Work Wrecked Her Health. She Started A New Business Because ‘It Doesn’t Have to Be this Way.’
I wanted to create a model that didn’t exist for me. I intentionally built a company with flexibility, feedback, support, meaning, purpose, and pay equity.
work life balance
Four Myths About Working Part Time in the US
I’ve come to learn that a part-time job for someone like me is hard to find. I’m overqualified for most part-time listings, but I’m disqualified from most of the jobs that interest me because I’m not seeking full-time work.
In the US, we defend our lack of quality part-time jobs with several flawed assumptions. Abandoning these mistaken paradigms will help us build a society that is better for everyone.
“Life First”: How One Mom And Business Owner Redefines Work-Life Balance
Crystalee is a double business owner working twenty hours per week. Crystalee’s unique perspective on protecting time for both work and family has brought incredible perspective to what is possible for mothers in the modern age.
Why Can’t a Lawyer Have It All? One Law School Mom Questions Work-Family Norms
In law school, whenever parenthood is brought up (a rare occurrence on its own), parenting is often modeled as something to outsource or minimize. I’ve heard advice like “Get an au pair. Communicate with your boss—just let them know that you’ll be offline for an hour so you can feed your child dinner but you’ll be right back on soon.” Those answers don’t work for me and how I want to parent. I want to be involved and present in my kids’ lives. If that stifles my career growth, that’s a sacrifice I guess I’ll have to make. But at the same time, this is the hill I want to die on: parents deserve more.
She’s Highly Educated. Entrepreneurial. And Staying Home Felt Right.
Elizabeth Jacox had a prestigious academic career, completing a PhD in genetics at Yale. While she had a meaningful maternity leave, a part-time schedule, and affordable child care, Elizabeth still found herself distracted and missing time with her baby. When she became pregnant the second time, Elizabeth evaluated her priorities and realized that she “didn’t love science” enough to stay. Elizabeth remains frustrated at the lack of social support for care work and winnowing options for scientists like her who would like to re-enter the working world after time caring for young children. Still, Elizabeth is making her own sunshine by connecting with adults through mom groups and church, and by building her own small business making clay jewelry.
This Marketing Mom Found her Unicorn position: Part Time, With Benefits
Ruth was expecting to lose benefits when she went part time, she was able to retain health insurance, retirement benefits, and paid time off, thanks to a manager who advocated for her. Ruth says, “Recruiters have come to me just this week with offers, and I haven’t considered a single one. There’s no beating what my company has given me.” Ruth’s story proves an important point: when companies take employees’ family responsibilities seriously, everybody wins.
Opting Out Book Review: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Stay Home
EEM’s review of Pamela Stone’s 2007 book, Opting Out. While most mothers interviewed for the book say they “chose” to opt out, Stone’s analysis finds the contrary: work factors in fact pushed them out.
Deployed or Unemployed? This Mom of Four Tackles Tough Choices
Ashley, a military mom, shares her story of working as a soldier and then as a government contractor while trying to balance her growing family.
Five Kids. Three Degrees. How Did This Working Mom Do it?
Jennifer Simpson is mother to five children and works as a compliance specialist for the Department of Education in Boston. She got her Masters of Arts in Communications and Rhetorical Studies from Idaho State and a J.D. from Indiana University. In our interview, Jennifer detailed how she always felt that she needed to equip herself to provide for her family, and how that impulse led to pursue her education throughout having her children. Jennifer turns the narrative of “work first, then kids” on its head, having her first child at 21 and entering law school when her youngest started first grade. Though she has experienced some frustrations entering the full-time workforce at 41, Jennifer says that she would not change her choices if she had to do it again. Enjoy this refreshing and eye-opening interview!
Review of Being There, by Erica Komisar
In Being There, Erica Komisar pushes back against the prevailing commentary on what a mom should do once she has a baby is “find childcare and get back to life as normal.” Instead, Komisar argues that mothers should spend significant time being present with their children in the first three years of life—quitting their jobs if necessary. While this is obviously a big ask, Komisar maintains that a mother’s contribution to her children’s emotional health is invaluable, and she says that she is “not ready to give up on mothers” just yet. However, in the process she paints the commitment to “be there” in such extremes that she manages to offend just about everyone in the course of the book (including stay-at-home moms who are purportedly doing what she recommends).
