Equally Shared Parenting - Half the Work ... All the Fun



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Here's where we keep you updated on news about parenting as it relates to division of responsibilities, career versus home decisions, work/life balance, and legislative and grass-roots movements toward equality or better choices for families. We'll also throw in our opinions of life as equal parents in a nonequal world, regardless of what's in the news.

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Equality Blog

Thursday, July 09, 2009

De-Feminizing the Decision to Work

It seems that I see survey after survey in which women are asked about their choice to work full-time, work part-time, or stay home after they have children. Are they happy with their decision? Do they feel they are missing out on time with the kids, or a meaningful career? Almost never do we see similar surveys of men - especially in connection to their transition to fatherhood.

Yet we're being treated to plenty of news articles these days about men's changing roles at home. Laid-off fathers are retreating to childcare and housework - some in frustration and shame, some in joy and newfound understanding of their priorities. It seems as if the gender assumptions around us are suddenly changing at a dizzying pace. Or are they? The articles don't talk much about purposeful downshifting - just outside forces causing a man to remake himself.

What would it take to truly de-gender the work decision? I'm the guest blogger today at BusinessWeek's Working Parents blog, where I write about this issue. Stop over and leave a comment!

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anne said...

Right on Amy! I'm heading over to BusinessWeek to read your blog. Lots of people think there is no issue any more. Yet they don't even stop to ask the question you just asked. Why surveys for men and not for women? Carmen and I have recently started our blog Equal Couples and are surprised how few blogs there are out there like yours and ours. How can we get conversations going about these issues? Ignoring them doesn't make them go away.
Anne www.equalcouples.com

10:35 PM  
Blogger Amy said...

Anne,
Thanks for your thoughts and for your great comment over at BusinessWeek. I'm as puzzled as you are...WHY isn't everyone talking about this stuff??? Well, we'll just have to do our part to push the conversation to a critical mass, right? I just started reading your book, by the way, and can't wait to get into all the chapters. So much in there! (For everyone reading along, it's called Couples, Gender, and Power - new in 2009; I'll post a review of it when I've finished it but I can already tell it is a gem).

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