The Mommy Wars

Why feminists and conservatives just don't get modern motherhood.

Cathy Young from the July 2000 issue

(Page 4 of 4)

Notably, too, family-friendly workplaces in America are not being created by government fiat but by companies anxious to retain good workers --and, rather embarrassingly for progressives, the resistance to these policies often comes from labor unions. Dana Friedman, a senior advisor with Bright Horizons, a company that provides worksite childcare and corporate consulting on family issues, says that non-unionized workplaces tend to offer far more "work-life benefits," such as flextime and telecommuting opportunities, than unionized ones.

Of course, any policy changes that would let families keep more of their earnings would help parents, though it's unlikely that such steps would entice many women to go home. (The Reagan tax cuts in the 1980s had precisely the opposite effect, by spurring job growth and reducing marginal tax rates on two-income couples.) So would policies promoting real flexibility in the workplace, such as Republican-backed legislation that would allow employees to trade extra overtime pay for extra time off--an arrangement forbidden under current federal law. Though the Republicans are clearly more at home with a family model based on Leave It to Beaver, such measures are clearly based on the understanding that combining work and child rearing is part of the new reality.

Full-time child rearing, whether for short or extended periods, will always remain an option--though perhaps a less gender-specific one. But what is far more important is that a more dynamic and flexible marketplace will continue to create new choices for both men and women, often blurring the lines between work and home. In a generation or two, most people may find the polarization between "working moms" and "stay-at-home moms" as meaningless as such young entrepreneurs as Debra Ross do now.