{"id":3262,"date":"2015-03-15T21:53:03","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T21:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=3262"},"modified":"2016-09-10T00:28:16","modified_gmt":"2016-09-10T00:28:16","slug":"leaning-in-at-work-and-at-home-why-workplace-policies-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/leaning-in-at-work-and-at-home-why-workplace-policies-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaning in at work and at home: why workplace policies matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David S. Pedulla<\/a>, University of Texas at Austin<\/a><\/em> and Sarah Thebaud<\/a>, University of California, Santa Barbara<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The latter part of the twentieth century saw a dramatic increase in women\u2019s participation in the workforce as well as a rise in ideological support for women\u2019s employment in the United States.<\/p>\n

However, women still comprise only a small fraction of elite leadership positions in government<\/a> and business.<\/a> And they still do the lion\u2019s share of the housework and caregiving. In other words, the \u201cgender revolution\u201d appears to have stalled.<\/p>\n

What accounts for this stalled progress toward gender equality in the workplace and at home?<\/p>\n

A piece of the answer may lie in workplace policies and practices<\/a> that continue to limit men\u2019s and women\u2019s ability to establish equal relationships at home.<\/p>\n

Our recent research<\/a> casts new light on the large disconnect between workplace policies and the ideals that individuals hold about how to balance work and family life.<\/p>\n

Politicians are beginning to pay attention<\/h2>\n

Childcare costs are high, hours are increasingly long<\/a> and\/or inflexible, and only a lucky minority of workers has access to paid family leave.<\/p>\n

Indeed, politicians and the general public have started to pay close attention to this set of issues.<\/p>\n

President Obama recently announced that all federal employees would have access to six weeks of paid leave<\/a> to care for a new child. In his recent State of the Union address, he also emphasized the importance of access to childcare.<\/p>\n

This thinking is not taking place in a vacuum. Recent scholarship by Kathleen Gerson<\/a>, for example, shows that many young, unmarried men and women ideally prefer egalitarian relationships where both partners contribute equally to earning, housework, and caregiving.<\/p>\n

However, many of the individuals that Gerson interviewed doubted that this egalitarian vision would be attainable due to the long hours required for a successful career and the long hours required to raise a child.<\/p>\n

When considering this reality, many favored a \u201cfallback plan\u201d that was more in keeping with traditional gender roles. For example, men\u2019s fallback plans were largely for a relationship in which they would be the primary breadwinner.<\/p>\n

Gerson\u2019s insights, as well as other research in this area, point to the idea that work-family preferences develop largely in response to the limited set of options<\/a> that workplaces currently offer.<\/p>\n

It is also possible, however, that the lack of equality at work and at home results from deep-seated, ingrained beliefs<\/a> about men, women, caregiving, and earning.<\/p>\n

To date, it has been challenging to separate out the extent to which preferences for employment and caregiving are produced by social conditions (such as unsupportive workplace policies) versus individuals\u2019 deeply held beliefs about what roles men and women should play.<\/p>\n

In a new study, which appears in the February 2015 issue of American Sociological Review<\/em><\/a>, we provide new insight into this set of complex issues.<\/p>\n

What would be your ideal work-life balance?<\/h2>\n

We conducted a survey experiment with a nationally representative sample of unmarried, childless men and women between the ages of 18 and 32 in the United States.<\/p>\n

We asked our respondents how they would ideally like to structure their relationship with a future spouse or partner in terms of balancing work and family life.<\/p>\n

As part of the study, we randomly assigned participants to one of three groups.<\/p>\n

The first group was asked to state their preference for balancing work and family life and was provided with four options:<\/p>\n