My father sent me this article today. It's about the much talked about appointment of the pregnant (yes, its relevant) Marissa Mayer to head Yahoo!. The conversation addressed in the article is one about "work-life balance," which is, for how its commonly used at least in my world, code for "how to be a mother and a professional at the same time." (Though there are plenty of other things we ought to also consider in the balance of work and life, and it applies (or should) equally to men; the recent article in the Atlantic on "Why Women Still Can't Have it All" has some great examples.)
Here's what gets me and why I'm bothering to write a blog post about it. When people refer to "work-life balance" there is an assumption that what women are really looking for is an answer to "how to put in less time at work now that I have a kid." This is really simply not a fair characterization of the desire for balance. When I read the article yesterday in which Mayer referred to the fact that she would take only a short maternity leave and still work during that leave, I thought to myself "people are going to jump all over her for saying that." Honestly, the response is tamer than I expected, but I'm still surprised by the perspective. She's going to be CEO of Yahoo! for crying out loud. Of COURSE she's not going to take six weeks completely off of work and do nothing at all work-related. I assume (and I think it's a pretty safe assumption) that her work is part of who she is. Work-life balance doesn't mean you spend six weeks being only a mom. The corollary would be that later, she would take a block of six weeks and be ONLY a CEO. That's not going to happen either! It's all about balance. Actual balance.
Sure, it's not really a comparison as her job is much more demanding and higher profile than mine, but when my daughter was born, I was an assistant professor in a technology field at a tier one research institution. Teaching and research is part of who I am. I don't lock them in my office at the end of the day---I didn't before my daughter was born, and I don't now. My daughter was born on the day of the final exam in my undergraduate course. Yes, I did call in a substitute for that (balance, after all...). But the day I came home from the hospital, I graded those finals. Did I HAVE to? No. I could have gotten someone else to do it. Multiple people even volunteered to do it for me. But I had invested an entire semester of my life in teaching those students. Grading the finals was, in part, a way for me to measure and understand their achievements. My efforts would have felt incomplete without that closure. For the next four months, I kept a pack-n-play in my office on campus. There was a baby swing in my research lab. Sure, I cut back, and my hours were at times unpredictable, but I kept up research with my students and fulfilled other obligations on campus. And had the luxury of having my baby with me. And I honestly believe that she and I have both benefited tremendously from this balance. Can I do better? Always. But I'm learning.
One of the things that I took away from the Atlantic article was that what is missing is not the ability of women to balance work and life. It's about the social pressures (inside and outside of the work place) that do not provide an atmosphere that's supportive of this balance. I for one am excited about the potential that Mayer has to enact a change. This is a test, really. It's something of a test for Yahoo! specifically and for the technology field in general. A chance for a company to show that they can be supportive of this balance. That the company can provide working hours and environments that encourage women (and men!) to balance their families (and other life obligations) with their success at work. And this time, the CEO is the one having the baby. She's the one in charge, defining the policies and setting the example. What an opportunity.
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