we need a new strategy for parenting and flexibility

Ah, the battle is never won.... I’ve just read the latest newsletter from the excellent generational commentator Dr Eliza Filby : "Does greater flexibility for hard-pressed parents mean inflexibility for others?"

We finally reach a place where there is a greater flexibility for working parents – who are, let’s not forget, raising the ones who will pay our pension payments in due course – and along come Gen Z’ers seeing flexibility as a right for all, not a ‘perk’ for parents.

Winning greater flexibility in the workplace for parents has been hard won. Certainly the 1980/90s was quite a different time to have children and be in the workplace. For me, as a young mother and determined to continue with career, it involved having live-in help (much more affordable then, relatively speaking) so that I was effectively childfree when I presented at work.

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Maggie Taylor

Founder of Lumin, creating opportunities for women solopreneurs to collaborate, grow, and build successful businesses, fuelled by shared knowledge, mentorship, and real partnerships across generations

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Gen Z’ers see flexibility as a right for all, not a ‘perk’ for parents. If a parent can take time out for sports day they argue, what about my yoga class for my wellbeing?

That is a form of denial, which is not a great shifter of social attitudes, so I applaud all those who followed and fought for recognition of their parental duties, and in so doing chose a much harder balancing act in showing up for both their job and their family each day.

But I also empathise with the childfree, of any age, who argue their lifestyle choices should have equal consideration in the work environment. Or the mid-life women looking for flexibility when managing the care needs of older parents alongside work, who are likely to be allies to those Gen Z’ers.

As Filby says, it’s reasonable to expect some empathy all round.

The challenge of combining parenting and the workplace will not go away: it simply reinvents itself. (Well, unless we suddenly adopt the policies of our Nordic neighbours who seem to do this sort of thing so well.).

Flexible working is certainly important, if we want to retain the huge resource that young mothers represent to the workplace, but it’s only one part of a multi-faceted equation.

We need to talk about how to do things better, sharing our knowledge multi-generationally to ensure we learn from the past and also listen to the future. That’s the thinking behind LUMIN and hopefully we can help in the drive towards greater inter-generational empathy in future.

#genderpaygap #equalityforall #flexibleworking

Read the full article from Dr Eliza Filby click here