Men generally expect that their careers will take precedence over their spouses’ careers and that their spouses will handle more of the child care, the study found — and for the most part, men’s expectations are exceeded. Women, meanwhile, expect that their careers will be as important as their spouses’ and that they will share child care equally — but, in general, neither happens. This pattern appears to be nearly as strong among Harvard graduates still in their 20s as it is for earlier generations.
So even though career-oriented women don’t see their roles as different from men’s, other factors — like public policy, workplace norms and men’s expectations — are stuck in a previous era, when the lives of women and men looked very different.
“Most people think the reason for women’s stalled advancement is they prioritize family over work and ratchet back hours,” said Robin Ely, a professor and senior associate dean for culture and community at Harvard Business School, who worked on the study. “But when we looked at those things statistically, nothing explained the gender gap in membership in top management teams.”
The Harvard study found that among those women who left the work force to care for children, few did so by choice. Most said they were pushed out by employers who stigmatized mothers.
The imbalance between expectations and reality--even among top-level workers--is consistent with other research. When someone needs to cut back at work, it tends to be the woman.
Source: The New York Times, November 30, 2014
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"When Doing It All Won't Do: A self-coaching guide for career women"
When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition--Paperback
