Workplace  innovation,  male  caregivers,  and  the  
gender  revolution  
by  Brenda  D.  Frink  on  03/07/11  at  9:32  am  
For  the  past  twenty  years,  scholars  have  referred  
to  a  “stall”  in  the  movement  toward  gender  
equality.  Various  measures  of  gender  equality—
for  example,  the  gender  gap  in  wages,  the  total  
percentage  of  women  in  the  paid  labor  force,  and  
the  percentage  of  women  in  male-­‐dominated  
occupations—have  remained  relatively  constant  
since  the  mid  1990s.  
 
But  the  choice  of  the  word  “stall”  suggests  that  
the  gender  revolution  has  not  reached  its  final  
destination  and  that  sooner  or  later  it  will  start  
moving  again.  
 
Indeed,  perhaps  the  stalled  revolution  is  already  on  the  move.  
 
Professor  Myra  Strober  weighed  in  on  this  question  at  a  panel  convened  by  the  Michelle  R.  Clayman  
Institute  for  Gender  Research.  According  to  Strober,  the  workplace  gains  that  women  made  in  the  
1970s  and  1980s  resulted  largely  from  the  enforcement  of  Civil  Rights  laws  passed  in  the  1960s.  
These  government  actions  helped  to  narrow  the  pay  gap  and  to  lessen  occupational  segregation  in  
the  professional  workforce.  And  as  opportunities  opened  up,  women  began  to  train  for,  and  enter,  
traditionally  male  occupations,  such  as  law,  management,  and  medicine.  (It  is  noteworthy  that  
neither  in  the  earlier  period  nor  at  the  present  time  has  occupational  gender  segregation  lessened  
much  in  traditionally  male  manual  occupations,  such  as  carpenter,  or  electrician.)  
 
Today,  one  of  the  biggest  barriers  for  women  in  the  paid  labor  force  is  figuring  out  how  to  combine  a  
serious  career  with  motherhood.  Women  still  pay  an  earnings  penalty  for  having  children.  On  
average,  accounting  for  other  significant  factors,  mothers  in  the  work  force  earn  about  10  percent  
less  if  they  have  one  child,  and  another  14  percent  less  if  they  have  two.  The  more  education  a  
woman  has,  the  higher  her  motherhood  penalty.  
 
And  parents  continue  to  have  difficulty  finding  high  quality,  affordable  child  care.  Yet  work/family  
balance  issues,  such  as  childcare  and  paid  parental  leave,  are  not  even  on  the  political  radar.  If  we  
look  to  government  action  as  a  measure  of  progress,  the  gender  revolution  does  indeed  seem  to  be  
stalled.  
 
However,  said  Strober,  there  are  signs  of  hope.  
  
For  one  thing,  working  women  have  new  allies  in  the  effort  to  create  equitable  workplaces.  The  phrase  
“family-­‐friendly,”  once  thought  to  apply  only  to  women,  is  increasingly  relevant  to  men,  as  well.  
 
Many  middle-­‐class  fathers  now  want  to  spend    
time  with  their  children—and  they  want    
careers  that  will  accommodate  this  goal.  In    
fact,  Strober  reported  that  40  percent  of    
students  in  her  work-­‐family  course  at    
Stanford’s  Graduate  School  of  Business  are    
men  who  want  their  future  bosses  to  take    
 
fatherhood  seriously.  
 
  1917  Feminists:  Women  suffragists  picketing  in  front  
Just  as  men  are  taking  a  greater  role  in   of  the  White  House.  Source:  Library  of  Congress  
childcare,  they  are  also  taking  a  greater  role  
in  elder  care.  As  life  expectancy  for  Americans  
increases,  elder  care  has  become  a  more  important  issue  in  the  workplace.  In  fact,  said  Strober,  
employees  currently  miss  more  work  time  caring  for  aging  parents  or  spouses  than  they  do  caring  for  
children.  
 
As  more  fathers  and  sons  take  active  roles  as  caregivers,  work-­‐family  balance  has  become  an  issue  for  
both  genders,  not  just  for  women.  
 
Perhaps  as  a  result,  corporate  HR  departments  are  beginning  to  experiment  with  family-­‐friendly  
policies.  In  an  effort  to  retain  both  male  and  female  talent,  companies  increasingly  offer  part-­‐time  
work,  flex-­‐time,  and  work-­‐from-­‐home  arrangements.  Some  employers  allow  workers  to  decrease  or  
increase  their  job  responsibilities  over  the  course  of  their  careers,  while  others  are  talking  in  terms  of  
career  “lattices”  rather  than  career  “ladders.”  
 
It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  changes  in  men’s  roles  as  caregivers  and  more  flexible  work  
arrangements  will  yield  tangible  benefits  to  women.  
 
At  the  moment,  however,  they  offer  hope  for  jumpstarting  the  stalled  gender  revolution.  
————-­‐  
Myra  Strober  is  Professor  of  Education  and,  by  Courtesy,  of  Business  at  Stanford  University.  This  
article  concludes  a  five-­‐part  series  on  the  “Beyond  the  Stalled  Revolution”  panel.  
 
 
 

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