Caregiving is a unique identity, similar to disabilities, as anyone can become a caregiver of a loved one at some point in their life.
March is Women's History Month, and it is also important to note the outsized role women have maintained in caregiving. Throughout recent history, whether women are working or not, they are more likely to carry the caregiving responsibilities of families and communities.
This month, Professionals Who Care will touch on the undercurrent of female discrimination and marginalization in relation to the workplace often being unaccommodating to caregivers.
We will start with a few posts highlighting an article in the International Journal of Comparative Labour Law & Industrial Relations from authors Stephanie Bornstein, Joan C.Williams and Genevieve R. Painter. The article, Discrimination against Mothers Is the Strongest Form of Workplace Gender Discrimination: Lessons from US Caregiver Discrimination Law sets the stage for our wildly outdated workplaces for caregivers.
"Work-family reconciliation is an integral part of labour law as the result of two major demographic changes. The first is the rise of the two-earner family. The second is that, as Baby Boomers age, caring for elders has become a pressing concern for men as well as women. Despite these changes, most European and American workplaces still assume that the committed worker has a family life secured so that family responsibilities do not distract him from work obligations. The way of organizing employment around a breadwinner husband and a caregiver housewife, which arose in the late eighteenth century, is severely outdated today. The result is workplace-workforce mismatch. Many employers still have workplaces perfectly designed for the workplace of 1960."
We at Professionals Who Care have seen companies and organizations pine for the olden times, wanting their staff to be in person, during standard hours, uninterrupted. Technology has transformed the landscape since 1960, and more flexible and remote work proved to be successful during the covid-19 pandemic. Instead of embracing the possibilities of tying worker success to performance-based outcomes, many employers still want to base the standard of excellence on who is keeping a seat warm in the office - even when it is not needed for the primary goals of the position.
Caregivers of all genders need greater flexibility to manage their dual roles of work and caregiving. It is 2023, and organizations who embrace the future with all its possibilities will have greater employee retention, candidate attraction, improved morale, and a more inclusive place for caregivers.
image from: https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/heres-what-happened-to-the-leave-it-to-beaver-cast/
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