public.

Editorial:

From the Rutgers News Release:

The research, conducted by the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, finds that women who use paid leave are far more likely to be working nine to 12 months after a child’s birth than those who do not take any leave. These women also report increases in wages from pre- to post-birth.

“While we have known for a long time about the maternal and infant health benefits of leave policies, we can now link paid family leave to greater labor force attachment and increased wages for women, as well as to reduced spending by businesses in the form of employee replacement costs, and by governments in the form of public assistance,” says author Linda Houser, an affiliate fellow of the Center for Women and Work an assistant professor at Widener University. Professor Thomas Vartanian, Bryn Mawr College, co-authored the report.

[...]

Source:

Rutgers News Release

URL:

http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2012/01/rutgers-study-finds-20120118

Date:

January 20, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work

Submitted by vivhdem on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 1:01pm

At an NCRW expert panel on September 29, 2010 at American Express, authors Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnson provided compelling evidence for the view that companies with both women and men in strategic leadership positions have a competitive advantage over companies that do not. The particular strengths of women - their broad-spectrum vision, empathy
and interpersonal skills, and their value-based, collaborative style - are increasingly recognized, but still under-valued in assessing leadership potential.

Attachment:

Action Brief- Female Vision REV jan 2012.pdf

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What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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