Since 2012 when The Atlantic published Anne-Marie Slaughter’s reflection on “ Why women still can’t have it all ,” a spate of books have appeared. Some describe the problem: mothers are Overwhelmed and Maxed Out . Others present solutions, on everything from Getting to 50/50 to What Works for Women at Work, and how to Lean In to a career. Yet, as Ann Crittenden notes in The New York Times , even after decades of these books, the pressures on mothers have worsened, despite sensible tips offered in them. The problem, says Crittenden, is the “fallacy that a systemic problem can be addressed if...

Great Britain's royal baby has a title but no birthday yet. Due any moment, the third-in-line to the throne already has thrust Prince William and Kate Middleton's marriage philosophy and parenting practices into the limelight, where they will remain for nearly two decades. William and Kate promise a more modern style of marriage and family than their royal predecessors. Though the Prince is professionally employed 600 miles away in Wales as a search-and-rescue pilot in the Royal Air Force, he vowed to "move heaven and earth" to be at Kate's side when she gives birth at St. Mary's Hospital in...

The volcanic national debate about women, work, and family erupts weekly these days, with Sheryl Sandberg’s much-anticipated book, Lean In, published yesterday, the news last week that Best Buy ended its flexible work-from-home ROWE initiative, and Marissa Mayer’s ban on remote working at Yahoo! the week before. The Mayer memo said Yahoo! needs workers side-by-side to foster creativity, innovation, and effectiveness -- despite its stature as an Internet path breaker. Emotions ran high , fueled by a passion for working flexibility many Silicon Valley workers feel. Parents, in particular, prize...

Back-to-school night: With four kids, I’ve attended a few. Last night the Principal at my children’s grade school delivered an opening message worth memorizing: Eat, read, sleep. Families today are busy! It sounds trite, but it’s true. With 24/7 connectivity, a recession, and a global economy, most parents are working longer hours than ever. The majority of American households have two parents in the paid workforce; hence, the Principal’s heartfelt message: try to eat dinner together as a family, sans gadgets! Even if some are absent because of extra-curricular activities, sit down with those...

On Wednesday a new poll [PDF] was released that shows that people who are most likely to need paid family leave are least likely to be aware of programs that provide it. Specifically, California registered voters were surveyed to assess their awareness of the state’s groundbreaking Paid Family Leave Act, passed nearly 10 years ago. Fewer than 43 percent had “seen, read or heard” of the law allowing them to take paid leave to care for a new child or seriously ill family member. The program provides Californians with up to 55 percent of their wages for six weeks from a state disability...

At a time when work, workers and the workplace are “job one” for the struggling U.S. economy, it’s discouraging to find out that the nation just can’t get serious about taking half of its workforce seriously. The female half. I’m referring to Wednesday’s court decision in which U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska dismissed a class-action discrimination suit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against financial services corporation Bloomberg L.P. Preska ruled that there was not sufficient statistical evidence that Bloomberg women employees who became pregnant between 2002 and 2009...

The labor market punishes mothers and others who make lane changes during the course of their work lives.

Ten years ago I gave birth to two babies: one girl, one boy. Their birthday is today, Equal Pay Day. Right now they are neck-in-neck with their weekly allowance, but if they were fifteen years older, my daughter's college degree, MBA, technological training, organizing and management experience, and even her Rhodes Scholarship would all probably be worth less than those of her brother. Why? Because there is a stubborn pay gap between males and females that persists even among those with equal credentials. On average American women earn 77 cents for every dollar American men earn. Unequal pay...

I’ve been on a one-woman campaign to resurrect the phrase, paycheck job , used by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique forty years ago. Friedan was referring, of course, to jobs outside the home for which people receive money. She recognized that the unpaid job of caring for children and home was also “work”—as do most people today. But by placing the adjective “paycheck” in front of “job,” she implicitly elevated the status of stay-at-home mothers’ (and fathers’) equally important job. Words have power. Now Karen Kornbluh and Rachel Homer write in Ms. Magazine that we need “Paycheck...