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There is an age-old question that we need to keep pondering. We’ll never get tired of asking this question. Media pundits and authors alike have an unquestionable affinity for this hard nut to crack of a question. Can career women have it all?
When you talk about having it all, what does it mean on the surface? It basically means having a balanced work life. This is where the individual involved, (in this case, a career woman) is succeeding in her career. At the same time when it comes to her private life such as having her own nuclear family and her social life, she is flourishing. It also means that she is succeeding on both fronts simultaneously.
On a deeper level, however, the practicality of it is an elusive concept. A work-life balance especially for high-earning achievers, both male and female is not easy to achieve. However, the challenge disproportionately weighs more heavily on women than men. Tons of research have proved the same.
The following article will attempt to describe the current situation as things stand. We’ll then examine the underlying factors and recommend solutions that could remedy the conundrum.
Research findings
Sylvia Ann Hewlett an economist and the CEO of Hewlett Consulting Partners published the findings of research she had done concerning working women. Hewlett authored an article on the Harvard Business Review titled “Executive Women and the Myth of Having It All” where she says that different factors cause women to not have it all.
In the article, she reveals that women are torn between choosing a stellar career or having and nurturing a growing family. But they can’t have both because the way the systems are set up, the two don’t go together.
However, on the other side of the aisle, the situation is more ideal for men. Sylvia’s research which involved interviewing corporate women, high-achievers (who earn $55,000 a year), ultra achievers (women who earn more than $100,000 a year) also involved high potential women (career women who gave up careers to raise and nurture their families). She also says that the sample targeted a small number of men.
The paradox between career women and men
Interestingly, the research uncovered that the higher that both men and women climbed up the corporate ladder, they had almost opposite results. Men who advanced both in their careers and age had more opportunities to find partners and get married. The research reveals that these successful men get younger ladies, marry them, and raise children.
In sharp contrast, however, the higher career women went in their career and age their options for family became slimmer. This is because of the potential for infertility, especially for women above 35, and also because of the rigorous demands of a high-paying position. The high-achieving and ultra-achieving women interviewed in the survey decried long work hours and frequent travel.
These responsibilities couldn’t allow them to have the time to care for and nurture a family.
The stats
79% of high achieving men reported wanting children and 75% of them already had children. Contrastingly, 49% of career women were childless compared to 19% of childless career men.
60% of high-achieving women aged 41-55 are married compared to 83% of ultra-achieving men.
“Women pay an even greater price for those long hours because the early years of career-building overlap—almost perfectly—the prime years of childbearing. It’s very hard to throttle back during that stage of a career and expect to catch up later,” writes Sylvia.
For career women who have families
One of the reasons that she found out caused women to either give up their career or family is that they still have the lion’s share of responsibilities at home. Only 9% of the husbands take responsibility for meal preparation, 10% for the laundry, and 5% for cleaning the house.
“Only 9% of them take time off from work when a child is sick, 9% take the lead in helping children with homework, and 3% organize activities such as play dates and summer camp,” the report states.
This, therefore, occasions career women to have interruptions to their careers when they choose to raise families. As a result, women often suffer penalties in their wages as a result of career interruptions which causes the wage gap.
“According to recent studies, an increasingly large part of the wage gap can now be explained by childbearing and child-rearing, which interrupt women’s—but not men’s—careers, permanently depressing their earning power,” Ms. Hewlett reveals.
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Does having a family actually slow career women down?
The resounding answer is no. In 2017, Gladys Mulwa, a Master’s student in Business Administration at Kenyatta University sought to examine the work-life balance phenomenon. Her research paper which was titled “Work-life balance and employee performance in the Ministry of finance and economic planning Kitui County Government, Kenya” revealed that family responsibilities led to an increase in performance at work.
“The results show that majority of the respondents can be able to manage their work despite their multiple family responsibilities. 56.6% disagreed, while 43.4% neither agreed nor disagreed that they find it difficult to manage work and multiple family responsibilities,” records the report.
Gladys actually recommended that workplaces should establish family holidays where employees and their families would be appreciated. “This would not only help the employees to reduce work-related stress but would also be motivated to perform better at work,” recommends the report. This is because family responsibilities were found to be positively correlated to performance.
Talking solutions for women
The company policies have the lion’s share of the responsibility. They need to come up with leave policies that favor a woman to have a family and be present. For example, the workload should be reduced. That same woman should have parenting leave so that she can care for her children and in case they fall sick she can drop work and attend to them.
Companies should also give flexible unpaid long work leaves with a guarantee that the lady will keep her job. For instance, if a woman has toddlers at home, she should be able to take three years out to nurture her children then go back to work and find her job intact.
Working from home (also known as telecommuting) is a great way to inspire career women to keep performing at work while still being family people. Telecommuting offers flexible work hours and the mother is present in her children’s lives while also attending to her family responsibilities.
Husbands have to contribute to taking some part in the domestic responsibilities so that they can ease the burden on career women who have families.
Career women have to prioritize and know exactly what they want. Maria Molitor of Lifehack advises women to set a compass for their life. “In other words, get clear on your core values and purpose. Your values and purpose are your internal compass for how to best utilize the natural gifts, talents, and genius that you uniquely have to express in the world through your work,” shares Molitor.
Sylvia advises young women in their twenties and early thirties to prioritize getting a partner if they choose to pursue the family route. The older women get, the slimmer their pool for men gets, and the less desirable their male peers view them.
“My survey data suggests that high-achieving women have an easier time finding partners in their 20s and early 30s,” writes Sylvia. She advises young women to have their first child before 35 because “late-in-life childbearing is fraught with risk and failure”.
Lastly, choose a job and a career that gives you the gift of time. The job should give you flexible work hours and be more forgiving of interruptions. The company should also afford you reduced-hour schedules and job-protected leaves. Avoid careers that have rigid career trajectories.
Conclusion
As long as career women have defined their purpose and know what they want from life early enough, they’ll have the clarity to know what to pursue. Research reveals that women are fulfilled and become more productive when family relations and children are thriving. When their private lives are flourishing, they give their all and do quality work at the office. Therefore, companies, governments, and management teams should come up with policies that support work-life balance.