Put dads in the picture
by Jen Lexmond
Thank goodness for that! Finally a report about fathers’ views on work life balance - the first in a line up of great reports coming out of the EHRC (the next one being Demos's Building Character funded by the EHRC and coming out in early November). One thing that has always really bothered me about the way work life balance issues are reported is that, because polling is so often carried out on women, reports come out with lines like '63 per cent of women feel they don't spend enough time with their children' and '54 per cent think that it would be better if mothers could stay at home to care for their child'. Stats like this are often used by traditionalists to claim that even women regret the feminist movement and what they really want - after getting a taste of the working world and realising their not up to it - is to go home to their kitchens, tie on their long forgotten apron and bake cookies with the kids. Yes, that's right, women just want to be housewives and mothers after all, they say to us.
Is it really that surprising that parents want to be with their children rather than at work, or at least have a decent balance between the two? What the EHRC's report tells us is that wanting to be with your children is not gender specific and work/life balance policies like flexible work, part time jobs and parental leave should be addressed to fathers as much as to mothers. Fathers regret time away from their little ones just as much as mothers - what we've been missing is the focus on men to tell us that. For too long we've considered 'family issues' the women's preserve. But to really get anywhere we have to start bringing men into the picture. The EHRC's new report does just that and should be applauded. Demos is doing the same thing with their new project proposal on the 'Modernization of Masculinity'. Men clearly want the best of both worlds too. We should support them to get it - and doing so will help women just as much as men.