Father’s Day has come and gone for another year. But in reality every day is Father’s Day (and Mother’s Day) since every day working men become fathers for the first time or more. For Father’s Day 2013, the Boston College Center for Work & Family has released its summary report, The New Dad: A Work (and Life) in Progress. This is the fourth in a series of annual reports put out by the Center that focuses on the changing role of fathers today. Recent research in this generally under-researched field suggests that men experience as much conflict over work-family issues as women do, and sometimes even more. Therefore, the Center characterizes its latest report as a call to action to address the needs of working fathers.
As part of this call to action, the Center posted the following recommendations on its new website on fatherhood: TheNewDad.org.
Recommendations for Fathers
- Support your fellow fathers. Today’s organizational cultures remain cultures created by men (over 96% of CEOs in the Fortune 1000 are men). It means they need to change, and it means men at every level are in the best position to change them. Men should challenge male stereotypes that make it difficult for women and men to be effective parents.
- Examine your caregiving goals in light of your career goals. It is a myth that women are the only gender that wants to “have it all.“ In the Center’s 2011 study, more than three out of four fathers said they wanted to spend more time with their children, but three out of four also said they wanted jobs with more responsibility, and three out of five wanted to become part of senior management at their large companies. As is true for career-oriented mothers, most working fathers will sooner or later have to make certain either/or decisions about their roles as dads and as employees.
- Consider taking more time off after the birth of your children. Both culture and biology effectively immerse mothers in caregiving from the moment their children are born. Not so with fathers; and yet in countries that have long provided extended paternity leave, it is generally agreed that fathers who spend significant time “flying solo” as caregivers experience more significant long-term benefits in their relationships with their children. Working dads need to push for extended paternity leave to become the norm, not the exception, in American companies.
- Be a true caregiving partner to your spouse. Family structures are far more complex today than they used to be. And yet, the stressors that come with having to make choices between work and caregiving continue to drive women out of the workplace more than men. The solution is to truly see breadwinning and caregiving as shared responsibilities. The Center’s 2012 study shows that fathers can be excellent primary caregivers; and men embracing that role can support the growth of their spouses’ careers.
Recommendations for Employers
Simply put, employers—specifically, organizational leaders—create either supportive or unsupportive cultures when it comes to work-life balance. There is really nothing in between. The Boston College research, and that of others, suggests that organizational leaders still lag in their understanding of the needs, perspectives, and experiences of contemporary fathers. There are some things these leaders can do to rectify the situation:
- Get to know your fathers and their needs. Not enough research is being done aimed at understanding working fathers’ lives and the obstacles they face in trying to achieve better work-life balance. Surveys, like those conducted by The Boston College Center, can provide a contemporary view of the lives and needs of today’s working father.
- Fully embrace flexible work arrangements including part-time work. Despite media reports suggesting that workplace flexibility is under siege, it is still what employees today need. The Boston College study from 2011 shows clearly that flexibility is the number one thing employers can provide to help employees in their work-family struggles.
- Understand and create a family-friendly workplace for all employees. Employees in family-friendly work cultures have higher levels of engagement and satisfaction. Employers who create that kind of culture get the benefit of increased productivity and lower key-employee turnover.
- Give dads a means and a place to talk about work-family issues. Career-life workshops can encourage working fathers to find and articulate the words that capture the challenges they face. They are also an excellent way for organizational leaders to reach a better understanding of those challenges (see above). Fathers’ affinity groups and lunch-and-learn seminars can also help to raise the level of awareness and acceptance of the dual role of today’s working fathers.
- Recognize that gender-neutral policies will not suffice. Most organizational policies are scrupulously gender neutral. Organizational cultures are not. Cultures have embedded values, one of them still being that when a man becomes a father nothing should change at work. Policies related to working fatherhood need to positively encourage the understanding that the parenting role is important and time consuming.
- Encourage men to utilize family leave policies. Benefits such as paid paternity leave and childcare services, in themselves, are not good enough. There must also be the encouragement to actually use them. Without that encouragement, culture trumps policy—men will not use the benefit for fear of being seen as less committed. Organizations who offer such policies must not see them as for women only.
The onus of making these changes happen is on all working fathers but mainly on male executives, who make up 85% of Fortune 500 executives in the U.S. (Catalyst, 2013). Their role in the work-life conversation is critical. But creating work cultures that are more fatherhood-friendly benefits all employees, including females and non-parents, because such cultures view workers as “whole persons,” not just units of productivity.