Parity Podcast

The price of men being led to believe that they must act in ways that conform to their gender can be enormous, for men and women alike. Guest Co-Host Andy Cooper joins Deborah Pollack-Milgate for a discussion with author, psychologist, and masculinity studies pioneer Dr. Ronald Levant. Dr. Levant talks about the socialization of boys and masculinity and its reverberations, while the trio explores the imprint on workplace culture.

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If you would like to learn more about today’s topic:

The Tough Standard by Dr. Ron Levant and Shana Pryor Masculinity Reconstructed by Dr. Ron Levant

You can find Andy Cooper on LinkedIn

We talk with Dr. Anne Beall, author of Cinderella Did Not Live Happily Ever After: The Hidden Messages in Fairy Tales. Using data science, we discuss fairy tale themes: women are passive and largely devoid of power and agency, except for witches and evil stepmothers, while men are smart, brave, and heroic. Join us as we discuss how these themes continue to hamper women in the modern workplace. You can read a transcript here.

Caregiving is a second economy that requires a skilled workforce all its own. Yet, in the absence of acknowledging the scale and critical relevance of this economy, the main drivers and load-bearers of this economy remain women. We simply cannot achieve gender parity without more support and without others taking on their share of the load. Dr. Nithila Peter joins us in a 2-part series to discuss solutions.

You can subscribe! so you don’t miss any episodes! Time-stamped show notes are below. You can find a transcript of today’s episode here

If you would like to learn more about today’s topic:

Unfinished Business by Anne Marie Slaughter

The Price of Motherhood; Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued, by Ann Crittendon, (2001)

Secrets of the Sprakkar by Eliza Reid

Blessing Adesiyan, the Founder and CEO of Mother Honestly, is a good resource

1:00 Women are disproportionately responsible for the caring of others

1:30 Dr. Nithila Peter is joining us today

2:36 Today is about solutions

2:45 Part 1 discussed lack of support system

3:32 Part 1 discussed society places a low value on caregiving, no support systems were put in place when mothers entered the workforce, and modern feminism forgot about mothers

4:18 Mothers face bias

4:50 Inaccurate that mothers are less committed

5:35 Mothers earn $.69 for every $1 earned by men

6:30 Motherhood penalty

6:50 Men’s standing increases when becoming fathers

8:20 Women gain skills when becoming mothers

10:40 Emotion, mental, and physical toll of trying to do it all

11:00 Lessons from Indian, Latin, and Indigenous cultures

11:50 Mothers have high cultural value in India

12:25 Story of Nithila’s Indian (South-Asian) family helping to raise her children

13:30 Nithila’s family and extended network enabled her to complete her PhD

14:00 Workplaces should value unique skills of parents

15:20 Obama’s made caregiving more visible through Marian Robinson

18:00 Asian culture offers solution but is a hard model for families stretched thin

19:15 Motherhood is more visible in India for actors, politicians, and others

21:00 Mothers have also been wartime leaders

21:10 Overturning of Roe v. Wade puts additional pressure on the care economy

22:22 18 year old had twins - what support does she have?

23:00 Appalled by mother’s lives now at risk

23:30 Dobbs further reduces mothers’ power in society

24:30 Will gender parity be extended due to Dobbs?

25:30 Difficult to make this prediction

27:50 One solution is more legislative support like paid leave

28:30 Family planning needs more attention

29:09 Flex and hybrid arrangements should stay in place

32:15 Celebrity male leaders do not have reputations for being good caregivers

33:00 We need more caregivers and those with empathy in leadership roles

34:30 We all have equal opportunities to grow caregiving skills

34:45 Many economic successes during pandemic while workers were at home

35:25 Focus on organizational culture

Where You Can Find Us

Website: www.par-ity.com

Follow us on LinkedIn

Co-Hosts: Deborah Pollack-Milgate and Cathy Nestrick

Email [email protected] with questions or comments

Caregiving is a second economy that requires a skilled workforce all its own. Yet, women are its main drivers, leaving us tired and worn out, and making it nigh impossible to compete in the workplace. We cannot achieve gender parity without more support. The pandemic showed us that caregivers and those we tend to deserve better. Dr. Nithila Peter joins us in a 2 part series to discuss solutions.

You can Subscribe! so you don’t miss any episodes! Time-stamped show notes are below. You can find a transcript of today’s episode here.

If you would like to learn more about today’s topic:

Unfinished Business by Anne Marie Slaughter

Secrets of the Sprakkar by Eliza Reid

Blessing Adesiyan, the Founder and CEO of Mother Honestly, is a good resource

1:00 Women are disproportionately responsible for the caring of others

1:41 Definition of the care economy https://research.american.edu

2:20 Women have less time and energy for our careers

3:06 Pandemic made matters worse

4:07 Society doesn’t value caregiving

5:08 Dr. Nithila Peter is joining us today

6:04 Connection between emotional intelligence and the giving of care

9:15 Caregivers make the best employees

10:03 Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft

11:20 Mentors, coaches, and managers are or should be caregivers

12:06 The pandemic caused many caregivers to collapse

13:35 View of caregiving as “women’s work”

14:29 Students equated caregiving skills to the skills of a janitor

17:30 Caregiving should be more equitably handled by all genders

19:13 We all need to be open to learning these important caregiving skills

21:30 Parents grow skills by being caregivers

23:30, 25:10 Providing care is akin to rocket science

27:22 Stop gender stereotyping

28:12 Lack of support systems for people who want to be caregivers and breadwinners

31:00 How the Indian culture offers support for caregivers

35:00 High cost of caregiving keeps some women home

37:25 Some women don’t have power in their own homes to allocate resources to caregiving

38:40 Women must have equality at home to have equality in the workplace

40:33 Iceland supports caregivers

41:15 Iceland is the most gender equal country in the world

41:51 Organizations can provide support if governments do not

42:00 Former CEO of Pepsi, Indra Nooyi supports more visibility of caregiving at work

47:15 Role of feminism in the care economy

48:34 Most women are breadwinners and caregivers

50:10 Working stands in the way of caregiving vs. caregiving stands in the way of working

51:00 Woman leader published article saying women should reconsider having children

53:45 Sheryl Sandberg did not tell us to lean into motherhood

54:50 Caregiving needs to be more visible

55:25 Pipeline of women talent is completely broken due to caregiving pressures

58:05 We need to talk more about caregiving responsibilities at work

Where You Can Find Us

Website: www.par-ity.com

Follow us on LinkedIn

Co-Hosts: Deborah Pollack-Milgate and Cathy Nestrick

Email [email protected] with questions or comments

In this episode, we discuss how to gender sleuth so you can detect when people are responding to the often hidden pressure of gender stereotypes. When we unwittingly conform to gender stereotypes, women face increased gender bias, particularly in male-dominated workplaces and as they move up the career ladder. We offer solutions with 4 action steps so women and male allies can snuff out gender bias.