It’s a dilemma for mums in countries around the globe – is it possibly to keep your career and even climb the ladder, while still raising a family?
And while often the kids (cost of childcare, the sheer logistic of the kids’ schedule, being there for them) get the blame for getting in the way of mum’s career goals and earning potential, it turns out that it is not the kids at all.
Instead, a US study by Harvard Business School recently revealed that it is women’s partners that are stopping them from continuing or advancing in their careers. The authors of the study say high-achieving women are not meeting the career goals they set in their early 20s because they allow their partners’ careers to take on more importance.
Researchers interviewed 25,000 Harvard Business School graduates over several decades, and found men were much more likely to end up in senior management positions, with more responsibility and more direct reports. And while this is an American study, you don’t have to look very far to see that the situation is more than similar here on our shores as well.
The study revealed that the reason men ended up advancing further in their careers was overall not because women had “opted out” of the workforce, but because married women, especially those with children, were making far more unexpected sacrifices than their male former classmates.
Among Gen X and Baby Boomers, only 11 per cent had left careers to stay at home full-time. And most Gen X women – aged 32 to 48 – were working full time, but still not getting the same positions or pay as their male co-workers.
On graduation, more than half of men said they expected their careers to take precedence over their partner’s. But most women said they expected to have egalitarian relationships, with both partners’ careers treated equally seriously. Only 20 per cent thought their careers would take a back seat. But fast forward a few years, and about 40 per cent of women reported their spouse’s career had taken priority over theirs. And of the men, more than 70 per cent now felt their career was more important than their female partner’s.
Wow. In 2015.
And it doesn’t stop there. When it comes to childcare, the study found that the division is even more obvious. Some 86 per cent of men, 65 per cent of Gen X women and 72 per cent of Baby Boomer women said the female partner had primary responsibility for child care – even when the woman also worked. Among millennials, two-thirds of men assumed their partner would do most of the child-rearing.
The lead researchers of the study says another barrier for women is getting “mummy-tracked” – often not considered management material any more.
“They may have been stigmatised for taking advantage of flex options or reduced schedules, passed over for high-profile assignments, or removed from projects they once led,” the authors say.
How does this sound do YOU? Is this the case for Irish families as well? Are mums being bypassed in the workplace for being mums or being female? Join in the conversation with us on Twitter at @Herfamilydotie
