Seven Ways to Support Equality
By Monica S. Flores
Let’s recognize the labor of all who are contributing to home care, child care, emotional work, and other labor that is not easily recognized such as chores, home and yard work, bill-paying, tax filing, keeping a social calendar, home maintenance, medical and dental appointments, and general management of our very full and busy lives.
How do we make sure that all labor is valued, that working conditions are adequately protected and compensated, and that the work that we all do is acknowledged, celebrated, and supported? How do we make sure that people are cared for in their spaces, are safe from harm and harassment, and have equitable opportunities to grow, learn, and advance?
For women, how do we as women ask for, and demand, for equal pay and inclusionary practices at work, in our community space, and at home?
For men, how do we as men use evidence-based research, best practices, and active listening, to support the women in our lives, at home, and at work?
We all move in so many concentric and overlapping circles such as in the workplace, as bosses or leaders or colleagues, and on the front lines. We are in military, religious, sports, and family organizations. We’re at school, at home, in the community. We are parents, spouses, and caregivers, in athletics or at the gym, volunteering, on committees, taking care of our loved ones, trans, queer, lesbian, gay, intersex, of color, of faith, we are all individuals (and we all work, all the time).
We are all continually working long hours: let’s work together and lift each other up. Here are seven ways to support more equality for all:
Donna ReedThe phrase ‘working mother’ is redundant.
Advocate for flexible working hours
Working women are not the only ones who benefit from a more flexible working situation. If it’s possible to allow for flex time, work-from-home, or to accommodate telecommuting on a regular basis, advocate for this: there is a ripple effect in calm, productivity, and livability when we allow people to work around their most productive hours and re-arrange schedules when possible, so work can be done asynchronously. While this may not work for hourly shifts, we can still allow for people to swap hours or bank sick leave and/or vacation leave to help with the inevitable situations of life. Note too that as people enter different stages of life, there may be changing needs: for example, someone dealing with a new addition to the family, or eldercare needs sudden or emerging, may need both flexible time as well as additional counseling and HR support.
Provide Childcare
One of the most difficult parts of organizing life for parents is figuring out childcare. Between drop-in daycare, stay-at-home parents, pre-K or preschool, nanny or nanny-share, and drop-off at a childcare center or at a childcare provider’s, the first five years of any child’s life can be complicated for their carefivers. Companies like Google, Nike, Disney, and Clif Bar, which offer onsite childcare, report on the expense of this employee benefit, as well as the ongoing benefit in recruitment and retention this delivers to parents. Working Mother also posted a list of 100 of the top places for “working mothers” organized around categories like workforce profile, paid time off, benefits, recruitment, retention, and advancement, flexibility, and company culture. The better workers are treated and the more support a company gives to their needs, the longer they will stay and the more they will bring to the organization.
Support health and wellness
Health and wellness starts with the individual, and allowing for more support for women means taking a hard look at medical, dental, mental, and health-related policies and identifying where there may be gaps and what we can do to fill in any blanks. Individuals of reproductive age also face additional needs, and healthcare for all women, including trans-identifying women, deserve protective policies. Women going through different life stages such as conception, pregnancy, post-partum, peri-menopause, menopause, and other life changes deserve support and respectful policies.
Grief, depression, anxiety, pain, and more impact all individuals, and the individual impacts the whole. Let’s do what we can to support each other’s health and wellbeing on a personal basis, and let’s also dig deeper to uncover any structural supports that we may shore up such as extended leave, bereavement, family medical leave, and/or other supportive policies.
Calibrate for unpaid labor
Much of the “lean in” advice we’ve heard suggests women move away from some of the unpaid tasks in the workplace such as meeting for coffee (or making coffee), organizing social gatherings and parties, providing mentorship or professional advice, and taking on ad hoc administrative tasks, we do understand that women, particularly women who are effective at getting things done, do indeed expend countless hours on unpaid labor of this sort.
Who does your organization expect to write up notes from the meeting? Who cleans up the kitchen? Who responds to internal queries or issues? If policies are not organized in advance, preferably with a rota to assign duties equally, your organization may need to re-calibrate towards creating a more inclusionary and supportive workplace. Unpaid labor, as Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation writes, has a massive cost.
Recognize the needs of people as they change
Some of us may not have experience with the needs of new or expectant mothers, trans-related health needs, menstruation-related and other reproductive-related issues, cancer, accident or injury, aging, or emerging health-related needs.
On a personal level, it’s always a good time for us to break taboos about speaking and sharing knowledge on topics like sexual health, reproductive care, mental health needs and more.
On an institutional and organizational level, it’s always a good time to begin the process of developing a mission, vision, and values statement, and working those goals into actual policies that help individuals.
Not everything is about making profits or keeping shareholders happy. We want to aim for having happy, healthy, harmonious communities and homes, schools and education to inform our younger generations, individuals who are valued for being who they are, and people who receive helpful care and coverage for their needs. Do homework, recognize underlying issues, speak truth, and make a plan.
Practice Salary Transparency
All work done by individual humans contributes to an ultimate bottom line, and individuals thrive when they are compensated based on a fair and transparent set of criteria. If two people are doing equivalent labor, let’s make 100% sure that those two are being paid equitably. imbalance in pay will only make it worse for our workplaces and communities as this information comes out: instead, get in front and either ask for, or post, the salary, requirements, expected measures of success, benefits, and any physical limitations in advance.
Cultivate a Village
Humans thrive in supportive and loving environments, and in today’s reality of families moving away from each other and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins being separated by many miles, it takes all of us to create support networks where no one falls through.
- Get to know your neighbors, if any. Understand their schedule and their needs: for example, if someone is typically travelling, offer to keep an eye on their mail.
- When possible, offer yourself as a pickup or sign-out contact for a neighbor’s child, and build your own list of at least 3-4 people that can be contacted in case of emergency – post it on your fridge and add to your phone.
- Cultivate a village around you: schedule a neighborhood community beautification project, or a potluck or dessert social in order to foster additional bonds in-person.
If you are a designated emergency contact, have that person’s name, phone number, address, and email in a handy place (printed as well as on your phone) and mark out any requirements such as school pickup, child care, pet care, eldercare, medical needs such as medications, and more. By building interconnected webs with neighbors and other community members, you’ll also be building in additional support for you and your own, and your family’s needs.
Non-Traditional is Becoming Status Quo
The millennials are changing how we view different family structures in the United States, such as parental leave for all parents of a new addition to the family, stay-at-home dads, health insurance for same-sex couples, marriage rights, and job protections for all. Alex Ohanian, when discussing Serena William’s difficult birth and the paternity leave he took to take care of their newborn, says “I’m grateful that I was never forced to choose between my family and my job. Nearly one in four employed women giving birth in the United States is back at work within two weeks. Only 9 percent of work sites in the United States offer paid paternity leave to all male employees, and 76 percent of fathers are back to work within a week after the birth or adoption of a child.”
We can always do more to support a quality of life that works for all people, all families, all individuals, at all levels, with all different kinds of needs. As we enter a new year, let’s recommit to doing things that support each other, investigating structural issues and making a difference on the bigger, more policy-related level, taking care of ourselves and each other, recognizing our strengths and weaknesses, and making a positive difference in our own lives and in the lives of other people. We’re all in this together. Let’s value one another, and work together to make a better future for us and our loved ones.
