More thoughts on the work of women in particular today. This article from the New York Times is from 2015, but the problem it talks about is perennial:
A PRIVATE equity firm announces it will pay for both your baby and a nanny to fly with you when you travel for business until the baby’s first birthday. IBM plans to ship home breast milk pumped on a work trip. Facebook and Apple will reimburse the costs for employees who want to freeze their eggs. It seems that businesses are falling over themselves these days to cater to women who want to be or are mothers.
I am the last person to object to policies intended to support working mothers, which are a far cry from what I experienced when I had my three children more than 20 years ago. I do not have fond memories of pumping my breast milk in the office restroom when my first was born (I gave up after a week), or fighting to get paid anything while on parental leave.
But this new raft of “perks” shows how trapped we still are in a work culture that prizes total availability at the office at all times…. [Read more]
Excellent thoughts here on priorities, caregiving, and why we’re all running ourselves into the ground. This is a topic I feel pretty strongly about, too. (and check out this excellent post in The Guardian about the topic as well…)
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