Blog #4

I agree that a society that marginalizes the women impoverishes the children. Today, it is almost necessary for women to work outside of the home to help generate adequate income for a decent standard of living. As a result, working mothers have to make agonizing choices of whether choosing their careers or spending valuable time with their children. As a mother it is heart breaking that we are expected to be wonder women because those second and third roles that we take on as caregivers and homemakers are not considered real jobs.
However, we have come to realize that attempting to live to those expectations have enriched our pocket books but impoverished our good quality of family life. When our work requires more of us, we fail our family, the home and most importantly our children. We miss time with our children that we can never get back. We miss the opportunities to build a bond and trusting relationship. The need to provide for the family in every aspect is stressful, exhausting, and can take a toll on mom and dad because we are always in a hurry from here to there. As a working parent there are always a ton of things to do and not enough time to do them all making it difficult to find a balance between work and home.
In order to be able to find a balance, it’s almost necessary that is flexible so that a parent can fulfill the parental and professional obligations effectively because without that flexibility chances are we are going to be much too exhausted to spend any such quality time with our children when we come home. In some instances it will require that working parents make sacrifices such as taking opposite shifts or working less thus resulting in lesser income. The most difficult decision that parents have had to make is to leave the work force and become a full-time caregiver and homemaker because the employer sector does not offer the flexibility to women.
Realistically, the U.S. does not address working parents’ concerns and therefore our overall quality of life has suffered. At work, we are expected to leave our home issues at home and the opposite when we are away from the work place but that is far from realistic. Because the traditional gender roles continue to be reinforced in the media, women continue to feel the pressure to make everything work.
Employers in the United States should probably look at the policies of caregivers developed and implemented in the U.K. because they have found that the flexibility their companies offer to their employees boost morale, production, and loyalty in the work place. What employer doesn’t want a loyal, hardworking and trustworthy employee? If they want them, why aren’t they working with their employees to meet their needs? If there are 54 million adult caregivers in the country now, that number is only likely to increase with the retiring baby boomers.
It’s unfair to women that it is only us that often have to make those sacrifices because the men are making significantly more than women in the same positions. If there was equality in pay, we would probably see more stay at home dads and this is where Corporate America is failing women thus pushing them out of the workforce making it much more difficult for them to make headway and compete with the men.
In addition to flexibility in the workplace, it is important to have the support from family, friends, neighbors and the community because caring for our children and our parents can potentially take a toll on oneself when attempting to do it alone. If we are unable to care for ourselves, we cannot expect to care for others effectively and not only will we fail others but ourselves as well and the end result may be very disappointing. It’s important to take time off away from the full-time job both at work and at home to regain perspective and be able to recharge and do it all over again.
If we want achieve satisfaction and achieve a good quality family life, we have to be there with our family to help raise our children, to care for our home and take care of what is most important. The trade off may be to give up income, opportunities to climb the corporate ladder or give up time with the children. It is obvious to me that women would much rather give up the former to ensure they spend quality time during the most important stages of our children lives. I don’t believe we should have to feel conflicted and have to feel that our job is getting in the way of our family lives but unfortunately, that is the case for many working women in society today.